Taylor Swift is notorious for giving hints to new music with the aid of social media and music videos. So, when it was announced that she would be releasing a new album at the 2022 VMAs, during her acceptance speech for music video of the year “All Too Well Short Film,” fans immediately started speculating about possible theories.

Swift revealed the album to be titled “Midnights” later that night, specifically at midnight. This led to even more speculation about her 10th studio album. 

“The stories of 13 sleepless nights scattered throughout my life,” Swift said in the instagram post that announced the title of the album. Swift fans immediately took to social media to give their take on what the album might bring. 

Almost a month later, fans were finally enlightened with content from the singer herself when Swift came onto TikTok to introduce her new mini series “Midnight’s Mayhem: With Me.”

“I know that I have a habit of dropping cryptic clues and easter eggs when giving you information about new music, and I am not here to deny that. But I am here to defy that,” Swift said.

In this series she would sit in this chair next to a bingo cage that had 13 numbered balls rolling around as she turned the handle. When one eventually rolled out, she would pick up a vintage phone to share the name of the track that corresponded with the number she drew.

The first video in this series came out Sept. 20 at midnight. This created excitement within the fanbase because Swift has never done anything like this before. Soon fans would stay up every night waiting for another post.

The next one came two nights later, then another one three days after and every two to three nights after that. It was sort of a guessing game at that point. Oct. 7 arrived, midnight came around and nothing happened. It wasn’t until later that night that fans were bombarded with a new episode and a caption: “Tonight we mayhem til the morning!”

Fans everywhere stayed up all night for a total of 5 episodes of her “Midnight’s Mayhem,” bringing an end to Midnight’s Mayhem with all 13 soon to be released tracks revealed.

She hasn’t only used TikTok to give her fans a sneak peak into the making of the album. Swift uploaded a video to instagram explaining the thoughts behind track 3, “Anti-Hero,” which is rumored to be one of the remixed bonus tracks on the album “Midnights.” 

Swift claims this song is her favorite she’s written because of how it dives deep into her own insecurities. 

“This song is a real guided tour throughout all the things I hate about myself,” Swift said.

She posted another video as well, about track one, “Lavender Haze.” The phrase itself, Swift said, actually came to her when she heard it mentioned in an episode of “Mad Men.” After looking it up, it was revealed to her that “Lavender Haze” is actually a phrase from the ’50s used to describe being in love.

Swift talks about how in her relationship with Joe Alwyn, an English actor, she’s had to deal with nasty rumors from tabloids that existed outside of her personal relationship with him.

“This song is sort of about the act of ignoring that stuff to protect the real stuff,” Swift said. 

Her most recent video came out Oct. 12, and it’s all about track four, “Snow On The Beach,” featuring Lana Del Rey. Swift talks about how excited and honored she feels to be able to work with Del Rey on this song, and how she’s ever so grateful for this opportunity.

Swift went on to describe the song as one that describes a moment “when you are falling in love with someone at the same time they’re falling in love with you.”

“In this sort of cataclysmic, fated moment where you realize someone feels exactly the same way that you feel … at the same moment,” Swift said. “Kind of like it would be if you were to see snow falling on a beach.”

The album is rumored to be about loving others as well as yourself. Both things Swift has emphasized the importance of throughout her music career. It is set to come out at midnight on Oct. 21 and fans could not be more excited for it. Until then they’ll just have to wait patiently until another video drops on one of her social media platforms.

[email protected]