I Bet You Think of Taylor on Midnights Like This

Graphic by Tamanna Rahman

by Jules Hasler

On October 21, we met Taylor Swift at midnight for the release of her tenth studio album, Midnights. In a dramatic announcement during her acceptance speech for “Video of the Year” at the 2022 MTV Video Music Awards, Swift described the album as “a collection of sleepless nights” consisting of 13 tracks; however, three hours after the release of the album, Swift dropped an additional seven bonus tracks she titled the 3am Version. Already the fastest selling album of the decade, Midnights had the biggest first week of sales this decade, and, surpassing Harry Styles’ 2022 album Harry’s House, it is the best selling album of the year by pure sales. Both of these achievements occurred just one day after its release, and the album is on track to be in competition with 1989 for Swift’s biggest album debut in the United States.

Swift made no exception to her long history of interacting with fans via social media during the process of releasing this album. Keeping us all on our toes, Swift would post on TikTok on random midnights to reveal track titles in a series she called “Midnights Mayhem with Me.” The series included Swift announcing the title through a land-line phone after randomly selecting what track to unveil via a bingo cage, and each post was crafted with its own set of cryptic messages, whether it be a variation in clothing, jewelry, or even position of the phone. These TikToks produced over 74 million views on just 13 posts. She would further explain the message of each song on Instagram Reels and stayed active on Twitter as well throughout the release cycle. Social media promotion of the album wasn’t completely in her hands, however. Various companies like Starbucks, Cinnabon, Auntie Anne’s, and more posted humorous tweets referencing the album. Even the FBI tweeted “Do you have information about a white-collar crime? Report it swiftly to the #FBI at tips.fbi.gov” in reference to the lyric “someone told his white collar crimes to the FBI” from the track titled “Vigilante Shit.”

Because the album is about various “sleepless nights,” it is interesting to notice the progression of sound in relation to the various periods of her life that Swift has written about. Although the track list may jump around in terms of the timeline of the events she is writing about (some reference her late teenagehood, whereas others seem to be inspired by events occurring during the 1989 era), the album has a very cohesive flow in the development of sound. In terms of her own catalog, the new album’s sound could be described as a combination of 1989 (2014), Reputation (2017), and Lover (2019). These albums show a maturation and progression of Swift’s pop sound as the themes of love and growth have developed throughout her career. 1989 marked Swift’s first official pop album. Since then, her progression as a pop artist has seen various stages, with Reputation being much more dark-pop and aggressive than 1989’s synth-pop feel, both in lyrics and in sound. Lover marked a return to synth-pop, incorporating a variety of other styles, as well, though the mood was decidedly less heavy than its predecessor. With a brief departure from the pop sound with Folklore (2020) and Evermore (2020), Swift’s return to the pop world is a sophisticated development in her solidly pop discography.  Working exclusively with producer and long-term colleague Jack Antonoff, the two developed a sound some have called “ahistorical chillout music,” including elements of technological atmospherics, electronic synths, and vocal manipulations similar to those seen in Lorde’s 2017 album Melodrama (also produced by Antonoff).

All 13 main tracks occupied the top spots of the Global Apple Music Chart, with the top three being “Anti-Hero,” “Lavender Haze,” and “Snow on the Beach (feat. Lana Del Rey).” Her collaboration with Del Ray earned the biggest debut for a female collaboration in Spotify history, with the two artists writing about the different feelings of falling in love. Swift describes it as encapsulating a “cataclysmic, fated moment” in a dream-like feeling. This theme is woven throughout the album, appearing in songs like “Sweet Nothing,” written by Swift and William Bowery, the pseudonym of her long-term boyfriend Joe Alwyn who recently began collaborating on Swift’s music under the pseudonym. This juxtaposition of this track with “peace” from Swift’s quarantine album, Folklore, is an interesting aspect to note. In “peace,” Swift writes about the obstacles in a relationship, with lyrics like “I’d give you my sunshine / give you my best / but the rain is always gonna come,” and wonders to her partner: “Would it be enough if I could never give you peace?” Then transitioning to the chorus of “Sweet Nothing,” Swift talks about how her partner has loved her regardless of the background noise, singing: “all that you ever wanted from me was nothing.” This song seems to be a response from Alwyn about the concerns that Swift wrote about in “peace,” and shows the progression of their relationship even in just the past two years.

As much as listening to the progression of Swift and Alwyn’s relationship throughout her past albums has shown a beautiful Love Story, Swift expressed that another inspiration behind the tracks on Midnights was self-loathing. “Anti-Hero” broke the record for biggest opening day in Spotify chart history with 17.39 million streams. The track was accompanied by a music video released the morning after the album, in which Swift described that she had never “delved this far into [her] insecurities in this detail before,” explaining her struggles with her lifestyle and self-image. The music video features Swift being chased by ghosts from her past, including one in her likeness. However, despite the serious undertones, Swift didn’t miss a chance to lure fans with various hints about future plans throughout the video. In one scene, Swift is seen with the famous koi fish guitar she used throughout the Speak Now era, an album she has not yet released a re-recording of. (Swift has been re-releasing new recordings of her old albums in order to get full rights to her entire catalog.) The scene shows Swift destroying the guitar, possibly hinting that the “old” version of that album is gone and “Taylor’s Version” could be coming soon. She also channels an Alice in Wonderland theme in the kitchen scene where she is a giant trying to drink from a tiny bottle of wine, possibly referencing the song “Wonderland” from 1989, another album she has not released her re-recorded version of. This has caused fans to speculate on which re-recording may be  coming next. When Swift initially signed with Big Machine Records in 2004, the company received rights to her future first six albums. After transitioning from Big Machine to Republic Records in 2018, she knew her albums would be sold to someone else; however, she said that “never in [her] worst nightmares did [she] imagine the buyer would be Scooter [Braun].” Described by Swift as “manipulative” and a “bully,” Braun was the manager who orchestrated Kanye West’s pornographic music video for the song, “Famous,” which bashed Swift.  Because her contract with Big Machine allowed her to maintain the publishing rights of her catalog even after leaving the label, Swift was able to re-record her music, this time with Republic Records and solely owned by her. This path resulted in a chance for Swift to truly represent the albums for what she wanted them to be. With new covers, new merchandise, and even “new” songs, Swift and her loyal fans have been able to relive her so-called “eras” all over again. These “new” songs are under the title “From The Vault”; that is to say, Swift has added these songs that were supposed to be on the original album, but were unfortunately left out. This addition has not only given Swift a chance for some new collaborations, but has also lengthened her albums significantly; Fearless (Taylor’s Version) consists of 26 songs and Red (Taylor’s Version) has 30, compared to 19 and 22, respectively. One of these additions included “All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor’s Version),” a song that Swift had shortened to five minutes when releasing the album in 2012 but decided to give us the full, original version of in her version. Furthermore, she wrote and directed her first short film for the song, starring Sadie Sink and Dylan O’Brian, a project that fans are still buzzing about. These are the first two re-recordings she has released, leaving four more.

What does this struggle for ownership rights and the way Swift has chosen to handle it mean for the future of the music industry? With these re-recordings, Swift has gained the rights to her masters, which is the ultimate music ownership because it gives the owner the right to release songs for commercial use. Furthermore, the value of the original albums will decrease with Swift’s remaking of her back catalog, and she will be using the new versions for commercial use. She currently turns down the use of the older versions (she still has publishing rights of her whole catalog) because that would give Braun a payout. Many artists are not initially able to own their masters and will later have to buy them back with their own money. Swift’s work in re-recording is groundbreaking because it is causing record companies to question themselves––possibly extending the period in which an artist can re-record their work (currently artists only have to wait five years to do so)––and is also inspiring artists to push for ownership of their work. 

All this hassle and hardship harnessed yet another key theme of the album: revenge. Songs like “Vigilante Shit” and “Karma” seem to speak directly of the aforementioned struggle with the masters. In “Karma,” Swift recognizes how the way she dealt with her past struggles paid off in the future. The chorus, consisting of lines like “karma’s a relaxing thought / aren’t you envious that for you it’s not?” shows her belief in the sentiment that “what goes around comes around.” She seems to be directly speaking to Braun in this song, possibly even purposefully dropping his initials in the lyric “SpiderBoy, king of thieves,” referencing how he stole the right to her music from her. However, following the theme of Reputation that love can be found in the darkness, she writes: “Karma is the guy on the screen coming straight home to me,” yet again referencing how her good karma led her to find Alwyn during those years. 

So what’s next for Taylor Swift? While fans are continuing to solve puzzles, find Easter Eggs, and analyze lyrics, they are also anxiously awaiting a tour announcement. Various sources claim she will hit the stage in the coming year, making it her first tour since the record-breaking Reputation Stadium Tour. Until then, our Masterminds will be busy at work.