You might assume that the October release of 1989 (Taylor's Version) would've made it the most-searched Taylor Swift release in 2023. By the same measure, Speak Now (Taylor's Version), which came out in July, wouldn't have been a surprise at No. 1. However, it's an album lacking a Taylor's Version release that finished atop a thorough search results study by Vegas Gems.
Reputation finished well ahead of second-place 1989 overall and topped search results in all 50 states.
"An accomplice to this result is probably the long-awaited re-recording of [Reputation], which is highly anticipated worldwide," a press release adds.
Of Swift's six albums on Big Machine Records, only her self-titled debut (2006) and Reputation (2017) lacks a Taylor's Version rerecording.
"Swift's re-recordings are a consequence of the infamous 2019 masters dispute that prevented the singer from repurchasing her music from Scooter Braun," the press release explains. "Braun, who acquired her label, Big Machine Labels, subsequently sold the first six records written by Swift to Shamrock Holdings. Because of this, fans have stopped streaming the original version of said albums and waited for the re-recordings to enjoy Swift's music once again."
Per a press release, "The study analyzed 120 keywords around all of Swift's albums, both original and Taylor's Version, to crown one of them as her most searched in the United States."
The Top 5 includes the two most recent albums to get the Taylor's Version treatment (1989 (No. 2) and Speak Now (No. 5)) plus two albums completely under Swift's ownership: 2019's Lover (No. 3) and 2020's Midnights (No. 4).
"Twenty twenty-three has been proved time and time again to have been Taylor Swift's year. From her outstanding 'Eras Tour' attendance to her concert movie, which came out this summer, from being elected Time Magazine's 'Person of the Year' to her new and highly talked about relationship with Kansas City Chiefs Travis Kelce, Taylor is on top of the world," Josh Lingenfelter, a Vegas Gems spokesperson, shared in a press release. "This is also confirmed by the great numbers reported by this data, which sees hundreds of thousands of Americans googling her albums, as well as listening to them on all streaming platforms: regardless of where you go looking, the 34-year-old will find a way to steal everyone's attention and break some records."
