Red: An Album of Growth

By Mary Clare Jones

When Taylor Swift dropped her rerecording entitled Red (Taylor’s Version) on November 12, I was immediately taken back to the moment when I first heard Red in 2012. I still remember sitting in my childhood bedroom listening to the opening track for the first time. I had never listened to music the way I had with Red. It enthralled me in a way music had never before. From that moment on, I spent years memorizing lyric after lyric, spinning along to the beat of every Taylor song.

I know I am not the only one. When Red was first released, Taylor Swift was catapulted to a whole new level of fame. She left the cushioned bubble of country music to face a new world of pop. The hit song “I Knew You Were Trouble” introduced dubstep and dance-pop to a previous country sound, peaking at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100’s. Swift mixed genres and producers to create an album that left audiences and critics alike flabbergasted. The audience’s underestimation became Taylor’s biggest strength. The depreciation helped Swift with her song, “All Too Well”. “All Too Well” (a personal favorite) has been hailed as Swift’s most remarkable work, receiving a 10-minute version on the rerecordings. It became a fan favorite, navigating the twists and turns of unrequited love from its release. Recently, it has lit the internet ablaze over the song’s subject (Where’s the scarf, Jake?!). Red also presented Swift’s complex relationship with her own fame. “The Lucky One”, a song released on the original album, highlights the music industry’s ability to take advantage of women, told through the point of view of Joni Mitchell and Kim Wilde. “Nothing New”, a song released on Taylor’s version with Phoebe Bridgers, shares the pressures on women to evolve and reevolve in order to stay in the limelight. The album embodies Swift’s tiptoe into complex, emotional topics and foreshadows future albums.  For many girls my age, Red represents a time capsule into our adolescence. It was our first dive into music that captivated us.  It has been the soundtrack to heartbreaks and car sing-alongs that transports us to varying times in our lives. For me, Red has been the wise words of an older sister, helping me navigate the tumultuous path of growing up. Red was an album of development for Swift in both lyricism and sound, highlighting that she could be more than a Nashville country star. But for fans, Red is the album that represents our own growth into adulthood. The rerecordings have been away for old and new fans alike to rediscover the beauty of the original and connect with a younger version of themselves. Red will always be the album to take me back to my bedroom, twirling along to the beat, and experiencing the magic for the first time.