Taylor Swift’s fans are overjoyed whenever she has new music coming out but the pop star fears they will hear her new albums too soon.
Ever since Taylor Swift became a superstar, there has been a lot of focus on her personal life. However, for many of Swift’s fans who love how she writes songs and how quotable her lyrics are, it is Swift’s music that matters by far the most.
Since Swift has released so many hit songs, there is always a lot of excitement when she goes on tour or when she has a new album coming out. However, Swift once revealed that she worries a lot before she has new music come out that it will be leaked.
Taylor Swift Fears That Her New Music Will Leak
Just before the release of Taylor Swift’s album “1989” in the mid-2010s, the beloved pop star went on a British talk show. During Swift’s appearance on Alan Carr: Chatty Man, she revealed how deeply freaked out she was by the possibility that her album would leak prematurely.
During their interview, Carr brought up that guests typically gave him their album or movie early, so he could consume it before their interview. After revealing that typically was the case, Carr questioned Swift about why he didn’t get a sneak peek at “1989”.
What are Taylor Swift’s most successful songs, according to Billboard?
Song Title:
Weeks At Number One:
Album:
“Anti-Hero:
8 Weeks
“Blank Space”
7 Weeks
“1989”
“Shake It Off”
4 Weeks
“1989”
“Cruel Summer”
4 Weeks
“Lover”
“We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together”
3 Weeks
“Red”
“Look What You Made Me Do”
3 Weeks
“Reputation”
“Cardigan”
1 Week
“Folklore”
“Is It Over Now? (Taylor’s Version) (From The Vault)”
1 Week
“1989 (Taylor’s Version)”
“All Too Well (Taylor’s Version)”
1 Week
“Red (Taylor’s Version)”
“Willow”
1 Week
“Evermore”
“Bad Blood”
1 Week
“1989”
“Now, you’re back with a new album, ‘1989’, ‘1989’. Normally when a guest comes on, I get, like, the DVD or the CD but I haven’t been allowed to have one. You’re keeping it all under wraps isn’t you? Why won’t you let me have one?”
In response to Carr’s question, Swift seemed like she was trying to get away from that subject quickly. “Because it’s not out yet. It comes out October 27th.” After Swift tried to answer Carr’s question as quickly and simply as she could, the host had a follow-up question for her.
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“Is it true you’re being really secretive about it cause you’re worried about it getting, like, what’s the word, leaked?”
While that is a perfectly reasonable question for a recording artist to be asked in the modern world, Swift didn’t like it. In fact, Swift appeared to have a visceral reaction to even the slight suggestion that her album could be leaked.
“I don’t even want to talk about it. I don’t trust technology. I don’t want to talk about leaks. It freaks me out. I’ll have a meltdown on the show.”
Oftentimes, when people say things like they will freak out over something, they are being dramatic. In this case, however, the video of Carr and Swift’s interview makes it seem like the pop star was being honest. After all, not only was Swift saying that she couldn’t stand the idea, but her body language was communicating that as well.
At first, Carr almost seemed to take offense at Swift’s remarks, as he insisted he would never leak her music. However, Swift put him at rest when she assured him that her worries were not a reflection of her opinion of Carr.
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“No! I’m not thinking about you. But what about stuff that’s recording us all the time?”
To Carr’s great credit as a host, he was able to have Swift laughing along with him seconds later. Carr did this by having a little fun with her music leak paranoia while also mocking himself to put Swift at ease.
Carr began to put Swift at ease by jokingly assuring her that their interview wasn’t being recorded at all. In fact, Carr claimed that the cameras she was looking at were empty, which Swift laughed at.
Celebrity musicians who’ve had their albums leaked ahead of time, according to The Things.
Kendrick Lamar – “To Pimp a Butterfly”
Björk – “Vulnicura
Oasis – “Heathen Chemistry”
Taylor Swift – “1989”
Madonna – “Rebel Heart”
Bon Iver – “Bon Iver”
Radiohead “Hail to the Thief”
Kanye West – “The College Dropout”
From there, it became clear that Carr had planned a pretty hilarious joke about the situation ahead of time. After assuring Swift that he would never copy one of her albums if he got an advanced copy, Carr claimed that he bootlegs DVDs. Taking that joke a step further, Carr then opened up his coat and showed that he had bootleg DVDs stuffed in there he would sell to Swift.
Taylor Swift Went To Extremes To Try And Protect Her 2014 Album “1989”
In 2023, Variety published an article looking back on the lengths Taylor Swift went to so that her album “1989” wouldn’t get leaked. Based on what that article revealed, there is no doubt that Swift was telling the truth when she told Alan Carr she was scared of her album getting leaked.
Graham Norton called out Taylor Swift for the way she once treated her biggest fans and put herself at risk.
One example of that is what Swift did to protect her music during a fan listening party. When twenty fans listened to “1989” in advance at her Los Angeles residence, Swift had heavy metal music blasted outside of her home in an attempt to foil recording devices.
On another occasion, Swift allowed New York journalists to hear “1989” ahead of time, so they could write reviews. However, those journalists had to deal with the myriad of ways Swift was protecting her album at that time.
According to Variety, all the journalists in attendance had to sign airtight NDAs with serious repercussions. On top of that, the journalists could only listen to the album on iPads that were brought into a room they had to wait in. If that wasn’t enough, some reports claimed a security guard was there to physically protect those iPads.
Sadly for Taylor Swift, her attempts to make sure “1989” didn’t leak ahead of time didn’t work. On the somewhat bright side, however, the album leaked mere days before its official release and it was still a mammoth success.
When Swift and her team weren’t giving a select group of people a preview of “1989”, the album reportedly was fiercely protected. According to Variety, Swift’s manager kept the album in a safe in his office.
