Taylor Swift drops ‘Speak Now,’ reminding fans of 2010 with original and new songs

Taylor Swift dropped her third rerecorded album, “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version),” Thursday night, sending fans back to 2010, when she originally released the album.

Swift has been rerecording her old albums in order to gain full ownership of her own music after her former record label sold her catalog without notifying her first.

The rerecordings have been wildly successful, with the first two, “Fearless” and “Red,” surpassing the total streaming numbers of previous versions on Spotify and Apple Music.

As she releases the new songs, they are labeled with the original title with a parenthetical Taylor’s Version attached to notify fans that this is the song she owns — for example, “Mean (Taylor’s Version).”

With each rerelease, Swift isn’t only giving fans new versions of her old songs, she also releases “From the Vault” tracks, which are songs that were scrapped from the original album that Swift recorded to release alongside the old songs. “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)” includes six “From the Vault” tracks, two of which she collaborated on with Hayley Williams of Paramore and Fall Out Boy — artists who were widely popular in 2008 and 2009, when Swift was writing the songs.

“Since Speak Now was all about my songwriting, I decided to go to the artists who I feel influenced me most powerfully as a lyricist at that time and ask them to sing on the album,” Swift wrote on Twitter when she released the back cover and track list for “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version).”

What was going on with Taylor Swift at the time of the original ‘Speak Now’?

The album came shortly after Swift was ambushed by Kanye West onstage during her acceptance speech for Video of the Year at the 2009 MTV VMAs. At the time, Swift responded, “I would really like to be excluded from this narrative,” per People magazine. But it was already in the public lexicon.

Swift wrote every song on “Speak Now” completely by herself to silence critics who claimed she didn’t have as much of a hand in writing her songs as her cowriters.

In the physical copy of “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version),” Swift wrote, “I underwent extensive vocal training and made a decision that would completely define this album: I decided I would write it entirely on my own. I figured, they couldn’t give all the credit to my cowriters if there weren’t any.”

As a rising young star, Swift’s love life was also being closely watched by the media — especially after dating well-known celebrities such as John Mayer, Taylor Lautner and Joe Jonas — all of whom were big stars, especially at the time.

Fans have speculated about exactly who each song was written about, including the especially scathing “Dear John,” which is about her dating a man who was much older than her — Mayer was 32 at the time that they dated, while Swift was 19.

“Insults are everywhere in music, and men don’t get the same flak for it,” musicologist Lily Hirsch told The Associated Press, in reference to “Dear John” and “Mean.” “There’s this idea that women especially are supposed to take the high road, turn the other cheek and all of that, and men can get away with the low road, and they certainly do in music. It’s a kind of double standard. Women are labeled ‘catty’ when confronting bad behavior, like in ‘Dear John.’”

In anticipation of the album release, Swift reminded her fans during a show on her tour to be “kind” and “gentle” once the “Speak Now” rerelease came out.

“I’m 33 years old. I don’t care about anything that happened to me when I was 19 except the songs I wrote and the memories we made together,” Swift said. “So what I’m trying to tell you is, I’m not putting this album out so you should feel the need to defend me on the internet against someone you think I might have written a song about 14 billion years ago.”

What changes has Taylor Swift made to ‘Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)’?

One of the most notable modifications Swift has made on the rerecording is a change to the chorus of “Better Than Revenge” — an angsty song where Swift is angry with a woman who she felt wronged her by taking her boyfriend at the time.

The original lyrics said, “She’s an actress / She’s better known for the things that she does on the mattress.” Whereas Taylor’s Version says, “He was a moth to flame / She was holding the matches.”

“We are willing to replace the old version with Taylor’s Versions because they are exact replicas, as much as they can be,” Elizabeth Scala, who teaches a course on Swift’s songs at University of Texas at Austin, told AP. “If she does something different, it becomes a different song.” A different song, this time, owned by Swift.

Most songs remain largely the same as the originals, with the exception that her voice has matured, and slight chord or key changes.

She added six “From The Vault” songs. Here’s the complete track list for “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version).”

1. “Mine (Taylor’s Version).”

2. “Sparks Fly (Taylor’s Version).”

3. “Back to December (Taylor’s Version).”

4. “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version).”

5. “Dear John (Taylor’s Version).”

6. “Mean (Taylor’s Version).”

7. “The Story of Us (Taylor’s Version).”

8. “Never Grow Up (Taylor’s Version).”

9. “Enchanted (Taylor’s Version).”

10. “Better than Revenge (Taylor’s Version).”

11. “Innocent (Taylor’s Version).”

12. “Haunted (Taylor’s Version).”

13. “Last Kiss (Taylor’s Version).”

14. “Long Live (Taylor’s Version).”

15. “Ours (Taylor’s Version).”

16. “Superman (Taylor’s Version).”

17. “Electric Touch feat. Fall Our Boy (Taylor’s Version) (From The Vault).”

18. “When Emma Falls in Love (Taylor’s Version) (From The Vault).”

19. “I Can See You (Taylor’s Version) (From The Vault).”

20. “Castles Crumbling (Taylor’s Version) (From The Vault).”

21. “Foolish One (Taylor’s Version) (From The Vault).”

22. “Timeless (Taylor’s Version) (From The Vault).”