Music

Here’s Why Fans Think Taylor Swift Is Re-Recording Her Old Album ‘Red’

A recent selfie has fans freaking out.

by Joseph Earp  29 April 2020
taylor swift red photo

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If there’s one thing that Taylor Swift loves, it’s leaving a breadcrumb trail for her fans.

The musician is famous for the secret clues that she’ll hide in Instagram posts, liner notes, and interviews. She doesn’t do much press — instead, she chooses to bypass the media entirely, communicating with her loyal listeners directly.

As a result, every now and then there’ll be a sudden flurry of excitement in corners of the Taylor fandom, as a new post is trawled over for secret clues.

The newest enigma? This seemingly innocuous selfie, posted across Instagram and Twitter.

The first clue? That caption. “Not a lot going on at the moment” is the phrase that was printed across Swift’s shirt in the video for ’22’, making the line something of a pun.

Certainly sounds like Swift’s both alluding to one of her biggest hits, and also making a joke about being up to something major.

Which is why, according to a lot of longterm fans, Swift’s suggesting that she’s re-recording Red, one of her most acclaimed albums.

Wait, Why Do Fans Think Taylor Swift Is Re-Recording Red?

For the last little while, Swift has been embroiled in a legal battle with Scooter Braun, the music tycoon who broke Justin Bieber into the mainstream. Braun bought Swift’s masters, meaning that he now owns her entire back catalogue.

Horrified that someone who has caused her personal angst now owns her music, Swift vowed to record “copycat” versions of the albums — new recordings which sound substantively like the originals, but which belong exclusively to Swift.

So, that’s the backdrop against which the selfie dropped. Fans already knew that Swift had the ability to re-record old albums since at least last November. This selfie seems like pretty strong indication that she’s up to Red.

If that is the case, it’ll be a double-win for fans. Braun has long disrespected Swift’s artistry — he recently dropped a live album that the performer didn’t know about until it had already hit shelves — and so getting one over him would be a great victory.

On top of that, it’ll also be an opportunity to once again indulge in Red, one of the most perfect pop albums of the last decade.

Seems like a pretty good deal to me.