In case you missed it, Taylor Swift has found herself at the centre of another music industry feud. Luckily the star has enough experience to know that the best way to silence her haters is with a hit album, even if it is a re-release.
As a recap, the whole drama started when Big Machine Records, the Scott Borchetta-owned label that Swift was signed to until only last year was acquired by Scooter Braun’s company, Ithaca Holdings. In a Tumblr post, Swift insisted that she didn’t know about the sale until it was announced and that she wasn’t given the chance to buy her music. She also expressed her frustration that the songs she’d worked so hard on were now owned by someone she says had subjected her to “incessant, manipulative bullying.”
The post promptly sparked a social-media outcry that pulled in some of the world’s biggest entertainers. Pretty much everyone, from Halsey to Justin Bieber, had something to say about the situation, and voices on social media (including Kelly Clarkson) even urged her to consider the biggest power move possible: rerecording her entire catalogue.
And it turns out that’s exactly what Swift has decided to do. A short transcript from her recent appearance on CBS Sunday Morning reveals that the pop star is planning to head back to the studio and create brand-new masters of all the songs that Braun now owns. Here’s exactly what she said when correspondent Tracy Smith asked her whether she was going to rerecord everything.
“Might you do that?” Smith asks.
“Oh yeah,” Swift says.
“That’s a plan?” Smith asks.
“Yeah, absolutely,” Swift answers.
The bad blood (excuse the pun) between Scooter Braun and Taylor Swift appears to have a lot to do with the singer’s 2016 feud with Kanye West and Kim Kardashian. In her post to Tumblr Taylor wrote:
“All I could think about was the incessant, manipulative bullying I’ve received at his hands for years. Like when Kim Kardashian orchestrated an illegally recorded snippet of a phone call to be leaked and then Scooter got his two clients together to bully me online about it. Or when his client, Kanye West, organized a revenge porn music video which strips my body naked.”
It’s unclear when Swift is going to start this project, but it’s going to be a huge undertaking. To cover all bases, Taylor will need to rerecord the six studio albums she made with Big Machine Records, as well as all the singles released while signed to the Record Company. There is no doubt that Swift doesn’t have it in her, and even if it takes years, she can take comfort in the fact that revenge is a dish best served cold.