Taylor Swift: Wronged by the Music Industry, so she became it

Regularly in the media, various accounts circle the news regarding the rise and fall of music artists. People have begged the question about the mysterious disappearance or downfall of a celebrity all too often. However, singer and songwriter Taylor Swift has managed to stay in the spotlight for over fifteen years. The journey has not been easy though; the continual need as a female artist to reinvent herself in order to stay relevant is punishing. Going from the country genre, to pop, to even some rock music has managed to keep her in Grammy nominations and magazines, but staying in the spotlight comes with a price.

In 2004, Taylor Swift signed with the Big Machine Records label at fourteen years old. Since then, she produced six albums, the songs all written or co-written, sung, and performed by her. Despite having control over her lyrics and album names, Taylor did not own the master recordings (original versions) of her music. Swift claims that Big Machine Records took advantage of her youth and naivetés at fourteen years old when she was signed, reportedly the youngest singer in the company’s history.

Upon Swift leaving Big Machine Records in November of 2018 at twenty-nine years old, she signed labels with Republic Records, because of a firm belief that artists should own their own music, a freedom Taylor did not have while she was signed with her former label.

Unfortunately, the trouble with Big Machine did not end for Taylor after she left. Big Machine Records technically still owned Taylor’s first six albums that were produced under their label, preventing Taylor from performing these songs without Borchetta’s (Big Machine's Founder) permission. Instead of offering to sell the master recordings to Taylor, the label sold all of her music produced with Big Machine to Scooter Braun, a record executive with a dastardly history surrounding Taylor Swift.

The act of Taylor’s music being sold to a man in which Borchetta knew was only slightly short of an enemy to Taylor becomes yet another unnecessary dig at the lack of Taylor Swift’s music rights that causes her to speak out on the situation.

“He knew what he was doing, they both did. Controlling a woman who didn’t want to be associated with them…,” Taylor claimed.

However, Borchetta stated that Swift had “every chance in the world to own not just her master recordings, but every video, photograph, everything associated with her career” before she chose to leave Big Machine Records. The entire situation is incoherent, allegedly turning into an aimless game of “he said she said.''

Despite the conflicts, Taylor Swift took initiative and began re-recording every single album produced under Big Machine Records, essentially finding a loophole within the agreements made back in 2004. Taylor began with the album Fearless, originally produced in 2008, re-recorded in 2021. The new versions of her songs are identical to the old ones, with only one difference, she owns the rights. Taylor used the opportunity to release songs that never made it to the album originally, calling them “From the Vault” songs to stir more commotions upon releasing the re-recorded album, and it worked.

Fans could have easily dismissed the re-recordings of the songs, but instead, fans stood behind her and took it as an act of empowerment. Taylor is a female artist who took a stand against a music industry that many artists are too afraid to speak out on, one that controls their singers and often has ownership over their actions. The dispute has already damaged Scooter Braun economically, and the re-recording profits go straight to Taylor. Although, it is less about the money she says, and more to prove a point.

Taylor was not only able to re-record her own music, but embrace the re-recordings by releasing new music with the album as well. By doing so, she created commotion surrounding the media with every release, revamping the music that made the public fall in love with her, but doing so under her own terms.

On November 19, Swift released the re-recording of her album Red, an extremely successful, former award-winning album back when she was signed with Big Machine. She also released four “From the Vault” tracks, one of which included a 10-minute version of the song “All Too Well”.

On The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon, Taylor says, “the 10-minute version of "All Too Well" is what was originally written for the song before I had to cut it down to a normal length song cause that's, you know… 10 minutes is absurd…”

However, the release of the 10-minute song has only increased Taylor’s fanbase, the song remaining number No.1 on Billboard hot 100 for quite some time, a debatable record-breaking title.

Taylor Swift plans on continuing to re-record the remaining four albums produced under Big Machine Records, as she furthers her musical career and discredits both Scooter Braun and Big Machine Records in the process. Not only did the success of the re-recordings benefit Taylor, but assisted in spreading a message to other rising artists and the rest of the music industry.

“You have to give her high marks. She knows music and she knows how to write. She’s like that generation’s Beatles.” - Billy Joel, in an interview with USA Today.