By Lilyen McCarthy
Taylor Swift fans, better known as “Swifties,” took over all social media spaces after Swift’s announcement of her tenth studio album, “Midnights,” during the 2022 MTV Video Music Awards. All Swifties have grown with Swift through her eras of music, and Midnights added a tenth era for the artist, not including the two re-recordings she has done. The newest album was announced as a concept album, each song themed around one of the “13 sleepless nights” Swift has had throughout her life.
I have been an avid Taylor Swift fan since I was in sixth grade. This was in 2014, the year her album “1989” was released. Before college, it was among my favorite albums, including “Fearless” and “Speak Now.” Since then my interests shifted to “Reputation” and “Lover and Red (Taylor’s Version).” Any Swiftie understands that my most recent top three favorite albums explain my obsession for the new “Midnights” album.
Along with millions of Swifties around the world, I stayed up until midnight on October 21 to stream “Midnights” as soon as Swift released it. As much as I tried not to form an opinion after one listen, I sat there in bed falling in love with the album as each song played. “Lavender Haze” was very similar to the upbeat, fun feeling from Swift’s “Lover” album, while “Vigilante S***” brought more of the serious and powerful energy seen in the “Reputation” album.
After the notification from Spotify that I was in the top one percent of streamers for “Midnights,” I listened through the album enough times to decide on my favorite songs, and the songs I considered “skips.” My favorite songs from this album are “Vigilante S***,” “Lavender Haze” and “Maroon,” and the sounds of each of the songs are similar to the sounds of each of my favorite albums. The only song I might consider a skip is “Midnight Rain” simply because I do not enjoy the audio distortion done to certain lyrics. I, along with many other fans, was underwhelmed with “Snow on the Beach,” which was supposed to feature Lana Del Ray but seemed less like a feature and more of a background singer.
“Midnights” as a new era for Taylor Swift would add a very sound and beat-driven type of music to her discography. Her previous music has seen country, pop, indie/alternative and hints of a few other genres. The new album brought Swift back to pop after her alternative run in her albums, “Folklore” and “evermore.” Each song in “Midnights” has a distinct and different sound, bringing in unique audios and sound effects. Swift experiments with a sound similar to R&B music in a couple songs, which I thoroughly enjoyed despite not being a huge fan of other similar music.
The album saw huge success, breaking various records in the Billboard Hot 100 and other charts. Swift is the first artist to ever occupy the entire Billboard Hot 100 top ten. She beat Drake in the first album to ever hit so many top-10 songs and the first to sell more than one million copies in a single week since her own album “Reputation.” Out of 22 albums in history that have sold one million copies in a week, she has five of them, including her latest. This list of accomplishments doesn’t even put a dent in the amount of accolades “Midnights” earned in just its first week.
Now Swifties await award shows and her newly announced “The Eras” tour, which I have already spent four hours in line virtually just to register for the Verified Fans presale on Ticketmaster.
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