By: Espe Marchant Valenzuela
Taylor Swift is a very known pop star among youth and has shaped popular culture with her songs this past decade of her musical career. Her interactions with fans, games, and easter eggs hidden between the lyrics of her songs have become Taylor’s signature and make her stand out in the music industry. For Swift’s new album, “Midnights”, she worked to make the now iconic “Midnight Mayhem With Me” short video series, a medium she used to announce the names of the thirteen tracks of the album, one at a time.
Going back to the announcement post of the album, shared on August 29 on Instagram, Swift stated that it consisted of the “stories of 13 sleepless nights scattered throughout [her] life,” “written at the middle of the night,” hence the name of the album.
The evening of October 20, Swifties from all over the world eagerly waited for her new album to drop. As the clock struck midnight, fans played the album for the first time, not knowing what to expect. Precisely three hours later, Swift communicated through an Instagram post that there are seven bonus tracks added to the original thirteen.
Twenty-four hours after its release, the singer/songwriter had already broken two Spotify records, as the streaming platform stated on “For the Record” on Saturday, October 22. The excitement of the fans clearly translated onto Taylor Swift’s and the album’s chart appearance, making her the most-streamed artist in a single day and making the new release the most-streamed album in a single day in Spotify history.
Fans have made it clear across media platforms that their favourite tracks are “Lavender Haze,” “Karma,” and “Anti-Hero,” the last one being mostly known because of the #AntiHeroChallenge. If you haven’t listened to the album, we highly recommend you give it a shot. If you have, feel free to share your favourite tracks in the comments!
Works Cited
For the Record. “Taylor Swift Breaks Two Records with “Midnights”, Becoming the Most-Streamed Artist on Spotify.” Spotify, 22 Oct. 2022, newsroom.spotify.com/2022-10-22/taylor-swift-breaks-two-records-with-midnights-becoming-the-most-streamed-artist-on-spotify/. Accessed 24 Oct. 2022.
Rinaldi, Eva. “Taylor Swift Speak Now Tour Hots Sydney, Australia.” Wikimedia Commons, 9 Mar. 2012, commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Taylor_Swift_(6966830273).jpg. Accessed 24 Oct. 2022.
“Taylor Swift on Instagram: “Midnights, the Stories of 13 Sleepless Nights Scattered throughout My Life, Will Be out October 21. Meet Me at Midnight.”” Instagram, 29 Aug. 2022, http://www.instagram.com/p/Ch1Ed_Su6Qw/. Accessed 24 Oct. 2022.
“Taylor Swift on Instagram: “Surprise! I Think of Midnights as a Complete Concept Album, with Those 13 Songs Forming a Full Picture of the Intensities of That Mystifying, Mad Hour. However! There Were Other Songs We Wrote on Our Journey to Find That Magic 13. I’m Calling Them 3am Tracks. Lately I’ve Been Loving the Feeling of Sharing More of Our Creative Process with You, like We Do with from the Vault Tracks. So It’s 3am and I’m Giving Them to You Now. “.” Instagram, 21 Oct. 2022, http://www.instagram.com/p/Cj93WAAuMg3/. Accessed 25 Oct. 2022.
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