Taylor Swift: A Walking Legend

Many know Taylor Swift as a pop singer who has fans all over the world. What many people are recently discovering is that Swift signed a record deal at the age of 15 with Scott Borchetta at the record label Big Machine, which would mean that Taylor does not own all parts of her work.

Over the years, Swift made 6 albums and pleaded to own all of them. She was countered with receiving ownership over an album for every new album she created. Borchetta ended up selling the company to Scooter Braun, of which Swift found out as it was announced to the world. Taylor had a very strong disliking for Braun, as he took part in the dispute between Swift and Kanye West. She claims Borchetta “knew what he was doing” when Borchetta sold the company because she had expressed to him her feelings about Braun.

So, what did Taylor do? She let the world know, posting on many social media platforms where she has millions of followers, and explaining how she was taken advantage of as a young girl who did not know anything about what would happen in the future. In November of 2020, Swift’s music was sold again without her knowledge to Shamrock Holdings. She was going to work well with Shamrock Holdings, but she found out Braun would still profit from her work for a long time. Instead, she decided to re-record each of her first 6 albums with Shamrock Holdings, starting with Fearless, in hopes of convincing her fans to boycott the original records so that Braun cannot profit anymore.

Fearless (Taylor’s Version) released on April 9th, 2021 and it was a huge hit. The album hit #1 on Spotify’s hit debut albums in just two days. There are also subtle things Swift has done to share that she has more ownership in her music, such as her albums covers. Starting in 2019, Swift released Lover and her cover did not have her name on it. Neither did Folklore or Evermore, which Swift released in 2020. But in prior albums, Swift’s name was on the cover, simply because she did not own the music so she was taking what she could get. But now that she has more ownership, she stopped putting her name on them. The seemingly simple change represents a revolutionary step forward for Swift and a turning point in her career.