Taylor takes over Google as Swifties decipher new ‘vault’ tracks
Fans of Taylor Swift, dubbed “Swifties” by the masses, swarmed Google on Tuesday when the singer teamed up with the search engine to announce new songs set to drop alongside her upcoming re-recorded album, “1989 (Taylor's Version).”
Each time a user Googled “Taylor Swift,” a graphic would pop up, prompting a user to solve several word puzzles with hints based on significant moments during Swift's original 1989 “era” back in 2014. Fans had a chance to crack 89 puzzles each to reach a total of 33 million solved. Less than 24 hours and a Google glitch later, the vault was opened, and Swift's team released four of the five tracks debuting alongside the re-recorded album.
The *search* was worth the pain, because we got a long list of #1989TaylorsVersionVault Tracks!!!!! ???? pic.twitter.com/Gjs2mBbtyO
— Taylor Nation (@taylornation13) September 20, 2023
This isn’t the first time Swift kept fans guessing at new music. In 2021, Swift’s team used video graphics of an opening vault and a jumble of letters spilling out, hinting at the names of new songs included in the re-recordings of her second and fourth albums, “Fearless” and “Red.”
“1989” is Swift’s fifth studio album and the fourth of six re-releases. In 2019, the singer announced she'd start re-recording her first six albums in an effort to regain their masters after a reported failed deal with her former manager.
These “vault tracks” are songs the singer wrote for the original albums but ultimately didn’t make the cut in the final versions.
"1989 (Taylor's Version)" drops on October 27.