Comparing 2 “Fearless” Prologues: Original vs. Taylor’s Version (Full Text)

In Taylor Swift’s debut album, she began the tradition of thank-yous in the liner notes. They were sweet, heartfelt, and sounded like the diary of the teen girl she was.

But by her second album, the “thank yous” section also contained an important addition: a true prologue, giving context to the songs and the album as a whole. 

When she re-recorded Fearless and released Fearless (Taylor’s Version), she also released a new prologue that illuminates this album and era even more clearly. 

Here is Taylor Swift’s original Fearless prologue, side by side with the Fearless (Taylor’s Version) prologue. 

You can read the full original text, then I’ll compare and contrast the two to highlight the major messages, themes, and context you need to know. 

Full Text: Fearless Prologue (Original, 2008) 

Cover image for the full text of Taylor Swift's original Fearless prologue from 2008. Mounted on a chalkboard is the album cover art reads, with text beside it: "The Original Fearless Prologue: Full Text".

Please Note: The original Fearless prologue had no paragraph breaks or spaces. I have added them here, while keeping the all-caps formatting, to make it easier to read. 

“This album is called “FEARLESS,” and I guess l’d like to clarify why we chose that as the title. 

To me, “FEARLESS” is not the absence of fear. It’s not being completely unafraid. 

To me, FEARLESS is having fears. FEARLESS is having doubts. Lots of them. 

To me, FEARLESS is living in spite of those things that scare you to death. 

FEARLESS is falling madly in love again, even though you’ve been hurt before. 

FEARLESS is walking into your freshmen [sic] year of high school at fifteen. 

FEARLESS is getting back up and fighting for what you want over and over again…even though every time you’ve tried before, you’ve lost. 

It’s FEARLESS to have faith that someday things will change. 

FEARLESS is having the courage to say goodbye to someone who only hurts you, even if you can’t breathe without them. 

I think it’s FEARLESS to fall for your best friend, even though he’s in love with someone else. 

And when someone apologizes to you enough times for things they’ll never stop doing, I think it’s FEARLESS to stop believing them. 

It’s FEARLESS to say “you’re NOT sorry”, and walk away. 

I think loving someone despite what people think is FEARLESS. 

I think allowing yourself to cry on the bathroom floor is FEARLESS. Letting go is. Then, moving on and being alright…That’s FEARLESS too. 

But no matter what love throws at you, you have to believe in it. You have to believe in love stories and prince charmings and happily ever after. That’s why I write these songs. Because I think love is FEARLESS. 

THANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOU 

I want to thank my family. Austin, thank you for understanding all of this and never getting frustrated. I love you with all my heart and I’m so proud of you. Mom, you’re my best friend and your laugh keeps me sane. Dad, thank you for your help selling t-shirts and playing the role of “proud dad” 24/7. 

Nathan, my brilliant producer, thank you for your intuition. Thank you for your talent, I’m lucky to have you.

Liz Rose, you’ve never stopped standing by me. 

To my wonderful little record label that has grown quite a bit since the days of no furniture, fresh paint, and 12 employees…Thank you. I’ll never forget the days of sitting on the floor, putting cds into envelopes to send “Tim McGraw” out to radio. 

Scott Borchetta, thank you for believing in me since I was 14 and still trying to straighten my hair. You’re family.

Robert Allen, thank you for all of your hard work on the road and your lovely British accent.

To my promotions team, thank you for all the number one singles! Jayme Austin, Mandy McCormack, Jeff Davis, Erik Powell, Larry Hughes, and Jack Purcell. Also, Andrew Kautz, John Zarling, Allison Jones, Whitney Sutton, and everyone at the Big Machine. 

Thank you to Monte Lipman, Joel Klaiman, and everyone at Universal! 

I love you Emily Evans. Jason Hutcheson, thank you for looking out for me. 

Sandi Spika, thank you for your pretty dresses and glam assistance. 

Lorrie Turk, thank you for your awesome make up [sic] skills and wonderful laugh. 

Paula Erickson, you’re an amazing publicist and anyone would be lucky to be your client. 😉 You’re the best publicist EVER. 

Claudine Ottinger, thanks for all the tour press! Kelly Rich, you’re wonderful. 

Duane Clark, thanks for helping me learn the business end of things. 

Mike Milom, thank you for endlessly combing through my contracts. Crazy lawyers…Troy Tomlinson at Sony/ATV Publishing, you make me happy, Greg Oswald (You’re incredible), Dave Wirchtshafter (You get it done basically you’re awesome), Jason Trawick (You’re hilarious and awesome), and all my friends at William Morris. 

Thank you to country radio. I remember riding in the back of a Taurus on radio tour, and meeting you all for the first time. Look at what you’ve done for me! 

Thank you to CMT, GAC, and MTV. 

Colbie, thank you for lending your angelic voice to this album. It’s an honor to have you as a co-writer and friend. 

Abigail, distance has never held us back and it won’t now that you’re at college. Best friends. That will never change. 

Kellie Pickler, you’re the sister I never had.

To my band, “The Agency”, you are family. Caitlin Evanson, Paul Sidoti, Grant Mickelson, Al Wilson, Amos Heller, Ben Clark…Thank you for dressing up in crazy costumes because you know it makes me laugh. 

Thank you to the people with the hard jobs — My crew and bus drivers. 

But most of all, thank you to the fans. I’m nothing without you. Nothing. I’ll never forget that.

I want to thank you for giving me this life, from the bottom of my heart. With everything I have and everything I am, I thank you. I’m nothing without the people who believed in me and my music enough to go out and buy a copy of the first CD…or the people who bought tickets to see me in concert. So the final thank you goes out to you. 

Fans are the reason I even have a second album coming out. I love you. Thank you for all you do. Endlessly. l’ll always thank you, and I thank God every day for putting you in my life.

And to the boys who inspired this album, you had fair warning. 

FEARLESSLY, LOVELOVELOVE-T-”

-Taylor Swift, Fearless Album Prologue, 2008

Full Text: Fearless Taylor’s Version Prologue: 2021

A chalkboard image displays a poster of Taylor Swift's 2021 Fearless (Taylor's Version), with gold chalk titled: "Fearless TV Prologue: Full Text."

“When I think back on the Fearless album and all that you turned it into, a completely involuntary smile creeps across my face.This was the musical era in which so many inside jokes were created between us, so many hugs exchanged and hands touched, so many unbreakable bonds formed. So before I say anything else, let me just say that it was a real honor to get to be a teenager alongside you. And for those of you l’ve come to know more recently than 2008, I am ecstatic that I get experience a bit of that feeling with you now that I can fully appreciate it in its whimsical, effervescent, chaotic entirety.

Fearless was an album full of magic and curiosity, the bliss and devastation of youth. It was the diary of the adventures and explorations of a teenage girl who was learning tiny lessons with every new crack in the facade of the fairytale ending she’d been shown in the movies. I’m thrilled that my new version of Fearless is with you now. This is Fearless (Taylor’s Version) and it includes 27 songs. 

I’ve spoken a lot about why I’m remaking my first six albums, but the way I’ve chosen to do this will hopefully help illuminate where I’m coming from. Artists should own their own work for so many reasons, but the most screamingly obvious one is that the artist is the only one who really *knows* that body of work. For example, only I know which songs I wrote that almost made the Fearless album. Songs I absolutely adored, but were held back for different reasons (don’t want too many breakup songs,don’t want too many down tempo songs,can’t fit that many songs on a physical CD). 

Those reasons seem unnecessary now. I’ve decided I want you to have the whole story, see the entire vivid picture, and let you into the entire dreamscape that is my Fearless album. That’s why I’ve chosen to include 6 never before released songs on my version of this album. Written when I was between the ages of 16 and 18, these were the ones it killed me to leave behind. 

This process has been more fulfilling and emotional than I could’ve imagined and has made me even more determined to re-record all of my music. I hope you’ll like this first outing as much as I liked traveling back in time to recreate it. 

Sincerely and Fearlessly, 

Taylor “

-Taylor Swift, Fearless (Taylor’s Version) Album Prologue, 2021

Fearless Prologue vs Fearless (Taylor’s Version) Prologue

Both of these prologues give context to the album that follows. But so much has changed in Taylor’s life and career in between these two records, that it’s important to look at what’s changed, and what hasn’t. 

Here are the major themes and references within the prologues, how they illuminate one another, and the central message conveyed in both. 

Explaining the Album Concept: Her First True Prologue 

A chalkboard image displays two Taylor Swift album covers side by side: her debut album, titled with "Debut prologue," and her Fearless prologue also titled as such. Below on the chalkboard, lists describe the contents of each album prologue, and how they differ from one another, displaying how the artist has grown and changed in the 2 years between albums.

Taylor’s first album booklet – Taylor Swift – was simply a long “thank you” to everyone who helped her in her early years. 

In the second album booklet – Fearless – she’s taken it one step further by including her first real “prologue” that introduces the themes and concepts of the album. 

From this album forward, the thank-yous will diminish (though she’ll still include them in other portions of the booklet and in other ways, like on social media and in appearances). The explanations, however, will only grow more complex and personal. 

Here, she lays out what the title and the album mean to her, and it is quite helpful in understanding the overall tone. 

By TTPD, the Taylor Swift album prologue will be much more cryptic and open to interpretation, but this reflects the shift of Taylor’s songwriting style as a whole. 

The “Why” of the Album 

A chalkboard image compares two Taylor Swift album prologues side by side: her original 2008 Fearless album prologue, and her 2021 Fearless (Taylor's Version) prologue. The chalkboard is titled with "The 'Why' of Fearless", with quotes from Taylor written in chalk below explaining what the album meant to her in each publication.

Original Prologue (2008): “You have to believe in love stories and prince charmings and happily ever after. That’s why I write these songs. Because I think love is FEARLESS.” 

In her limited teen worldview, Taylor seems much more optimistic about her place in the world. She’s up for taking chances in love, and Fearlessly believes in fairytales…sort of. 

On this album, Love Story points toward the princess archetype, but tracks like White Horse hint that she already knew that she wouldn’t get the happily ever after she longed for. 

In her youthful naivete, she still tried to believe that it could happen, fearlessly staring celebrity, heartbreak, and the music industry in the face. 

TV Prologue (2021): “It was the diary of the adventures and explorations of a teenage girl who was learning tiny lessons with every new crack in the facade of the fairytale ending she’d been shown in the movies.”

By 2021, Taylor knows the fairytale ending is a lie. Her “castle” will crumble in reputation’s Call it What You Want, and she’ll come to accept her new – but forever altered – place in her pop kingdom in songs like Bejeweled and mirrorball. 

Looking back, she can see her youthful optimism as endearing, and she calls her past fearlessness “adventures and explorations.” 

Though she still ventures on “adventures and explorations” (see folklore and evermore, which are particularly adventurous sonically and lyrically), adult Taylor doesn’t look back at her naivete with regret. It was all a part of the learning process that got her where she is today. 

The Meaning of “Fearless”

A chalkboard image displays two Taylor Swift album covers side by side: her original 2008 Fearless album, and her 2021 Fearless (Taylor's Version). The chalkboard is titled with "The Meaning of 'fearless', with quotes from Taylor written in chalk in her prologues explaining how the album title and significance has changed for her over the years.

Original Prologue (2008): “To me, “FEARLESS” is not the absence of fear. It’s not being completely unafraid. 

To me, FEARLESS is having fears. FEARLESS is having doubts. Lots of them. 

To me, FEARLESS is living in spite of those things that scare you to death.” 

What she’s describing here is “bravery” and “courage”, but she uses “fearless” to kind of lump these emotions into one catch-all term. This is the central theme of the album, which she portrays in different ways in each track.

She describes “fearless” optimistically, encouraging herself and her audience to persevere. 

TV Prologue (2021): “Fearless was an album full of magic and curiosity, the bliss and devastation of youth.”

Looking back, she can see that she was simply naive for being so damn optimistic. She almost wishes she could be that naive again, labeling it “bliss” (as in, ‘ignorance is bliss’). 

But this was the album that really, really started her career – and won her her first Grammy – so now, she can look back at it through the lens of “magic and curiosity” instead of ‘boy, was I naive.’ 

Her Relationship With Her Fans

A chalkboard image compares two Taylor Swift album prologues side by side: her original 2008 Fearless album prologue, and her 2021 Fearless (Taylor's Version) prologue. The chalkboard is titled with "Thanking her fans", with quotes from Taylor written in chalk explaining how the support of her fans has evolved over the years.

Original Prologue (2008): “Fans are the reason I even have a second album coming out. I love you. Thank you for all you do. Endlessly. l’ll always thank you, and I thank God every day for putting you in my life.”

In her debut prologue and here, Taylor makes sure that we know how important we are to her. She’s incredibly grateful, and always has been. 

TV Prologue (2021): “When I think back on the Fearless album and all that you turned it into, a completely involuntary smile creeps across my face.This was the musical era in which so many inside jokes were created between us, so many hugs exchanged and hands touched, so many unbreakable bonds formed. So before I say anything else, let me just say that it was a real honor to get to be a teenager alongside you.”

In the Taylor’s Version prologue, she expands on what this era meant to her and her fanbase. In hindsight, she can see the significance of this album in propelling her career and the Swiftie fandom forward, and she’s still incredibly grateful for it. 

“It was a real honor to get to be a teenager alongside you” means that she looks back at this era feeling blessed that she got to experience it. She’s also no longer a teenager, so she can see how far she’s come, and how far we’ve come. 

Her Label, Manager, and Artistry 

A chalkboard image compares two Taylor Swift album prologues side by side: her original 2008 Fearless album prologue, and her 2021 Fearless (Taylor's Version) prologue. The chalkboard is titled with "(Former) Management and her Art", with quotes from Taylor written in chalk explaining her 2008 love for her manager and label, and her 2021 motivations for re-recording this record in order to own her art.

Original Prologue (2008): “To my wonderful little record label that has grown quite a bit since the days of no furniture, fresh paint, and 12 employees…Thank you. I’ll never forget the days of sitting on the floor, putting cds into envelopes to send “Tim McGraw” out to radio. Scott Borchetta, thank you for believing in me since I was 14 and still trying to straighten my hair. You’re family.”

In 2008, at age 19, she looked at her label with a sense of accomplishment, and it’s important to note that she’s the reason her label had grown “quite a bit.” She was their only initial client, and the reason Big Machine Records skyrocketed into the stratosphere alongside her career. 

As for Scott Borchetta, this is the first time we see him referred to as “family,” which will make what is to come all the more heartbreaking. 

As in the debut prologue, Taylor also thanks Borchetta’s wife Sandi Spika for her help, which further paints this relationship as close and familial. 

Looking back now, this foreshadows a huge heartbreak, and makes it all the more devastating to look back on Taylor’s teenage feelings for her manager and partner.

TV Prologue (2021): “Artists should own their own work for so many reasons, but the most screamingly obvious one is that the artist is the only one who really *knows* that body of work.”

In 2019, Taylor would leave Big Machine, the label that built her and the label she built. Scott Borchetta then sold the label – and her master recordings – to a holdings company owned by industry bully (and Kanye’s manager) Scooter Braun. This is what Swifties refer to as “the Masters Heist.”

Here, Taylor addresses what it’s like to not own her music, and part of her motivation for beginning her re-recording process with Fearless TV. She explains how counterintuitive it is for a stranger to own her art, as she’s the only one who really knows what it means. 

She doesn’t address Borchetta directly – though she does sort of indirectly in my tears ricochet and in other arenas. What we can glean from this updated prologue about the Borchetta of it all, however, is the heartbreak she felt. She created art, put it out into the world, and then had it taken from her, as if she never even mattered as the artist at all.

Most devastatingly, it was someone she thought of as family, whom she built her career alongside and made millions upon millions of dollars for, who sold her work out from under her.

The person she thanked in the original Fearless prologue will be the one to blame for the second prologue’s necessity, and its very existence. 

She goes on to say, “This process has been more fulfilling and emotional than I could’ve imagined and has made me even more determined to re-record all of my music.” This portion is crucial, as it shows that she’s not mired in heartbreak. 

She takes this re-recording process and uses it to further explore her emotional life, examine her past career moments, and uses it to propel herself forward. 

The re-records will be what pushes Taylor into the furthest reaches of the music industry stratosphere, and what she’s saying here to Borchetta is essentially, “there wouldn’t be this if there hadn’t been you.” 

The Fearless Prologue: Final Thoughts 

What’s most interesting to me when comparing these prologues side by side is Taylor’s emotional growth. The first is mired in the optimism of youth, and the second reclaims that optimism in her adult years. 

The first prologue fills us in on what Fearless meant to her at the time, and the updated version tells us what it meant to her to relive those moments all over again. 

Though there was a lot of growth, heartbreak, and betrayal in between, she’s not lost in the devastation. She uses it to propel her forward, and to become an artist that industry suits like Borchetta and Braun could never even hope to contain. 

⭐️ How well do you know Fearless? Take the Fearless TV Lyrics Quiz ⭐️

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