Exciting news in pop culture this month: “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” finally dropped! I am quite certain that I am not the only one thinking this, but these remastered albums really hit different. There is something about each one being more inherently Taylor that makes the love put into them radiate right back out to the listener. This is significant because, in my opinion, none of the Taylor’s Version songs sound particularly dissimilar from their original versions.

But, upon the album’s release, Buzzfeed writer Andrew Firriolo published a list of Taylor’s Version songs that sound the most different from their original versions, stating that, in general, the biggest differences can be found in energy levels, loudness and acoustics. Without listening too deeply to every song, I absolutely agree with there being a different energy in these new albums: more confidence and self-love, even in the songs that previously gave more post-breakup self-loathing vibes. 

Members of the Bucknell community have much to say about the album as well, including Libby Hoffman ’24, who described Taylor’s Version as showcasing “more freedom in her vocals.” She went on to detail an increase in “growls and note changes that did not exist in the original versions” of the songs. Many have criticized Swift for how different some of the new versions are from their originals, but Charlotte Sullivan ’25 asserted that they sound “alike enough,” and they are “the ones she [actually] owns.” Swift was able to “give her fans and listeners a deeper look into what was going on in her life” in the era of the album’s original release, and what was going on was some major growth. The original release marked the artist’s switch from being a country to a pop singer, and the shift earned her a Grammy despite many thinking it would be her downfall. 

As someone who was in middle school when the original “1989” came out, I remember listening to “Blank Space” and “Bad Blood” as often as they would come on the radio in the car. Similar to Sullivan, the album quickly came to define that era of my life. I had just started exploring the world of dating and getting my heart broken, and these songs always helped me to become confident again after all of it. Now, if we could just get “Teardrops on my Guitar (Taylor’s Version),” I would be set on the soundtrack of my childhood. If any of you Taylor Swift superfans out there has a theory about the next release, the world requires your input; don’t wait until it goes “out of style”!