Swifties worldwide have been overwhelmed with anticipation since Aug. 28 when Taylor Swift announced her 12th studio album, Midnights, at the 2022 VMA’s. This album was released Oct. 21 and the fans reacted with praise.

What’s so special about Taylor Swift? 

As one of the most popular artists in the world, everybody knows Swift. She is an inspiration for millions, as she strives for individuality and promotes self-worth. Senior Aubrey Snavley has been listening to Swift since she was little. “That woman is like a god to me,” Snavley said. “I love her.”

Swifties tend to worship the ground that Swift walks on and have good reason to. “I think that not only is she a very talented musician, but she’s also just a very genuinely good person,” Snavley said. “A lot of other celebrities have phases where they change and alter themselves for popularity reasons, or they change to whatever is popular in society. Taylor Swift has just stayed really true to herself, and although she’s changed throughout the years, it’s been for her own self.”

As a musical icon, Swift is currently the ninth artist of all time in lead streams, with well over 25 trillion streams on her songs across all platforms according to chartmasters.org.“[Swift] is the music industry… she is literally the best solo artist of this generation,”

Senior Sophia Jobe said.

Senior Kat Lansky is another fan and notes Swift’s incredible songwriting skills. “The way that she writes lyrics,” Lansky said. “Like, I don’t even know how to explain it, but her lyrics are just incredible.

She knows how to put in all these little easter eggs and everything else, then we find them all these years later… she’s just a genius. She’s so amazing.”

Leading up to the new album 

“Midnights” is Swift’s first new album in almost a year, and Swifties couldn’t be more excited. Surpassing “Proof” by BTS, “Midnights” is now the second best-selling album of 2022 in the U.S.- and that has only been through pre-order sales.

Starting Sept. 21st, Swift produced a series online called “Midnights Mayhem,” where she revealed one track title at a time, using a Bingo ball hopper to randomly choose a numbered ball each episode, and whatever number she got was the title that she was unveiling that night.

The reaction to each title brought on an entirely new set of theories, and more predictions for what “era” this album would become. Swifties were also over-the-moon to see that one of the songs feature Lana Del Rey, another top artist. Senior Sabrina Girardi is a fan of Del Rey, so she is looking forward to this collab.

“I adore her! I am so excited to see Lana work with somebody else that’s so influential and such a strong feminist icon,” Girardi said.

Swift also released a line of merch for the new album, along with multiple special edition vinyl records, CDs and limited edition signed copies of each. Hopefully, we will see more merch released sometime soon.

The Release of “Midnights” 

Within seconds after the clock struck 12:00, hundreds of thousands of Swifties across the world were ready to stream the album, but Spotify crashed almost immediately after the release (being that so many people were on there at once). Once it got back up and running, within less than 24 hours, “Midnights” became the most-streamed album in a single day in Spotify history. Debuting with over 184 million streams, this album is a chart-topper and each track currently occupies the first 13 spots in Spotify’s top global songs.

One of the tracks that fans are proving to love, is number 11, “Karma.” This is just the kind of song that you want to learn all the lyrics to and scream at the top of your lungs when driving your car. “Karma is my boyfriend, Karma is a god. Karma is the breeze in my hair on the weekend, aren’t you envious that for you it’s not? Sweet like honey, Karma is a cat purring in my lap ‘cause it loves me.” The catchy chorus bounces off your chest and sends jolts of electricity through your body with each listen.

Another one of the most popular tracks is the third, “Anti-Hero.” This song beautifully encompasses Swift’s struggle with different insecurities that she has been facing throughout her life. Each line tells a story of its own, and it leaves you not only wanting to engulf Swift in a big hug but also reevaluate your self-worth, to remember that (as Swift has said it best): “the moment that you realize that you are not the opinion of somebody who doesn’t know you or care about you, that moment, that is your cleaning”.

Along with this, at 3:00 a.m. the night of the release, Swift surprise released seven more songs called the “3 a.m. tracks,” which are included in the deluxe edition of “Midnights.” These other songs have only sent fans more into a frenzy of excitement and pure joy to simply be alive at the same time as Taylor Swift.

Overall, Swiftie or not, this album has been an absolute success, and only gets better with each listen. Swift has yet again changed the face of the music industry, and we are only standing by waiting for her to do it time and time again. #StreamMidnights