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Post by Admin on Apr 17, 2021 3:43:26 GMT
Liz Rose on Writing “White Horse” w/ Taylor Swift | CMT I Wrote That
Songwriter Liz Rose won her first Grammy for the ageless song she wrote with Taylor Swift. 🏆 🐴
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Post by Admin on Apr 19, 2021 0:43:43 GMT
Taylor Swift continues to be an unstoppable force on the Billboard charts.
She proved that once again with her latest album, Fearless (Taylor’s Version), in which she rerecorded every track from her 2008 album Fearless.
According to Billboard, the new version of Fearless debuted in the No. 1 spot on the Top 200 album chart — something that the original Fearless album also achieved when it was first released.
As Billboard points out, this latest No. 1 debut puts Swift in some pretty rarified company: charting her ninth No. 1, she’s now tied with Madonna as the female artist with the second-highest number of No. 1 albums (Barbra Streisand holds the record, with 11).
What makes Swift’s latest achievement all the more impressive is that Fearless (Taylor’s Version) is “the only No. 1 album of its kind: a rerecording of an artist’s (own or another’s) previously released album,” Billboard notes.
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Post by Admin on Apr 19, 2021 4:46:28 GMT
More than 12 years after Taylor Swift notched her first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart in 2008 with her second studio set Fearless, she’s back atop the list with a re-recorded version of the album, titled Fearless (Taylor’s Version). The new set is her ninth No. 1 and scores the biggest week of 2021 for any album. It launches with 291,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending April 15, according to MRC Data. http://instagram.com/p/CNNbIrsDkKn The original Fearless album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart dated Nov. 29, 2008, and spent 11 nonconsecutive weeks on the chart. It has sold 10.28 million copies in the U.S. and is Swift’s second-biggest-selling release, behind her 2014 album 1989 (10.44 million). On Feb. 11, 2021, Swift announced she had re-recorded the 2008 album Fearless as Fearless (Taylor’s Version). The new 26-track album has re-recordings of all 13 songs on Fearless, along with the six bonus songs added to a 2009 reissue of Fearless (dubbed the Platinum Edition) and the 2010 single “Today Was a Fairytale.” Beyond those 20 re-recordings, Fearless (Taylor’s Version) also boasts six newly recorded “from the vault” songs that were written for the original Fearless album, but were never recorded and released until now. http://instagram.com/p/CNbnuyojgrZ Fearless (Taylor’s Version) is the only No. 1 album of its kind: a re-recording of an artist’s (own or another’s) previously released album.
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Post by Admin on Apr 20, 2021 22:07:31 GMT
Fearless (Taylor's Version), Swift's re-do of her 2008 sophomore set -- accompanied by six newly recorded songs that were written during sessions for the original album -- bows atop the 200 with a stunning 291,000 equivalent album units moved, the best first week for any album thusfar in 2021. In addition, the set charts eight of its 26 tracks on the Billboard Hot 100 this week, led by the new "Mr. Perfectly Fine (Taylor's Version) (From the Vault)" at No. 30.
What have we learned from this re-recorded Fearless? And would other artists be able to replicate its success? Billboard staffers answer these questions and more below.
1. Taylor Swift is now at a level where she's putting up blockbuster first-week numbers with her combination re-recordings/deluxe reissues. How do you even begin to put this fairly unprecedented achievement in proper context?
Lyndsey Havens: It's the "three largest weeks for an album in the last eight months" for me. That record requires some breaking down, because you first must acknowledge that for Swift to have claimed the three biggest weeks among albums in units earned, she had to release three albums in eight months. And though the first-week units have declined from Folklore (846,000) to Evermore (329,000) to Fearless (Taylor's Version) (291,000), all that does is prove just how massive Folklore was to begin with.
Jason Lipshutz: Let’s set the first-week numbers aside for a second, as gaudy as they are, and focus on the fact that Fearless (Taylor’s Version) is the first No. 1 album that’s also a re-recorded version of another album. How many artists could launch a project that is ostensibly a note-for-note re-creation of an existing, widely available album straight to the top of the chart? This achievement speaks not only to the stadium-packing popularity of Swift, which is now squarely in its second decade, but to the dedication of a fan base that understands her battle for creative ownership and is ready to support her every step of the way.
Mia Nazareno: At 31, Taylor Swift has earned nine No. 1 albums, and ties with veteran superstar/cultural icon Madonna for having the second most No. 1 albums among women artists. Swift is closely trailing behind Barbra Streisand’s record of having eleven No. 1 albums, and at the rate she's going it’s not crazy to think that she can surpass Streisand within the year. In the last eight months, Swift put out three albums – the Grammy-winning Folkore, Evermore, and Fearless (Taylor’s Version) -- which all debuted at the top spot on the Billboard 200. The numbers are staggering, but what I’m most pleased about is Swift dethroning Morgan Wallen -- in the middle of one of the year's biggest musical controversies -- at No. 1 and halting his streak on the top spot on Top Country Albums. She dethroned him with songs people have already heard, so that’s a win in my book!
Andrew Unterberger: How about the fact that while Fearless (Taylor's Version) was putting up 2021-best numbers, the original Fearless was actively sagging, dropping 19% in overall metrics? You might expect it to get a curiosity bump if anything, but the Swifties are both well-trained and impossibly devoted -- so now that Taylor's Version of Fearless is here, you won't need to tell them twice to delete the original from their streaming and iTunes libraries.
Denise Warner: You can't. It's not possible. But let's try in context of no. 1 albums: Ostensibly, she has five more re-recordings to go. If all five hit no. 1, that will give her 14 Billboard 200 topping works, the most among women and tying her with Jay-Z for the most among solo artists. At 31, it's easy to assume Taylor has a lot of songs and albums left in her. And she isn't going to break up with herself, leaving many years to catch The Beatles, who reign with 19 albums that hit no. 1 on the chart.
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Post by Admin on Apr 21, 2021 0:37:25 GMT
2. Did listening to her re-recording of Fearless add to or change your perspective on Swift's sophomore album at all? If so, in what way?
Lyndsey Havens: It more so changed my perspective on Folkore and Evermore -- two albums I already loved dearly and now have an even deeper appreciation for. I say that because when juxtaposed with the early lyricism heard on Fearless (Taylor's Version), from both original album tracks and ones from the vault written at the same time, it's even more impressive and compelling to realize how advanced -- and playfully fictional -- Swift's storytelling has become.
Jason Lipshutz: I mean, this isn’t a personal or general revelation, but those singles sure are timeless, huh? Listening to the re-recorded versions of “You Belong With Me,” “Fifteen” and “Love Story” -- trying to pick up tweaked production details and vocal approaches -- also served as a welcome reminder that the songs that helped make Swift a superstar did so for a reason, with impassioned hooks and bursts of a personality ready to be delivered to the masses. It’s easy to take these songs for granted after they’ve been in our lives for more than a decade, but the new versions helped me remember why I loved the old ones so damn much.
Mia Nazareno: Before I answer this question, I just wanna flex that I'm part of the very special 1993 club, which means “Fifteen” came out when I was.... fifteeeeeen. Given that I'm already a massive fan of Fearless, the re-release reaffirmed how much that album means to me. The re-recording didn’t change my perspective on the album, but it did make me think about how much I’ve changed – and I think that’s a sentiment that’s shared among her longtime fans. For those who were in high school when Fearless came out, the joy of being a Taylor Swift fan comes from the feeling of growing up with Taylor with each release cementing a snapshot of a moment in our lives. I think the only changes we think about when listening to Fearless (Taylor’s Version) are the ones that come with growing up and feeling a bit sentimental about it all.
Andrew Unterberger: Honestly, I just think it's cool to have an excuse to have everyone revisiting a classic pop album like Fearless again. Despite being inarguably one of the most successful albums of the 21st century -- 11 weeks at No. 1, Diamond certification, Grammy for album of the year -- it actually gets a little forgotten in the Taylor Swift discussion these days, because so many fans and critics still dismissed her as just a teen country sensation at the time, and because more recent works are obviously more sophisticated and grown-sounding. But Fearless has a number of my all-time favorite Swift jams -- "Hey Stephen," "Forever & Always," of course "You Belong With Me" -- and it's nearly as much fun for us to revisit them with new recordings and new ears 13 years later as it probably was for Taylor herself.
Denise Warner: I'll be honest, I had never listened to the original as a complete work. I knew the songs -- "Fearless," "Fifteen," "Hey Stephen," "White Horse" and of course "Love Story" and "You Belong With Me." But I hadn't appreciated Fearless as a fully realized album before. (My bad!)
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