Swift released song following TikTok trend
Swifties were pleasantly surprised on Friday (Sept 17th) when they awoke to see that Taylor Swift had released a newly recorded version of “Wildest Dreams” from her 1989 album. Why that may be surprising is because Swift hasn’t announced details of the re-recorded version of that album yet. In fact, she’s gearing up to release Red (Taylor’s Version) on November 19th via Republic Records.
“Hi! Saw you guys got Wildest Dreams trending on tiktok, thought you should have my version,” she shares on social media.
Swift decided to release the track following a TikTok trend involving the use of “slow zoom,” which the song mentions. Swift likely decided to capitalize on the track’s popularity and reap the benefits of the streams and downloads rather than allow her former label to do so.
The album sees Swift reunite with Shellback for producing duties, along with Christopher Rowe. Max Martin, who co-wrote the track with Swift and Shellback and co-produced the original 1989 album, did not return for producing duties on this version.
No word on when the complete 1989 (Taylor’s Version) will be released, but Red (Taylor’s Version) is the second re-recorded album Swift has released in 2021.
Swift is currently in the midst of releasing re-recorded versions of her first six studio albums following a public feud with her former label, Big Machine Label Group. Her original masters were part of the sale of Big Machine in 2019 when Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings LLC purchased the label. Braun then sold Swift’s Big Machine catalog masters to Shamrock Holdings for upwards of $300 million in 2019. Swift has been at odds with the label, founder Scott Borchetta and Braun over the past couple of years as she’s attempted to purchase the masters to no avail while also being caught up in live performing rights of the same songs.
Earlier this year, Swift released Fearless (Taylor’s Version), her 2008 sophomore album that was the first in the re-recording series. Upon its release, Swift broke records when it landed at No. 1 around the world, marking the first time a woman has landed three No. 1 albums in less than a year with the releases of Folklore and Evermore.
With the arrival of Fearless (Taylor’s Version), Swift extends an unprecedented record, standing out as the only artist in history to release nine albums with sales of at least 500,000 copies in a single week [Fearless, Speak Now, RED, 1989, Reputation, Lover, Folklore, Evermore, and now, Fearless (Taylor’s Version)].
Earlier this year, Swift broke a 54 year record held by The Beatles in the United Kingdom for the fastest accumulation of three No. 1 albums. Swift captured her third chart-topping album in a span of 259 days with Fearless (Taylor’s Version), which follows Folklore on July 31st and Evermore on December 18th.
