ABSTRACT
This essay considers Taylor Swift’s decision to rerecord her master records – beginning with the acclaimed Fearless and Red – in the larger context of Black musicians’ struggles to own and exploit their copyrights. It develops the concept of postfeminist tactical copyright to interrogate how, despite Swift’s success in reclaiming her intellectual property rights and resisting white patriarchal oppression, her white feminine privilege results in the minimization and erasure of decades of Black intellectual labor, including by Black women. Taking an intersectional approach to reading her situation reveals that she was able to succeed because (1) of the efforts of Black artists that preceded her, (2) the composition/recording distinction enshrined in the Sound Recording Act of 1971, and (3) her postfeminist self-styling as an innocent, wholesome, and resilient but flawed all-American singer-songwriter who is also a skilled entrepreneur. I trace these arguments through the history of sound recording masters, implications of copyright law, and, finally, Swift’s tactical postfeminist performances in a number of contexts, including involving social justice issues.
