‘Midnights’: The Story of 13 Sleepless Nights
Singer-songwriter Taylor Swift’s tenth album released on Oct. 21 continues to break records
“Midnights” is the tenth studio album by singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, released on Oct. 21.
November 15, 2022
“Midnights” is the tenth studio album by singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, released on Oct. 21. “Midnights” was announced at the 2022 MTV Video Music Awards. This is her first album of 2022, released two years after “Folklore” and “Evermore,” both released in 2020. “Midnights” contains lyrics full of concepts and truth, written and produced by Taylor Swift and her long time collaborator Jack Antonoff.
“Midnights” features the truth of insecurity, anxiety, insomnia, self-confidence, and self-criticism. This album is real for the songwriter as she uses her music to represent her own aspirations and desire for emotional experiences. Swift has described the album in her own words as “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 twelve … we’ll meet ourselves.” Track one “Lavender Haze,” featured on “Midnights,” Swift starts the song with the words “meet me at midnight,” and that is exactly what her fans did. Breaking the record for the biggest second day streams for any album in Spotify history, passing Kanye West’s “Donda” (102.2 Million).
Fortunately for Swift, that’s not the only record she’s broken with the release of “Midnights.” With “Midnights,” Swift has become the first artist in history to claim all top ten spots on the Billboard Hot 100 in a single frame. “Anti-Hero,” track number 3, takes the number one slot on Billboard Hot 100. With 188 chart entries on the US Billboard Hot 100 with nine number ones and 40 Top 10s, Swift is the female artist with the most charted songs in the United States. Billboard’s Hot 100 Top 10 slots have never been a female dominated chart, always featuring male artists in the top. With the release of “Midnights,” this is the first time a male has never been featured in the Top 10 slots.
After just four days, Swift’s “Midnights” has become the biggest streaming week of the year so far, with 357 million official streams (Billboard). On Oct. 21, the album became Spotify’s most streamed album in a single day, and Swift herself broke the record for most streamed artist in a single day in Spotify history (Spotify). Swift broke the all time record for the biggest album released globally in Spatial Audio on Apple Music, according to the streaming service (Apple Music). On Oct. 22, a day after the album was released, it had already reached single largest sales for a vinyl album with a record number of 575,000 units sold.
Internet drama with Kanye West and Kim Kardashian in 2016 led to Swift taking a break from her social media presence. After the VMA surprise, Swift refused to let the buzz of the album die. With the announcement of the release of “Midnights,” Swift’s presence on social media picked up heavily. Leading up to the release, Swift posted behind the scenes looks into the album on TikTok, where she revealed track titles one by one. Suddenly her fans were brought back to 2015, with new posts and interactions daily. After all, Swift is the music industry.
