Swifties! Give me the deets on Speak Now!
Added 2025-01-25 03:27:13 +0000 UTCI've decided to do a VOCAL ANALYSIS of Speak Now album comparing the Original version to the Taylors Version. But I figured I would also like to know more about the song BEFORE I relisten to it.
What should I know about EACH SONG on the album?
>>> Can someone make me a spread sheet with all the comments organized so I could just print it out and follow along during the reaction???
Comments
Most people don’t have a clue how the music industry works, especially in Nashville. There’s a custom in country music in Nashville where basically everyone who’s even in the room while a song is written gets writing credit on the song even if all you did was be like “it should be who instead of whom” or something tiny like that lol so a song having multiple credits on it means nothing about who was doing the bulk of the writing
Mara Stoll
2025-01-26 17:29:09 +0000 UTCThe haters & misogynists are always looking for ways to denigrate Taylor. Many just refused to acknowledge that a teen, blonde, girl could legitimately create songs of that caliber. Even today I come across posts claiming she has ghostwriters. They think it's more believable that there's a secret group writing than that Taylor can be naturally talented & have worked hard to sharpen her skills further.
Melody P
2025-01-26 15:07:49 +0000 UTCIt’s so weird that people said she relied on co writers. Especially when Taylor wrote over half of fearless and red solo (even some debut album songs)
❤️
2025-01-26 11:19:48 +0000 UTCYes yes yes 🙌 This is perfect!!! Thank youuu
Audrey McDonald ( Songs From A Suitcase)
2025-01-26 03:22:35 +0000 UTCoh true! I was just going off the billboard article from 2010 when it’s explained! It’s this article: https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/taylor-swift-the-billboard-cover-story-953737/
Ariana Herrera
2025-01-25 19:07:55 +0000 UTCAmazing work! 🙌🏼 But I think the story about the title of the album turned out to be a rumor? That Taylor actually had the idea herself. Recently watched Chats and Reacts read the Lover diary where there is a section on the exact day Taylor decided the name speak now, and that Scott REALLY loved it - but it didn’t sound like he came up with the idea, just that he agreed that it was more fitting than any other option they had discussed I think ☺️ (I don’t remember the exact words)
Cathrine Ahm
2025-01-25 14:56:27 +0000 UTCOoo yeah for SURE, I think also Last Kiss was originally recorded in one take so she was struggling to get through the whole song and they left it in
Mara Stoll
2025-01-25 14:22:59 +0000 UTCA big piece of it for me is the mixing on TV. On the bigger songs like Haunted, all of the instruments seem to be at the same volume and there’s way more distortion which I guess is supposed to make it sound more Rock-ish but to me takes all the dynamics and interest out of it for me and also drowns out Taylor’s vocals. I think there’s also an emotional connection that’s lost because of the time that’s passed for her vocals so you lose some of the passion that draws you in. Since Speak Now was so personally for her at the time I think maybe the contrast is more for Speak Now than Fearless
Mara Stoll
2025-01-25 14:21:42 +0000 UTCThe acoustic versions of Back to December and Haunted are some of my fav acoustics from her and (if I remember right) they aren’t on Taylor’s version! Especially the Haunted acoustic holds my whole heart
Mara Stoll
2025-01-25 14:18:18 +0000 UTCOne thing I notice about OG in comparison to TV is that the original tends to feel much more emotionally connected to me. This makes sense of course, the things that happened that inspired the songs were fresh and much more raw for her at 19/20/21 than they were at 33 re-recording them. While the re-record is much cleaner and more mature vocally, there’s something lost in the rawness of the performance. I also think the mixing of the instrumentals of TV especially on the more rock leaning tracks is really muddy and just too much in general so I really miss listening to the original Story of Us, Haunted, Better Than Revenge, etc.
Mara Stoll
2025-01-25 14:16:57 +0000 UTCHi Audrey! I have made a google doc with every song from the original speak now album that includes a background on each song, the hidden message, and if there's a music video for that song (in case you want to watch those later). Sorry if it's a little wordy! Enjoy!! https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nm7FxTXoxvzPsvnlRI-q2Tu05M3rU1SBJoJFJZT443o/edit?usp=sharing
Ariana Herrera
2025-01-25 07:05:12 +0000 UTCIf there is a Taylor’s version I don’t stream the original but if I am being honest of all of Taylor’s albums Speak Now is probably the one I am most tempted to stream the original and I can’t explain why. I am very curious if in your vocal analysis while undoubtedly the technique will be better on the Taylor’s version if you can pick out things that might draw someone to the original versions. Some have tried to tell me it’s my nostalgia for the original version but I argue against that because I also have great nostalgia for Fearless and that time period in my life when that came out maybe even more so than Speak Now and I am never tempted to listen to the original version of the Fearless album.
KyraB
2025-01-25 06:03:33 +0000 UTCWorking on it now!
Ariana Herrera
2025-01-25 05:27:15 +0000 UTCWith last kiss many people prefer the og bc of its raw emotion and even how shaky you can hear her at moments
C B
2025-01-25 05:16:47 +0000 UTCObviously there’s a lyric change in Better Than Revenge. Old line is “she’s better known for the things that she does on the mattress” new line is “he was a moth to the flame she was holding the matches”
Shani Gribben
2025-01-25 04:21:46 +0000 UTCOmg yessss! So glad Speak Now won. Personally I think it shows her vocal differences the most. It’s a FULLY self written album after winning awards for Fearless she got many criticisms about having “soooo many writers” on her songs. So she decided to write Speak Now entirely on her own. I think the juxtaposition of Long Live and Castles Crumbling (from the vault) is incredible and hearing the aftermath of how she felt when Kanye took the mic from her is truly some of her saddest writing. Happy listening!!!!💜💜💜 (I wish I had the attention span to go through each song for you hahaha)
Mads
2025-01-25 03:32:26 +0000 UTC
