On October 21, 2022, Singer/Songwriter Taylor Swift released her tenth studio album, Midnights.
Annunciation of Midnights
Swift announced the release of Midnights at the 2022 MTV Video Music Awards. While accepting an award for Video of the Year, she concluded her speech by revealing the album title and the release date. On the same day, she waited until midnight to reveal one of the tracks on her upcoming album (Track thirteen, “Mastermind”).
Midnights Mayhem
While the days passed and the millions of Swifties anxiously awaited Midnights’ arrival, Swift took to TikTok to continue the mayhem. In a video that the “Anti-Hero” singer posted regarding the upcoming release, she says, “I know I have a habit of dropping cryptic clues and Easter eggs when giving you information about my music, and I’m not here to deny that, but I am here to defy that.” With this, began the 17-day-long TikTok series of Swift bluntly leaking each song track-by-track. Each night, Swifties would tune in to see Swift disclose the name of a lucky track on a vintage telephone after spinning a bingo cage and choosing a lucky number.
The Hints
However, despite Swift’s vow to reduce her “Easter Egg” count to zero, some keen Swifties were able to debunk that statement. Swift was dropping hints the whole time–one even dates as far back as May, where she uses a lyric from a new track named “Labyrinth” (Breathe in, Breathe trough, Breathe deep, Breathe out).
The Release
Finally, the 21st of October finally came, and Midnights was released globally. Aside from her track Anti-Hero, all of the songs had yet to be released and were being listened to for the first time by fans everywhere. Upon the midnight release of her album, however, Swift dropped a surprise additional seven tracks, labeled the “3 am edition,” or a special deluxe edition. Swift received 184.6 million streams within the first 24 hours of the album’s release, breaking records as the most listened-to album in one day on Spotify.
Records Broken
Additionally, Taylor broke records on the Billboard Hot 100. Following her tenth studio album release, a collection of her songs all dominated the top 10. With no other artist in sight, Swift became the first artist to blanket the entire top 10 rankings within the first week of Midnight’s release.
Final Words
Midnights, so far, has been absolutely revolutionary and record-breaking. Taylor proves time and time again that she holds the power to stay winning. For instance, in the words of The New York Times, “Into each pop star life, some outside perspective must intrude, and Swift has long spun gold from that raw material.” Following this, Swift chalks up more record-breaking statistics with a total of 1.578 million equivalent album units earned in the U.S.. This is considered to be the biggest debut sales week for any artist since Adele with her album 25.
