Taylor Swift - Speak Now (Taylor's Version) [Jul 7] + Re-Recordings

RJF

RJF

"All The Girls You Loved Before" is cute but I get why it was cut when the title track was already serving that waltzy schmaltzy nonsense and it has the same kind of milquetoast feeling that a lot of her tracks were infected with at the time. The other tracks... good for them I guess.

I do wonder if the fact that every time she merely exhales charts on the Hot 100 at the moment is starting to get slightly... unwieldly from a planning point. I feel like Midnights potentially becoming her biggest album ever caught everyone off guard. Like honestly, I think if I was her team I would be starting to get a headache that they can't even randomly release leftovers and bury them on streaming platforms without producing radio adds and Top 10 international hits and forcing them to rethink future strategies again. And then you have the tour causing old hits to surge again? It's absurd and unheard of and impressive but I also imagine everyone's kind of holding their breath a bit considering how things went last time she reached a terminal mass of popularity.
 
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HairBodyFace

HairBodyFace

RJF said:
It's absurd and unheard of and impressive but I also imagine everyone's kind of holding their breath a bit considering how things went last time she reached a terminal mass of popularity.
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Yeah, it is kind of insane how everything she puts out is eaten up like this. I can't see something like 2016 happening again though because she keeps to herself so much more these days than she did back then. She was definitely much more of a "celebrity" back then, and now everything is pretty much revolved around her music rather than her personal life.
 
bryan89

bryan89

I'm not sure how every single thing she puts out turning into money can be a bad thing for her or her team? I'd guess this gives them more confidence to be more risky with their choices (releasing singles that normally wouldn't be released).

Heck give this tour a bit more exposure and she can simultaneously release all the re-recordings and watch them tie to number one with huge numbers.
 
Secret

Secret

I don't think anyone at any time is entirely immune to backlash and the pendulum swinging the other way, but when its happened to a public figure already and they owned it? I kind of think it would have to happen in a dramatically different way for her to suffer anything akin to 2016/rep again.

Much of the issue with her image then was that she was hiding how calculated she was about her public persona, but the Taylor stans I know personally (who aren't widely pop music stans like us) absolutely gag over how much she leaned into the villainhood on reputation. Then the issue became her silence on politics and she flipped that by becoming openly outspoken - we can argue 'til the cows come home how genuine that was but that was the reality of the story. Soon after that, Lover underperformed, and I think we all saw the well running dry until Scooter and Scott gave her the keys to the next decade, and frankly the peak of her career by buying the masters. That narrative is ensuring it stays hard to actively root against her, and she's avoided mass outrage about the private jets and Ticketmaster since then, which I think would've been far worse if it happened 5 years ago.

Obviously none of us have a crystal ball, but unless something shocking and unknown that she's said or done is revealed, I feel like the biggest challenges she'll have is following up on Midnights after the re-records are done, and navigating Picture to Burn/Better Than Revenge lyrics when the time for those comes around. That seems very minor though.
 
DangerousHun

DangerousHun

Has a pop star *ever* been bigger? It’s just insane the highs she continues to hit seemingly effortlessly at this point, it feels like territory that’s never been reached. It’s pretty astounding to watch. I hope she’s managing to take it all in and enjoy it, because I can imagine the fear of the carpet being pulled from under her must be right there at the forefront of her mind, as it would be for anyone.
 
MrJames

MrJames

She is absolutely unstoppable, it’s remarkable.

The fact that the 2016 scandals didn’t dent her success in the long term (if at all) and she only elevated to new heights in the years that followed is incredible.

I think her main driving force is that she still seems so hungry for popstar perfection, even though that’s something she achieved at least a decade ago. She’s constantly searching for new ways to take everything up yet another gear.

This tour genuinely feels like *the* tour. The tour to end all other tours.

I’ll never stop being fascinated by her.
 
Rose-Coloured Boy

Rose-Coloured Boy

The re-releases really couldn’t have turned out more perfect for her. It’s literally a perfect storm: she built up a huge fanbase over the years, showed off her true songwriting skills with Folklore & Evermore, and now is able to remind everyone why they fell in love with her in the first place with the Taylor’s Versions, as well as getting her discography introduced to younger audiences. Her power, it truly scares me.
 
scottdisick94

scottdisick94

Also it has to be said that whilst her music can be a bit middle of the road / people pleasing, a large chunk of it is genuinely great. Like this isn’t an Adele or Ed Sheeran where the smashery is at odds with the quality of the music - aside from a few duds, she’s genuinely just so listenable. I’ve listened to no-one else for the last four days, and I’ve loved every second. How fun that for once the GP is stanning an artist who actually has good music under her belt. And the fact that the tour is somehow both crowd pleasing and full of fan service. Yeah I’m kinda stanning hard.
 
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Mvnl

Mvnl

Staff member
As someone who only really got into her with 1989 I'm still surprised how much I enjoy the rerecordings (though it was really only the Red one I got really into, but I feel like I must have slept on the one before and should give it another shot) and it makes me wonder if I should dive into the albums before Red again (I think I even own them physically?) or that the new production and more mature vocals really just made all the differences for me with material that just didn't click in original form.
 
1986

1986

She has a gift for writing songs that touch people emotionally but are also extremely catchy and I think she’s so personable but also untouchable. She looks like a super model but I can also imagine drinking wine and baking cookies with her, unlike a lot of pop stars she hasn’t lost that spark, hunger for any of it she knows how to play the game just right.

On a personal note she has helped me through a lot of emotional mental health crap I’ve been dealing with for the last few years so it’s silly because I don’t know her obviously but I feel very protective over her and in a way I really feel like without her in my life I’m not sure I’d be here. Through her words she feels like my best friend and confidant.
 
Mikal

Mikal

Mvnl said:
As someone who only really got into her with 1989 I'm still surprised how much I enjoy the rerecordings (though it was really only the Red one I got really into, but I feel like I must have slept on the one before and should give it another shot) and it makes me wonder if I should dive into the albums before Red again (I think I even own them physically?) or that the new production and more mature vocals really just made all the differences for me with material that just didn't click in original form.
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Wait for the Taylor's Versions! It'll be sweeter. I'm waiting for TV to see if I can get into Speak Now.
 
Mvnl

Mvnl

Staff member
Mikal said:
Wait for the Taylor's Versions! It'll be sweeter. I'm waiting for TV to see if I can get into Speak Now.
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I will definitely check them out anyway! (And there are some songs like Haunted and the singles I already like)
I also still need to dive into Evermore and Folklore which at the time just.. weren’t Pop enough for me? But my taste has since mellowed and my appreciation for Taylor’s sound grown so..
 
MrJames

MrJames

Mvnl said:
I will definitely check them out anyway! (And there are some songs like Haunted and the singles I already like)
I also still need to dive into Evermore and Folklore which at the time just.. weren’t Pop enough for me? But my taste has since mellowed and my appreciation for Taylor’s sound grown so..
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You & I are probably quite similar in the sense that we could have Taylor release a Max Martin-produced album over and over again until the end of time and be happy. Pop reign supreme!

But a different part of my heart fell in love with both Fearless and Speak Now many years ago.

My advice listening to Fearless (Taylor’s Version) would be to listen to the original thirteen tracks first, with no distractions. Those thirteen tracks really are one event after another and you can totally see why she gained all of the critical acclaim that she did back in 2008. Grand, singalong anthems with plenty of pop-sensibility sprinkled throughout.

The same can be said for Speak Now, which in some ways feels even more event-filled than Fearless. Every song has its own style, its own themes and its own identity. I watched the Speak Now Tour and it’s funny how she sort of has to have new staging and a new costume for each individual song because they’re like their own mini-events within one bigger event.
 
HairBodyFace

HairBodyFace

1986 said:
She has a gift for writing songs that touch people emotionally but are also extremely catchy and I think she’s so personable but also untouchable. She looks like a super model but I can also imagine drinking wine and baking cookies with her, unlike a lot of pop stars she hasn’t lost that spark, hunger for any of it she knows how to play the game just right.

On a personal note she has helped me through a lot of emotional mental health crap I’ve been dealing with for the last few years so it’s silly because I don’t know her obviously but I feel very protective over her and in a way I really feel like without her in my life I’m not sure I’d be here. Through her words she feels like my best friend and confidant.
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This sums it up so well for me too. I grew up with each of her albums and they each kind of define different chapters of my life for me. When each album came out, I was the same age as she was when she wrote it....she always felt like a girl I went to school with or something, especially in the debut era.

She has always had such a gift with writing songs that perfectly depict and describe different relatable experiences and emotions, to where you feel like she's a friend going through the same stuff as you are. That kind of emotional connection through music is rare, and that's something that's given her such staying power...her audience has grown up alongside her and has felt seen through her songs. Even as she's become a huge star, she's (mostly) still conveyed universal human emotions/experiences through her music to where she feels like your peer.

For me, the only time it truly felt like she was a huge out of reach star was a lot of the 1989 era. Which was fun, but different. Even with reputation, where she had a bit more of a put on character/"image", she was spending much more time chatting with fans online under the radar than she was in the press and it made her feel closer to the fans in a way.

She's grown up the same time many of us have, has made mistakes and gone through things...but it's really cool for her to be at a place now where she seems so comfortable and happy just keeping to herself and using her craft as much as she wants in a much more grounded way.
 
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