Content
Background
1989 (Taylor’s Version) is the fourth re-recording by Taylor Swift of her fifth studio album, 1989, released by Republic Records on October 27, 2023, on the original album’s ninth anniversary. It will include all sixteen tracks from the deluxe edition of 1989 and feature five new vault tracks that were written for the album but did not make the final cut. Swift once again unjustly denies fans the physical CD release of another song that was originally a teaser to the album’s pop sound by not including “Sweeter Than Fiction”, the first song released by her and her longtime collaborator, Jack Antonoff.
The re-recording is the fourth of her first six albums she has planned to release to regain ownership of her original work through Big Machine Records after Scott Borchetta, then president of the record label, sold the label, along with the ownership of the master recordings to Swift’s early work through Big Machine after she left in 2018 to sign on with Republic Records, to Scooter Braun for $300 million. Swift publicly condemned the selling of the label via social media explaining she had been trying to buy the masters for years only to be offered unfavorable conditions and denounced Braun as an “incessant, manipulative bully”. In August of 2019 Swift revealed her intentions on re-recording her old music as soon as she was allowed to. With Swift also being the publisher of the music due to her being the main songwriter to all her songs she released through Big Machine, this allowed her, per the artist-label agreement that stipulates the artist cannot re-record a song for a fixed period of time, to re-record her music any time she wanted if she so chose to. By re-recording, Swift is technically covering her own songs into new sound recordings, resulting in new masters that she fully owns, which would enable her to control the licensing of her songs for commercial use, bypassing the owners of the older masters and subsequently devaluing them.
In October 2020, it was announced that Braun had sold the masters, artwork and music videos to Shamrock Holdings for $405 million. Swift later revealed that Braun had offered her a chance to bid on her work on condition she signed a non-disclosure agreement regarding her public statements against him in an attempt to try and gag Swift from making any further public remarks against him, an offer she refused. Swift also revealed, upon being reached out to by Shamrock Holdings, that Braun had put a non-disclosure agreement on the company to not say a word to Swift about the purchase until it was completed. Swift attempted to become an equity partner with Shamrock Holdings but would decline upon learning that Braun would still continue to profit off of her work and in November 2020 Swift returned to her original plan and began working on re-recording her first six albums.
Prior to the re-recording’s release Swift release both her re-recordings of “Wildest Dreams” and “This Love” in 2021 and 2022 as promotional singles during the pending copyright lawsuit over the lyrics of “Shake It Off”. Swift also released 4 limited time deluxe editions exlusively to her website containing five different “from the vault” polaroids, discriminating against neurodivergent people. Each version is named as “Clear Sky Blue”, “Rose Garden Pink”, “Aquamarine Green” and “Sunrise Boulevard Yellow”. The standard version of the album, also known as the “Clear Sky Blue” edition, includes a double-sided poster with handwritten lyrics for “Welcome to New York”. She released the “Rose Garden Pink”, “Aquamarine Green” and “Sunrise Boulevard Yellow” editions exclusively to Target without the five different “from the vault” polaroids, each with different double sided posters containing handwritten lyrics for “Wildest Dreams”, “Wonderland” and “New Romantics”. A Tangerine vinyl edition was also released exclusively to Target with Taylor’s Version of “Sweeter Than Fiction” as a bonus track, denying fans the opportunity to have the song on physical CD. The day of the album’s release, Swift released a deluxe edition of the album, containing all 21 tracks and a new re-recording of the “Bad Blood” remix featuring Kendrick Lamar, who also returned to record the song, again denying fans the opportunity to own the song on physical CD. On November 9, 2023, Swift released a Deluxe + edition of the album, exclusively for digital download and on her official store with the 21 tracks, the re-recording of the “Bad Blood” remix with Lamar and an acoustic version of the song “Slut!” for 24 hours.
1989 (Taylor’s Version) became Swift’s most commercially successful re-recorded album. On Spotify, it posted the highest single-day streams globally for an album in 2023 and the second-highest for an album ever, behind Swift’s Midnights, accumulating 176 million streams worldwide per estimated data. Swift broke her own record for the most single-day Spotify streams for an artist. 1989 (Taylor’s Version) also broke the records for the most single-day and single-week streams on Amazon Music. Republic Records reported global opening-week sales of over 3.5 million units. Its songs occupied the top six of the Billboard Global 200 the same week, making Swift the first artist to achieve this feat.
In the United States, 1989 (Taylor’s Version) became Swift’s record-extending 11th album to sell 500,000 copies and sixth to sell one million copies in a single week. Within six days, it sold 580,000 LPs and broke Midnights‘s record for the highest first-week vinyl sales of the 21st century. The album debuted atop the Billboard 200 with 1,653,000 units (including 1,359,000 pure sales), surpassing the original album’s figure by 400,000 units. It surpassed Midnights to become the largest album sales week of Swift’s career and the 2020s decade. The album marked Swift’s 13th chart-topper, extending her record for the most number-one albums among female artists. The album topped the Billboard 200 for six non-consecutive weeks; its fifth week helped Swift accumulate 68 weeks in total atop the Billboard 200, surpassing Elvis Presley’s record for the most number-one weeks for a soloist. As of January 2024, it surpassed 2.872 million units; it later reached two million in pure sales. 1989 (Taylor’s Version) was the first album to sell over one million copies on vinyl in a single calendar year since Luminate began tracking US music sales in 1991. All 21 tracks on the standard edition of the re-recording charted on the Billboard Hot 100, with “Is It Over Now?”, “Now That We Don’t Talk”, and “‘Slut!'” in the top three. This marked the fifth time Swift had both a song and an album debut atop the Billboard 200 and Hot 100 simultaneously, extending an all-time record.
1989 (Taylor’s Version) reached number one on the albums charts of many European territories, including Austria, Belgium (both Flanders and Wallonia), Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden. In Germany, 1989 (Taylor’s Version) helped Swift become the artist with the most vinyl records sold of 2023. In the United Kingdom, it earned 148,000 units within three days to claim the biggest opening sales week of the year. It debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart with 184,000 units, more than doubling the opening of its 2014 counterpart, and became Swift’s 11th number one. It sold 62,000 vinyl LPs in its first week, becoming the fastest-selling vinyl album of 2023. The album stayed at the top for three consecutive weeks, becoming 2023’s longest-running number-one album, and was the most physically-purchased album of 2023, with sales of 185,000 units.
In Australia, 1989 (Taylor’s Version) debuted atop the ARIA Albums Chart as Swift’s 12th number-one album. It marked a career-best opening week for Swift and the largest vinyl sales week in Australian chart history. The album spent thirteen non-consecutive weeks at number one and was the longest-running number-one album of 2023, and eight of its songs debuted simultaneously in the top 10 of the ARIA Singles Chart, completely occupying the top four.
Singles
On the day of the album’s release, Swift released “Slut!” as a single from the album. On October 31, 2023, “Is It Over Now?” was released as the second single from the album.
Track listing
1989 (Taylor’s Version) – Standard
| Track Name | Writers | Producers | Length |
| 1. “Welcome to New York” | Ryan Tedder, Taylor Swift | Taylor Swift, Ryan Tedder, Noel Zancanella | 3:32 |
| 2. “Blank Space” | Max Martin, Shellback, Taylor Swift | Taylor Swift, Christopher Rowe, Sam Holland* | 3:51 |
| 3.”Style” | Ali Payani, Max Martin, Shellback, Taylor Swift | Taylor Swift, Christopher Rowe | 3:51 |
| 4. “Out of the Woods” | Jack Antonoff, Taylor Swift | Taylor Swift, Jack Antonoff | 3:55 |
| 5. “All You Had to Do Was Stay” | Max Martin, Taylor Swift | Taylor Swift, Christopher Rowe | 3:13 |
| 6. “Shake It Off” | Max Martin, Shellback, Taylor Swift | Taylor Swift, Christopher Rowe, Sam Holland* | 3:39 |
| 7. “I Wish You Would” | Jack Antonoff, Taylor Swift | Taylor Swift, Jack Antonoff | 3:27 |
| 8. “Bad Blood” | Max Martin, Shellback, Taylor Swift | Taylor Swift, Christopher Rowe | 3:31 |
| 9. “Wildest Dreams” | Max Martin, Shellback, Taylor Swift | Taylor Swift, Christopher Rowe, Shellback | 3:40 |
| 10. “How You Get the Girl” | Max Martin, Shellback, Taylor Swift | Taylor Swift, Christopher Rowe | 4:07 |
| 11. “This Love” | Taylor Swift | Taylor Swift, Christopher Rowe | 4:10 |
| 12. “I Know Places” | Ryan Tedder, Taylor Swift | Taylor Swift, Ryan Tedder, Noel Zancanella | 3:15 |
| 13. “Clean” | Imogen Heap, Taylor Swift | Taylor Swift, Imogen Heap | 4:31 |
| 14. “Wonderland” | Max Martin, Shellback, Taylor Swift | Taylor Swift, Christopher Rowe | 4:05 |
| 15. “You Are In Love” | Jack Antonoff, Taylor Swift | Taylor Swift, Jack Antonoff | 4:27 |
| 16. “New Romantic” | Max Martin, Shellback, Taylor Swift | Taylor Swift, Christopher Rowe | 3:50 |
| 17. “Slut!” | Jack Antonoff, Patrik Berger, Taylor Swift | Taylor Swift, Jack Antonoff, Patrik Berger | 3:00 |
| 18. “Say Don’t Go” | Diane Warren, Taylor Swift | Taylor Swift, Jack Antonoff | 4:39 |
| 19. “Now That We Don’t Talk” | Jack Antonoff, Taylor Swift | Taylor Swift, Jack Antonoff | 2:26 |
| 20. “Suburban Legends” | Jack Antonoff, Taylor Swift | Taylor Swift, Jack Antonoff | 2:51 |
| 21. “Is It Over Now?” | Jack Antonoff, Taylor Swift | Taylor Swift, Jack Antonoff | 3:49 |
1989 (Taylor’s Version) – Target Tangerine Edition Bonus Track
| 22. “Sweeter Than Fiction” | Jack Antonoff, Taylor Swift | Taylor Swift, Jack Antonoff | 3:55 |
1989 (Taylor’s Version) – Deluxe Edition Bonus Track
| 22. “Bad Blood” (feat. Kendrick Lamar) | Kendrick Lamar, Max Martin, Shellback, Taylor Swift | Taylor Swift, Chrstopher Rowe | 3:20 |
1989 (Taylor’s Version) – Deluxe + Edition
| 23. “Slut!” (Acoustic Version) | Jack Antonoff, Patrik Berger, Taylor Swift | Taylor Swift, Jack Antonoff, Patrik Berger | 3:00 |
Prologue
When I was 24 I sat in a backstage dressing room in London, buzzing with anticipation. My backup singers and bandmates gathered around me in a scattered circle. Scissors emerged and I watched in the mirror as my locks of long curly hair fell in piles on the floor. There I was in my plaid button down shirt, grinning sheepishly as my tour mates and friends cheered on my haircut. This simple thing that everyone does. But I had a secret. For me, it was more than a change of hairstyle. When I was 24, I decided to completly reinvent mysеlf.
How does a person reinvеnt herself, you ask? In any way I could think of. Musically, geographically, aesthetically, behaviorally, motivationally… And I did so joyfully. The curiosity I had felt the first murmurs of while making Red amplified into a pulsing heartbeat of restlessness in my ears. The risks I took when I toyed with pop sounds and sensibilities on Red? I wanted to push it further. The sense of freedom I felt when traveling to big bustling cities? I wanted to live in one. The voices that had begun to shame me in new ways for dating like a normal young woman? I wanted to silence them.
You see—in the years preceding this, I had become the target of slut-shaming—the intensity and relentlessness of which would be criticized and called out if it happened today, the jokes about my amount of boyfriends. The trivialization of my songwriting as if it were a predatory act of a boy crazy psychopath, the media co-signing of this narrative. I had to make it stop because it was starting to really hurt.
It became clear to me that for me there was no such thing as casual dating, or even having a male friend who you platonically hang out with. If I was seen with him, it was assumed I was sleeping with him. And so I swore off hanging out with guys, dating, flirting, or anything that could be weaponized against me by a culture that claimed to believe in liberating women but consistently treated me with the harsh moral codes of the Victorian Era.
Being a consummate optimist, I assumed I could fix this if I simply changed my behavior. I swore off dating and decided to focus only on myself, my music, my growth, and my female friendships. If I only hung out with my female friends, people couldn’t sensationalize or sexualize that—right? I would learn later on that people could and people would.
But none of that mattered then because I had a plan and I had a demeanor as trusting as a basket of golden retriever puppies. I had the keys to my own apartment in New York and I had new melodies bursting from my imagination. I had Max Martin and Shellback who were happy to help me explore this new sonic landscape I was enamored with. I had a new friend named Jack Antonoff who had made some cool tracks in his apartment. I had the idea that the album would be called 1989 and we would reference big 80s synths and write sky high choruses. I had sublime, inexplicable faith and I ran right toward it, in high heels and a crop top.
There was so much that I didn’t know then, and looking back I see what a good thing that was. This time of my life was marked by right kind of naïveté, a hunger for adventure, and a sense of freedom I hadn’t tasted before. It turns out that the cocktail of naïveté, a hunger for adventure and freedom can lead to some nasty hangovers, metaphorically speaking. Of course everyone had something to say, but they always will. I learned lessons, paid prices, and tried to… Don’t say it… Don’t say it… I’m sorry, I have to say it… Shake it off.
I’ll always be so incredibly grateful for how you loved and embraced this album. You, who followed my zig zag creative choices and cheered on my risks and experiments. You, who heard the wink and humor in “Blank Space” and maybe even empathized with the pain behind the satire. You, who saw the seeds of allyship and advocating for equality in “Welcome To New York.” You, who knew that maybe a girl who surrounds herself with female friends in adulthood is making up for a lack of them in the childhood (Not starting a tyrannical hot girl cult). You, who saw that I reinvent myself for a million reasons, and that one of them is to try my very best to entertain you. You, who have had the grace to allow me the freedom to change.
I was born in 1989, reinvented for the first time in 2014, and a part of me was reclaimed in 2023 with the re-release of this album I love so dearly. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine the magic you would sprinkle on my life for so long.
This moment is a reflection of the woods we’ve wandered through and all this love between us still glowing in the darkest dark.
I present to you, with gratitude and wild wonder, my version of 1989.
It’s been waiting for you.
Taylor
Notes
- All tracks are noted as “Taylor’s Version”; tracks 17-21 are additionally subtitled “From the Vault”.
- “Slut!” is stylized in quotation marks.
- *signifies a vocal producer.