By Alex Crozier

We’ve grown up listening to her music, now those songs might be getting a face-lift. Recently, along with the release of her new album “Lover,” another story is generating just as many headlines.

AP reports that a “CBS Sunday Morning” reporter asked Swift if her plan to re-record her songs was to own the new versions, Swift responded,

“Yeah, absolutely.”

In a Tumblr post Taylor Swift explains why it’s not just fact that her songs were sold without a fair chance for her to buy them herself, it’s the person they were sold to that makes this a

“Worst case scenario.”

Taylor Swift was just 14 she signed a record deal with Big Machine. This relationship would continue for many albums, but as Swift grew in popularity she began to want more control over her music.

Big Machine was recently purchased by Ithica Holdings, which is owned by Scooter Braun. So he now controls what happens to those early Swift recordings.

In the Tumblr post Swift explains that she pleaded for a chance to purchase her master recordings. But instead was only offered her recordings if she signed on for more new albums, which she declined.

In response to this, Swift has pledged to remake these songs since she was not given the chance to own the original recordings of them.

I talked to Quincy University senior Jessica Abrego about what she thinks of this, she said,

” I think each artist has the right to do whatever they want with their music. Will the music still have the same emotional touch as before? Who knows. She is in a different place in her life now so I feel her older songs won’t be the same as they were before.”

And when asked about her personal experience with Swift’s music Abrego said,

“I have listened to her music since she first came out with her breaking hit “Tim McGraw”. She was discovered at The Bluebird Cafe’ in Nashville and I have watched and listened to her evolve from country to pop. She is an incredible artist for the fact she writes her own music and performs it. She had even written hit songs for other country artist like Little Big Town with their hit “Better Man”, I think that’s what makes great artists.

Scooter Braun, who purchased the label that controls Swift’s catalogue, has a long history in pop and country music. His record company has produced releases from Justin Bieber, Dan + Shay, Carly Rae Jepsen, and many others.

Kanye West was managed by Braun from 2016 to 2018. During this time the long standing clash between West and Swift was reignited when a video, recorded without Swift’s knowledge, was released showing her approving a song lyric in a Kanye West song that would refer to her. This resulted in a firestorm of negativity in the public eye and the term “snake” became synonymous with “Swift,” at least amongst Kanye West fans.

Swift says in her Tumblr post,

“All I could think about was the incessant, manipulative bullying I’ve received at his hands for years.”

All Swift and West Stans are as far in their respective corners as they’ve ever been. But West fans have had no effect on the success of the album. Since its release “Lover” has searned 867,000 copies in just its first week. “Lover” marks Taylor Swift’s first album on Republic Records since she left Big Machine in 2018.

AP contributed to this story.