Why is Taylor Swift one of the biggest artists of our generation? Why has Swift started to re-record her albums that she doesn’t own? Why doesn’t she own some of her albums? In my opinion, I think she is one of the biggest artists of our generation because every year is a new surprise for Taylor Swift fans. 

Nonnewaug junior Emily Crawford thinks the same: “I believe she has impacted the music industry greatly and has been such an influence on other artists and how music is made now. She goes outside the box and continues to always push herself and surprise everyone with something new.”

Senior Camryn Sudimick agrees, as well: “I do think she is one of the biggest artists of our generation.”

Many Nonnewaug students continue to agree that Swift is becoming a big part of our generation. 

“I think she is one of the biggest artists of our generation because of how many songs she has created that my generation all know,” junior Zoe Inglis said. “Regardless of her music, I think she is a great person and a good role model for people to look up to because she doesn’t set high beauty standards or anything like that. She’s just human and I think it’s important to kids to have that kind of person to look up to.”

According to KSAT, Swift had a contract with Big Machine Records which had been purchased by Scooter Braun back in 2019. Braun then sold the rights to her albums to an investment firm, Shamrock Holdings. Swift then signed with Universal Music. Since then, she has recorded three new albums: Lover, which was released on Aug. 23, 2019; Folklore, which was released on July 24, 2020; and Evermore, which was released on Dec. 11, 2020. 

An article from Rolling Stone says Swift was allowed to start rerecording her albums in November 2020.

Swift has dropped what fans call “Easter eggs” before she even announced she was going to remake her first five albums. For example, in The Man music video, she had all her albums on a wall, and in a 2019 performance, she wore a dress with all the albums name she doesn’t own.

Along with each re-record, she is also putting vault tracks on each. The Vault tracks were songs that were originally written to be on the albums back when they were first released however, they did not make it onto the albums. Swift had then decided to put the tracks on each re-record so there are some new songs as well as the rest of the album. 

“If you see something with a parenthesis (Taylor’s Version), that means I own it,” Swift said on Jimmy Fallon.

The first album she re-recorded was Fearless (Taylor’s Version) on April 9, 2021, which has garnered around 498 million sales/streams. After Fearless, she re-recorded Red (Taylor’s Version) on Nov. 12, 2021; when first re-released, it got 90.8 million streams, becoming the most-streamed album in a day.

Swifties are now waiting for when she is going to re-record Debut, Speak Now, 1989, and Reputation.

According to WSJ Podcasts, “In 2014, she pulled her entire music catalog off Spotify in protest. She felt musicians were not being paid enough each time their songs were played. She eventually allowed her music back on the site in 2017.”

Swift has also won 11 Grammys and set the record at the Grammys because she has won Album of the Year three times. Swift set the record for a first female artist to ever reach this goal. She also won eight ACM awards, 23 AMA awards, 23 Billboard music awards, 10 iHeart radio awards, and 68 BMI awards.  

In addition to all of that, her Reputation Stadium Tour made around $345 million, making it the highest-grossing tour in the U.S. Swift has also been in movies such as Cats, The Giver, The Lorax, and Valentine’s Day. Swift was also one of the first female artists to put out a 10-minute song, which is “all too well (10-minute version, Taylor’s version).” The singer has also aired on Saturday Night Live multiple times as a guest singer and actor, starred in Taylor Swift Reputation Stadium Tour (Netflix), Miss Americana (Netflix), and Folklore, The Long Pond Studio Sessions (Disney Plus).