Taylor Swift and "Midnights."

Pop Culture | Emma Okaty and Sara Vankorlaar | August 30th, 2022.

August. This month represents the conflicting and emotional journey that Taylor Swift endured as she released her 8th album, folklore, articulating different impactful and relatable situations that Swift feels deeply connected to. From the consequential and persistent feelings of sneaking around at the disposal of a married man portrayed in “illicit affairs” to the inevitability of individualized neglect in the context of ending a relationship illustrated in “this is me trying,” Swift is successful in gradually giving listeners the ability to better understand complicated perspectives, cope with certain situations, and experience feelings that otherwise would not be reached. Swift has the ability to take the listener along with her through these illustrative yet realistic stories where the listener can gain deeper insight to better understand the world around them. As fans have expressed their intense appreciation for her eloquent and effective style of writing, they have been waiting to discover the current and compelling stories that Taylor is formulating. 

As the folklore era, August, comes to a close, music fans globally streamed into MTV’s Video Music Awards on August 28, 2022. At the annual award show, the reigning Video of the Year award was granted to Swift for her short film “All Too Well”. Swift shared anticipated news for her fans by making an onstage announcement that a new album is currently in the works. This marks her 5th album release in just over 2 years. She later tweeted at midnight, describing her new album as “a journey through terrors and sweet dreams.” Swift’s new album Midnights will be released on October 21st and encapsulates 13 sleepless nights scattered throughout her life. She highlights the effect of time in the context of finding oneself as she tweets “when the clock strikes twelve … we’ll meet ourselves,” and this alludes to the idea that all individuals are figuratively lost and it requires time alone with oneself, often in the middle of the night, to truly identify who they are. 

Fans have been quick to several speculations since the announcement. As Swift has made clear in the past, she considers the number 13 as her lucky number. Midnights has 13 songs and its release date adds up to 13. The album itself is spilt into Side A and Side B with the tracks labeled exactly as “Track Four”, “Track Five”, “Track Twelve”, etc. Fans predict that the tracklists will remain named vaguely, similar to Swift’s choice to title folklore and evermore without capitalization. In addition to theories regarding the album’s title and tracklist, some fans suggest that the release date purposely coincides with Kim Kardashian’s birthday and the premiere release of My Policeman, a movie with Harry Styles. Swift’s outfit at the MTV awards also resembles her dress at the VMA’s in 2009, demonstrating how she is truly pursuing her unique individuality and creativity. Fans are beyond thrilled and eager to experience and unlock new emotions with this new album on October 21st, at midnight.