I'm Feeling 2022

By Mary DeMarco, Sports & News Editor

With both the re-release of “Red” by Taylor Swift and the new Adele album “30”, it feels more like 2012 than 2022. In the present day, both artists are here with nostalgic hits and completely new styles of music. But what’s so special about these two albums? If you’ve scrolled through your For You Page on TikTok or even stepped into the main cafeteria during lunch at least one person has probably mentioned either of the artists in the past few months. If you aren’t invested in either of the singers, it may be hard to discern what’s so special about the release of these two albums. Many argue that Taylor Swift’s Red (Taylor’s Version), is just the same thing released again. Why re-record what you’ve already put out into the world? “Surprisingly enough, most artists don’t own their own [music] yet,” junior Kaylynn Simpson said. “Taylor Swift is my queen. I’ve been doing all my research and [Swift] announced her re-recordings, which basically just means that she owns her own music, so she has to re-record all her songs.” But as we’ve seen from Taylor in the past, she doesn’t stop at the bare minimum. Many recall her quarantine albums Folklore and Evermore. While other artists were waiting out the pandemic; maybe learning new hobbies like baking and gardening, Taylor Swift took this time as an opportunity to release two impulsive yet well-received albums. So, when it came to her re-recordings, not only did she ensure that she could perform her songs without plagiarism, fans were right in assuming she would also be adding more than just her older songs. One of the most anticipated factors of Taylor’s re-recordings are her vault songs. “The vault tracks are songs that were never released, and fans have never heard them,” Simpson said. “Basically, it means she wrote it back in 2012, or whenever she was writing the Red album. And for example, these nine songs that she wrote for the album didn’t make it into the album itself, so she just kind of like stored them away.” But on the other hand, we have Adele topping the charts with many of her new songs from the album “30”. Anyone who gets on TikTok has most likely heard ‘Easy On Me’ by the singer. It’s a no-brainer that this song would be at the top of the charts. Yet even when scrolling through the top 100 songs on Spotify you can count at least five or six of Adele’s songs at the very top of the list. Her album “30” is considered different from anything she’s ever done before. “I feel like in her older albums, you can’t really relate to them as much, they kind of hide her emotions,” sophomore Khayley Tharp said. “But with her new album, she really goes into her personal life and her opinion on things. She’s expressing herself better than what she did back then.” The more people interviewed, the more this opinion seemed to be a constant with Adele fans. “Her new album is a lot more mature and really goes in depth about her life more than her other three albums, ‘’ junior Anna Wright said. “It’s very personal and almost like you are listening to her talk about her life as if you’re a close friend.” Especially for Adele fans, receiving an album like “30” after so many years without new Adele music is a big deal. “I was crying and freaking out when it came out,” Simpson said. “Because it’s just been so long.” Although any Adele fan would be excited for new music, it came as a shock to many how Adele switched up genres with her new music. “Honestly it’s such a mix of different types and genres of music,” Wright said. “One thing I can say is that Adele has always been a soul and R&B artist with a pop background. In this new album she also has some jazzy-type influence in it. She’s just an artist that can mix every type of genre and still make it sound good.” Topping the charts for both women represents such a triumph to many fans over the hardships both women have faced. “In the music industry, it’s a lot harder for women to be taken seriously,” Simpson said. “There tends to be more backlash for what we [women] love to do. So I think with [Swift and Adele] doing this, it kind of just proves women can do anything.”

graphics by Brooklyn Brown