‘Taylor’s Version’ takes us back to the beginning

Home Culture ‘Taylor’s Version’ takes us back to the beginning
‘Taylor’s Version’ takes us back to the beginning
Taylor Swift released a ‘Fearless (Taylor’s Version) on April 9. | Facebook

Taylor Swift’s name invokes strong reactions. Some say she’s too liberal for their taste. Others say she’s a floozy and a bad influence. Still others say she doesn’t make real music.

But, for a generation of young women, Taylor Swift is our voice. Swift has grown up with us. From junior high to college, Swift has been the consoling friend, the wise older sister, the understanding confidante. 

When I was around nine years old, I was given Swift’s self-titled debut album, not only as my first Taylor Swift album, but as my first album ever. Swift shaped my pre-teen world. I knew all the songs by heart. I sang along to it in my bedroom on my boombox and portable CD player. My family and I moved countless times between my reception of Swift’s album and when I left for college. But, my original copy of her first album still sits in my bedroom, five moves later. 

In junior high, my friends used to sing “Teardrops on My Guitar” to make fun of me for being hopelessly in love with one of my male classmates. “Fearless,” her second studio album, brought me into high school, guiding me through the dramatic antics of my classmates. Then came “Speak Now,” which holds a special place in my heart, as I performed the songMean” at various Colgate Country Showdowns in Idaho and Washington state.

No matter my stage of life, Taylor Swift has been there — except for that brief period when she took her music off Spotify. But even that I can forgive.

Throughout her career, Swift has shown an uncanny ability to grow with her fans. As her fans went through their first heartbreaks, so did she. When her fans felt second-rate and insecure, she did too. And as they matured into adults in good, stable relationships, Swift did the same.

And as Swift grew with us, she showed us how to take what’s ours, to stand up for ourselves and the women that we’ve become. Her newest album “Fearless (Taylor’s Version)” is proof of that.

Swift’s career balanced on the precipice of failure a few times. In 2014, she fully transitioned from country to pop, a decision her record label and media critics feared and doubted. But she produced “1989,” which some argued was her best album yet. In 2016, the infamous Kanye scandal broke and Swift was written off as cagey and dishonest. She answered with 2017’s “Reputation” album, a full 180 from her usual nice girl persona. 

Time and again Swift has proved that she can reclaim her career from a seemingly impossible situation. This latest project is no different, but it’s more important.

At the beginning of her career, Swift signed with Big Machine Records, a label owned by Scott Borchetta. A few years ago, Swift inquired with Borchetta about buying her original recordings. Borchetta told Swift she could only get them back by re-signing with Big Machine, earning an old record for each new one she recorded with the label.

Swift said no, knowing that Borchetta would sell the label and leave her at the mercy of the new owner. Her contract, however, gave her the ability to re-record her first five albums starting in November 2020. So, Swift set to work. 

“Fearless (Taylor’s Version)” is the first of Swift’s re-records and with it, she takes back what’s hers. 

While backing from record labels have contributed to her original breakthrough, it’s no secret that Swift’s penchant for beautiful and candid lyrical storytelling is the secret to her continued success. The music, the lyrics, the storytelling are all Swift’s work. 

Swift has famously written most of her work. She alone wrote all 17 of her songs on her third studio album, “Speak Now.” Her song-writing talent is unparalleled in this century. And it’s only gotten better as she’s matured, as evidenced by her latest albums “Folklore” andEvermore.”

For those of us who have grown up with Swift and feel like we know her, “Fearless (Taylor’s Version)” is the culmination of the journey: the worn-out cds, the memorized lyrics, the boombox blaring through the house that Mom asked you to turn down. For those of us who know that, this takes us back to our childhoods, to innocence, before we knew the real world, before we left our childhood rooms and turned off Taylor Swift on CD for the last time. 

To you, “Taylor’s Version” might be just another artist’s publicity stunt. For us, it’s reclaimed childhood. For Swift, it’s reclaimed dreams. For both, it’s a memorial of growth: of what we were and what we might be. 

So, here’s to Taylor Swift and the generation of women she has molded. May we remember to love fearlessly and to dance in the rain in our best dresses. It’s what Taylor would want. We owe her that much.