Love Story (Taylor’s Version) is a Big Move Forward for Taylor Swift and an Interesting Look into the Music Industry — a Review

“We were both young when I first saw you,” is perhaps a nod to fans reminiscing their journey with the singer-songwriter through her youth, career, and maturity as an artist

In launching her own re-recording and new release of Love Story — along with the rest of the Fearless album from 2008 planned for this April — Taylor Swift is sticking it up to the man, so to speak.

Her old portfolio was acquired by music manager Scooter Braun — when he acquired Big Machine Records — who then sold it to an investment firm (in which he is still involved) for $300M. While Swift originally planned to acquire these rights, she was somehow blocked from doing so.

Why is this important? Swift owns the songwriting credits to all of her work, plus collaboration with some other artists. However, the record label and, by extension, now the investment firm, owns the publishing rights (e.g., distribution for films, TV, commercials, Spotify, etc.) to that old portfolio of six albums prior to her leaving Big Machine Records.

This means that every time her old songs were played or licensed, the royalties are paid out to both her (as songwriter) and the investment company (as owner of publishing rights).

Swift had been vocal about how music labels and the industry in general had been taking advantage of artists, who earn meager royalties and earnings from writing and performances. That’s why she had a very public spat with Spotify before — many artists still suffer from low royalty payouts from the platform.

As an aside, to see how the music industry can be constricting to artists — look into the issue with Britney Spears’ legal conservationship with her father. This means artists and musicians have much more to contend with than creativity. The business side of the music industry can be like a monster that devours talent.

To some extent, Taylor’s Version is “freedom” for Swift, which can potentially be a model for other artists, too. Not every creative has the power and resources, though — many are still going to be beholden to the record labels and management companies.

Comparing this release from 13 years ago, it’s evident that Swift had matured in terms of her outlook and her voice. 2008’s Love Story hinted of innocence and longing. 2021’s version is more of retrospect. The opening line, “We were both young when I first saw you,” is perhaps a nod to fans who grew up with Swift’s music.

There are some hints of autotune — something that can perhaps be excused, as the song required a certain power and vocal range more easily achieved at 18 years old than 31. However, Swift has rendered very nuanced live performances that have proved her singing chops attuned toward this genre (country+pop and rock), so as a fan and reviewer, I understand the challenges there.

My main concern with this release is that it tries to mimic the original version too much, save for the above-mentioned differences in tonal and quality changes in Swift’s voice, plus subtle differences in instrumentation as well as lower bass levels in the recording.

This seems to be an attempt to address the issue that non-hardcore fans might have grown too accustomed to the original recording that big differences might not suit their taste. After all, Swift’s intent here is to produce her own version of Fearless in order to re-establish ownership of the master recording and publishing rights.

Swift has been doing a lot of pared-down productions in her latter albums (see Evermore and Folklore), and she said there will be six new tracks in the Taylor’s Version release of Fearless. She commented that the label did not want slow-tempo songs when Fearless was first published in 2008, and so some of the promised new additions might be either stripped-down versions of the popular singles or new ones altogether.

Taylor has managed to reinvent herself several times over — from young and precocious country singer to pop diva, and now somehow back to her roots in making music with rawer emotion and production.

Along the way, she has garnered commercial success and a fanbase that many other artists can only dream of. This has perhaps allowed her more leeway and creative control, without being constricted by monetization and commercial potential.

And with this we end with the note about how Love Story deviated from its Romeo and Juliet inspiration. Rather than end in regret as with the Shakespearean tragedy, Swift’s reimagining has a happy ending. It’s as if she’s telling her fans and audiences — as well as herself — that everything’s going to be all right.