98 Degrees Says Taylor Swift Inspired Them to Rerecord Their Masters

Pop group 98 Degrees is crediting Taylor Swift as the one who inspired them to rerecord their masters.

The boy band, comprised of Jeff Timmons, Nick Lachey, Drew Lachey, and Justin Jeffre, recently told E! News that they have been in the studio working on a new project after their tour wrapped.

“We’re gonna rerecord five of our classic hits in kind of the rerecord/get-your-masters-back move,” Nick said. “And then we’re also gonna have five new songs as well, and a new single coming out at the top of the year.”

Jeff noted that the group has been talking about doing it for some time because “there have been opportunities for our songs. And you know, you have these battles with the label.” But it was the global pop star who actually pushed them to make the jump.

“We thought it’d be natural for us to do this, you know, sort of rerecording of our masters,” Jeff added. “Taylor Swift sort of brought it to the forefront. The fans have embraced that. And so we’re like, ‘OK, now’s the time to do it.'”

Swift made headlines in 2019 when she announced that she would rerecord earlier versions of her songbook to own her masters after Scooter Braun acquired Big Machine Records and her catalog of master recordings. Since then, she has released three rerecorded albums so far, including Fearless (Taylor’s Version), Red (Taylor’s Version) and Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), with her fourth, 1989 (Taylor’s Version), dropping Oct. 27.

“I feel like, almost before Taylor did it, it was like, ‘Oh, you’re rerecording the masters,'” Drew said. “It was kind of like, ‘I’ll just stick with the original’ kind of thing. When she did it and she was like, ‘No, this is my music. I want to take ownership of it again,’ people were like, ‘Yeah Taylor!’ Now, everybody’s like, ‘I want to rerecord my masters and get it back out there.’ So, I feel like there’s an acceptance and almost an alliance between the artists and the fans now to support the rerecorded masters.”

98 Degrees, who released their debut album, 98 Degrees, in 1997, amassed great success in the music industry in the late ’90s and early 2000s. But they ended up going on a hiatus in 2003 before later reuniting in 2012.