August 28th was a big day for many die-hard Taylor Swift fans. As Swift won best Music Video for her short film, All Too Well (Ten Minute Version) (Taylor’s Version) (From the Vault), she went on-stage to accept her award and announced that her “…brand new album comes out October 21st.” She also stated that there would be more details on it at midnight. 

As the clock struck twelve (EST), Swift announced the title of her new album Midnights on her Instagram. In her Instagram post, she shared some information about Midnights and concluded the post by saying, “Midnights, the stories of 13 sleepless nights scattered throughout my life, will be out October 21. Meet me at midnight.” 

For the release of Swift’s new album, she promoted the album by releasing videos on TikTok called “Midnights Mayhem With Me” along with releasing a video of all the plans for release week, and finally she recently went onto “The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon” to talk about her new album and teased a potential tour.

With no single being released, Swift took to her TikTok page to slowly release the titles of each song. On October 7th 2022, swift released the final five episodes of “Midnight’s Mayhem With Me,” all being released an hour apart. In each video, Swift used an old fashioned bingo machine to pick each track. After the track was picked, she announced the title. Some fan favorites include track eleven, “Karma,” track four, “Snow On the Beach” featuring Lana Del Rey, and of course the ever-popular track five, “You’re on Your Own, Kid.” 

On October 16th, about a week before the release of Midnights, Swift posted to her Instagram “Mark your calendars! Meet the Midnights Manifest,” showcasing the schedule for release week. Some highlights include “Special very chaotic surprise” at 3AM EST, “Anti-Hero Music Video Premiere” at 8AM EST, two different talk show appearances, and a second music video on Tuesday the 25th. After the album was released on the 21st, Swift revealed that the “Special very chaotic surprise” was seven bonus tracks. These tracks are called the “3 AM edition” so to no one’s surprise, they were released at 3 AM (EST). In Swift’s own words she says, “ However! There were other songs we wrote on our journey to find that magic 13. I’m calling them 3am tracks,” according to her Instagram post. As Swifties around the world streamed these seven new songs, they quickly became a new essential part of the album. 

On October 24th, Swift made an appearance on the ever famous, “Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.” In this appearance, Swift talked about her new music video that came out later that night, and teased a potential tour. Swift announced that the music video that would come out at midnight (EST) would be for the song “Bejeweled.” She also stated that this music video was made for the fans, and was full of easter eggs. She also stated that when she made this music video she had a PDF file full of all the easter eggs for the video. The Bejeweled music video also features some of Swift’s closest friends, like the Haim sisters. When asked about the tour Swift said, “I think we should do it,” saying that she wants to go on tour again. Later she states that she misses seeing the fans’ reaction to in person singing, and when it’s time, she will do it.    

As the Midnights era has begun, we say goodbye to the “Red (Taylor’s Version)” era and we dive deeper into the pop side of Taylor Swift.