Taylor Swift’s New Album Accomplishes Something That Hasn’t Been Done in Five Years
THE TONIGHT SHOW STARRING JIMMY FALLON -- Episode 1549 -- Pictured: (l-r) Singer-songwriter Taylor Swift during an interview with host Jimmy Fallon on Thursday, November 11, 2021 -- (Photo by: Mike Coppola/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images)
Millions stayed up late to be one of the first to check out Taylor Swift’s new album. It was streamed a lot, and it sold a whole bunch of copies. So many copies were sold that she reached a number that she hadn’t reached in half a decade.
“Midnights” is the first album in five years to sell a million in a week. Her last album to accomplish that was 2017’s Taylor Swift’s “Reputation,” but “Midnights” did it in just three days. According to Variety, Luminate reported that the new album “sold 1.2 million album-equivalent units from October 21-23.” They stated that over the weekend, Luminate sold approximately 500,000 LPs which is over half of the album’s total sales.
Meanwhile, Taylor Swift appeared on The Tonight Show Jimmy Fallon a few days after releasing “Midnights.” She talked about her new music video for “Bejeweled.” Taylor directed the video, which includes a talent show, step-sisters, and a stepmother played by Haim and Laura Dern, features “an insane amount” of easter eggs for Swifties to figure out, and has Taylor playing “Cinderella.” Jack Antonoff, Dita Von Teese, and Pat McGrath, among others, are featured in the video, which “shimmers” with diamonds and Taylor’s beautiful looks. As for the Easter Eggs, there are plenty that point to her album, “Speak Now,” which might suggest it will be the next one to be re-recorded.
Taylor also hinted at a “Midnights” tour, saying, “I think I should do it. When it’s time, we’ll do it. I miss it.”
Taylor Swift Fans Make John Mayer Trend Following 'Midnights' Drop
Taylor Swift’s highly-anticipated 10th studio album Midnights dropped today (October 21) and fans have been going wild on social media. Swift surprised fans with seven bonus tracks when she dropped Midnights (3am Edition) at 3 am. They include “The Great War,” “Bigger Than the Whole Sky,” “Paris,” “High Infidelity,” “Glitch” “Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve” and “Dear Reader.” As promised, she released the music video for track 3: “Anti-Hero.” Per her Midnights Manifest schedule, lyric videos to the album will be released at 8 pm ET Friday.
Directed by Swift herself, the award-winning singer-songwriter dropped Easter eggs and cinematic parallels throughout the whole video, calling back to previous eras. Here’s a thread pointing out all of those hidden details from the mastermind herself. As always, Swift took to Instagram to debut some behind-the-scenes pictures from the “Anti-Hero” music video shoot. The singer introduced the video by writing, “Watch my nightmare scenarios and intrusive thoughts play out in real time.”
Watch the “Anti-Hero” music video below.
Swift wrote of her bonus tracks, “Surprise! I think of Midnights as a complete concept album, with those 13 songs forming a full picture of the intensities of that mystifying, mad hour. However! There were other songs we wrote on our journey to find that magic 13. I’m calling them 3am tracks. Lately I’ve been loving the feeling of sharing more of our creative process with you, like we do with From The Vault tracks. So it’s 3am and I’m giving them to you now.”
One of the bonus tracks in particular was noticed by Swifties as being a dig at Taylor’s ex-boyfriend John Mayer. She already wrote “Dear John” about him on her Speak Now (2010) album. The two dated briefly between 2009 and 2010, when she was 19 and he was 32. Now, track 19, titled “Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve” seemingly calls out Mayer once more, firing up Swifties once again. The song’s chorus features lyrics: “I damn sure never would’ve danced with the devil / At nineteen / And the God’s honest truth is that the pain was heaven / And now that I’m grown, I’m scared of ghosts / Memories feel like weapons.” Following that, Swift’s lyrics are: “If you never touched me, I would’ve / Gone along with the righteous.”
“Taylor really put Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve, a song directly about her relationship with John Mayer when she was just 19, as TRACK 19 ON THE ALBUM. SHOTS WERE FIRED,” wrote one person on Twitter. “john mayer was sleeping peacefully but was awoken at 3am with a chill down his spine” wrote another. “something tells me john mayer just jumped out of his sleep with a gasp. i know he felt a shift,” wrote one person. Another found it amusing that Mayer was called out, writing, “i cant stop laughing taylor really said actually i don’t want to wait for speak now taylors version to be released to drag john mayer i need him to suffer NOW.”
Check out the songs from Midnights below:
Joel Katz is the Morning Show Personality, Assistant Program Director, Podcast Host, Voiceover artist, audio producer, and Digital Content Writer for Magic 98.3. Joel has been working in New Jersey radio since college and started at Magic in 2002 as the Morning Show Host, “I can’t think of another place where I’d fit more perfectly; it’s just a great company with awesome people.” Joel is married to Kathleen, his elementary school sweetheart (they were each other’s first dates at age 9), shares a birthday with his oldest son, Ty, and has twins, Kiera and Liam. Joel runs at least 3.1 miles every day and enjoys playing basketball, doing laundry, saving his turn signal for when he really needs it, kissing dogs through a fence, using coasters, making that cool noise by rubbing his fingers on balloons, and chasing after ping pong balls on a windy cruise ship.
