Music

Frenzied Taylor Swift fans share theories and Easter eggs as pop icon announces new album

Taylor Swift announces her 10th studio album Midnights. (Jeff Kravitz/Getty for MTV Paramount)

Taylor Swift announces her 10th studio album, “Midnights”. (Jeff Kravitz/Getty for MTV Paramount

Taylor Swift has announced her new album “Midnights” as she landed the video of the year award the 2022 MTV VMAs.

The global popstar stunned on the MTV red carpet with her glitzy jewel-encrusted dress, and that wasn’t the only surprise she dropped during the evening. 

During her acceptance speech for All Too Well: The Short Film, she said: “I made up my mind that if you were going to be this generous, and give us this… I thought it might be a fun moment to tell you my new album comes out 21 October and I will tell you more at midnight.”

In a midnight post on social media Swift dropped the name of the album, the cover art and the meaning behind the midnight theme.

“We lie awake in love and in fear, in turmoil and in tears. We stare at walls and drink until they speak back. We twist in our self-made cages and pray that we aren’t right this minute – about to make some fateful life-altering mistake.

“This is a collection of music written in the middle of the night, a journey through terrors and sweet dreams. The floors we pace and the demons we face. 

“For all of us who have tossed and turned and decided to keep the lanterns lit and go searching – hoping that just maybe, when the clock strikes 12… we’ll meet ourselves,” she wrote. 

She explained the tracks are “the stories of 13 sleepless nights scatter[ed] throughout [her] life” and ended the message by saying: “Meet me at midnight.”

Unlike the surprise drop of her pandemic albums, folklore and evermore, the forewarning for her 10th studio album has given fans plenty of time to fly into a frenzy, and start putting together the Easter eggs. 

The first keen-eyed fans have spotted that the accompanying videos on her all her songs on Spotify highlight lyrics with the word “night” in them. 

Some are even saying all her albums were leading up to this moment, by referencing the several times “midnight” is mentioned in her songs including “Style”, “The Last Great American Dynasty”, “New Year’s Day” and “Happiness”.

Other fans have pointed out her coordinated VMAs afterparty outfit, which shows a deep blue night sky with silver stars, has marked the heralding in of her “Midnights” era.

While people have already started guessing who she might have worked with on the new album, with Lana Del Ray liking her album announcement post catching people’s attention. 

Of course, it’s not Taylor Swift without some callback to famous poetry, and this time fans have spotted the parallel between “keep the lanterns lit and go searching… we’ll meet ourselves” and Emily Dickinson’s “I am out with lanterns, looking for myself”.
And others have noticed some nifty use of numbers by the singer-songwriter such as announcing the album 13 years after that Kanye incident, and releasing her 10th album in the 10th month.

But mostly, Swifties are just really, really excited.

Announcing a new album was not the only iconic moment for Taylor Swift, as she became the first artist in history to win the video of the year award for a self-directed video, and the only person to win the same award three times.

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