Midnights Album Review

Taylor Swift’s 10th studio album, Midnights, has been playing throughout the halls of Northwest High School like crazy since its release on October 21, 2022. 

Since the artist released her debut album in 2006, people have been obsessed with her. She started with country songs on her debut album, but over the years, she has morphed her attention to pop too, most recently, indie-folk songs. Since her two most recent albums,  folklore and evermore, have more of an indie sound to them, Midnights was a total pivot. 

Swift continues to evolve with the music industry and has taken over with the Midnights album. Midnights has topped the charts since its release. 10 of the album’s songs filled the top 10 spots on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and the album is continuing to break records constantly. 

The majority of Northwest high schoolers have positive feedback about the album. Midnights combined sounds from three of Swift’s albums, 1989, Reputation and Lover. “This album encompasses a lot of her different albums together,” junior Paige Olson explained. “It’s really cool to see all of her styles merging together and she came out and made a whole different sound for the what? 10th time?” Olson added. 

Since Taylor Swift’s rise to fame came about at the same time that Gen Z was growing up, her versatile music has reached the ears of most Northwest high schoolers, no matter what their favorite genre of music is. Junior Avari Baldwin explained, “She has kind of grown up in the industry and she released her first album at 15, so over half of her life has been spent [making music].” Since Swift has jumped from genre to genre, her music has catered to so many people with different music tastes. This is one of the reasons that is believed to have made Taylor Swift so incredibly popular. “It’s hard for people not to be obsessed with her when she has so much different music and so many different experiences that go into her music,” Baldwin added. 

Not only did Taylor Swift release the Midnights album at 12 AM, but three hours after the initial album was released, she released Midnights (3 AM version). It consists of 7 additional songs to the original 13 on the Midnights album. These 7 tracks are much more depressing and mysterious. Many of the hardships from Swift’s life have been encapsulated in the 3 AM version. This captivating addition to the original album engaged many in the early hours of the morning. Sophomore Lola Vogelaar explained, “Of course, I was up at 3 AM, I gotta stay up for that super chaotic surprise.” 

Another reason thought to be why Taylor Swift gets so much engagement is her openness about her beliefs. “I think she’s very outspoken about her beliefs and I feel like our generation is very outspoken with our beliefs, so I feel like we find relation in that,” Vogelaar said. “I feel like our generation wants celebrities and people with power to use their voice to speak up, and she speaks on feminism, women’s rights, abortions, voting, etc,” Vogelaar stated. 

Taylor Swift’s popularity has grown immensely throughout the past 16 years. Midnights has ensured that her music career will continue to flourish for many years to come. 

“Stream Midnights!” Vogelaar added.