Alabama record shop feels the wrath of ‘Swifties’ after ‘1989 (Taylor’s Version)’ release

Russell Baggett, who owns 10,000 Hz – a small, locally owned vinyl record store in Opelika – felt the wrath of “Swifties” late Thursday night as the contingent of Taylor Swift fans anxiously awaited the pop star’s release of “1989 (Taylor’s Version)”.

“Nobody was messaging us saying, ‘I’m going to come to your house and literally kill you’,” Baggett said. “But there were some people who were not very nice about some things. There were some kinda veiled threats.”

The backlash started after Baggett teased a Swift-related surprise on the shop’s Instagram page, leaving Swift’s fans expecting something more than what was to come.

Thursday afternoon’s Instagram post featured pictures of cardboard squares with “Taylor Swift 1989 ‘Taylor’s Version’” and “Super Secret Taylor Swift 1989 ‘Taylor’s Version’” scrawled across them in black permanent marker.

The post’s caption read: “Midnight tonight… also a good time to buy Taylor Swift records, just FYI.”

Last week, some of 10,000 Hz’s distributors hinted that there would be exclusive versions made available to record stores.

The versions – an Aquamarine green- and Rose Garden pink-colored vinyl – were initially available on Swift’s website before being sold out.

“It was a rush job,” Baggett said. “You’ve gotta order them now, more or less. We didn’t have very much time. So we had to put together an order or whatever to get them in the shop.”

The rush job came with strict rules, however.

“You can’t say anything about it,” Baggett said. “Mostly you can’t show the artwork in advance, basically, because they wanted it to be a surprise.”

Hence Baggett getting creative with Thursday’s Instagram post.

Scribbling on cardboard squares to tease albums is something 10,000 Hz has done in the past, Baggett says.

But doing so has never had the effect it did Thursday night, when Swifties took hold of the post and ran with it.

“It was literally just a joke,” Baggett said. “We’re used to posting something on social media and our core people kinda see it and that’s it.”

The Swift Society – a Taylor Swift fan page on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, reposted Baggett’s photo for its more than 539,000 followers to see at 8:20 p.m. Thursday.

As of 12:30 p.m. Friday, the post has 2.7 million views.

By comparison, 10,000 Hz’s Instagram account has 4,003 followers.

Later in the evening is when the messages started rolling in, Baggett said.

“There was a lot of confusion about it, but we literally couldn’t say anything about it,” Baggett said, referring to the rules put in place by Swift’s record label.

Ironically, Baggett and 10,000 Hz planned to stay open from midnight to about 12:40 a.m. to celebrate the release of Black Puma’s “Chronicles of a Diamond” album.

Between being open late in the evening and the suspicions regarding the Swift-related Instagram post, Baggett says he did see his fair share of Swifties late Thursday night and sold about 25 to 30 of Swift’s “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” album.

“It was kinda just a weird coincidence that there happened to be a release by the most famous person on the planet that coincided with this thing,” Baggett said.

But across the globe, the contingency of Swift fans had already been riled up by Thursday night’s cryptic Instagram post.

“There were definitely people who were pretty upset,” Baggett said. “But I’m a 43-year-old man, I wasn’t intimidated.”