Taylor Swift Promotes ‘Red (Taylor’s Version)’ Vinyl: How Did the Original Sell?

Taylor Swift is one of the biggest recording artists today. She began breaking records and winning awards in the music industry years ago. For such a young singer, her accolades rival those of The Rolling Stones and the Beatles.

Swift’s Red album is rumored to have been inspired by the pain she felt after her split from ex-boyfriend Jake Gyllenhaal. She penned the album in 2012 after her relationship with Gyllenhaal ended in early 2011. Let’s take a look at the upcoming re-recorded album compared to the original album.

When does ‘Red (Taylor’s Version)’ drop?

Red (Taylor’s Version) is the upcoming second re-recorded album in her catalog. The new album debuts on November 19, 2021, by Republic Records. You may be wondering, why the need to re-record? Why not just write some new material?

Well, to answer that question, we need to take a look at a change of ownership of Swift’s first six studio albums. The long and short is that her first six albums were recorded under a different label. After the label was purchased by Scooter Braun, Swift’s master recordings went to him, and she wasn’t able to buy them back.

She then decided that she would re-record those six albums so that she could own the masters herself. 

The success of the original ‘Red’ album

The original Red album was inspired by the emotions Swift experienced with the relationship she was going through when the album was written. It sold 8,000,000 copies worldwide. 

In addition, Red spent seven weeks at the top of the Billboard 200. This made Swift the first female artist to have three consecutive albums, each spending at least six weeks at number one. She is also only the second act since the Beatles to accomplish this task. The album topped the charts in Australia, New Zealand, Canada,  and the United Kingdom and was certified seven times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America in the states and received multi-platinum certifications globally.

‘Red (Taylor’s Version)’ could outsell the original

Red (Taylor’s Version) promises to be better than the original. The album features 30 songs that Swift wrote for the 2012 album. There were only 16 songs on the original version of the album. One of the songs on the re-recorded album is the extended version of “All Too Well,” which fans have been desperately waiting for.

One shocking fact (at least to some) is that there will be a clean and explicit version of the album available. The material that will be on this album is material that was originally going to be on the Red album. Since the album was written over the red emotions she was having over her failed relationship, it’s safe to assume that the explicit nature of the new material is to be expected.

Swift has spent the last several years making great music and becoming increasingly more successful. It’s a sad turn of events that she lost the rights to her own music. But now, she’s fighting back. Given the hype surrounding them, it seems inevitable that the new re-recordings will be even more successful than the originals. 

Swift genuinely cares about her fans. These re-records are more than just a way to take back her work. It’s a love letter to her fans, in a way, because she is giving them the very best of herself in the form of these newly recorded albums, and she isn’t holding anything back this time.