By Alex Alonso
[Dear Reader: I first need to apologize for never being able to act normal about Taylor Alison Swift, regardless I hope you enjoy reading this.]
Though many thought the days of Taylor Swift dominating the charts were over after the 1989 era, Swift’s latest release, Midnights, is a triumphant return to pop. On its release day, it broke the Spotify record for the most streamed album in a single day. A week after its release, Swift broke another record. She had claimed the entire Billboard Top 10 with tracks from Midnights. Even her own fans were in shock by the album’s success. But what made Midnights, the tenth album in Swift’s career, so successful? I speculate that it is the long-awaited acceptance of the duality of Taylor Swift [At this point, I just need you to trust the process].
Since the release of Lover in 2019, Swift took a step back from pop music, focusing instead with the more experimental sounds of Folklore and Evermore during the COVID-19 pandemic. These two albums were entirely unplanned, but I believe they are why the general public now views her as a “serious” artist. Her previous release, Lover, was plagued with discussions about how she had peaked in her career with 1989. Her pop sound was now too commercial and almost childish to the average listener. With Folklore and Evermore, Swift instead turned towards a more indie folk sound, inspired by feelings of isolation during the pandemic. The lighter production allowed her to make her songwriting abilities the main focus. If one were to ignore these two outliers in Swift’s discography, Midnights is the next natural progression in her pop style. Sonically, it takes inspiration from her most pop-driven works: 1989, Reputation, and Lover. Midnights, at least from my perspective, seems to undermine what gripes people had with Swift’s previous pop albums. Her sound has finally matured in their eyes. The lyrics, which would have been viewed as amateur before, are now being seen through a different lens, or from the persona of “Taylor Swift, The Artist.”
Before we begin, the idea that Swift’s music is from the point of view of this elevated persona has always been controversial, even within her own fan base. The general public’s perspective was that Swift’s personal life directly mirrored her music. Swift herself claims that her music is personal; she tells her life’s story through music. I still believe this to be true. Songs such as “Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve” and “Soon You’ll Get Better” can only be viewed as “Taylor Swift, The Person” lifting the curtain and revealing her raw emotions. That being said, I do not believe that all of her music is from this perspective. Some of her music is instead told from the public’s viewpoint of Swift, or “Taylor Swift, The Artist.” A well-accepted example is Swift’s album Reputation, which showcases songs from both her true self and the public’s view of her post-SnakeGate. SnakeGate refers to Swift’s scandal with Kim Kardashian and Kanye West in 2016. This led to a widespread public hatred of her and the infamous #TaylorSwiftIsCancelled.
This brings us back to Taylor Swift’s duality. If all of her music is personal and true, then we must interpret it as such. If we interpret all of her work through this lens, a portion of it does not match the “story” her fans claim she has been telling us. Some songs that could not exist without having “Taylor Swift, The Artist” are “Blank Space”, “I Did Something Bad”, “Look What You Made Me Do”, and “Vigilante Shit.”
So what do we do? Call Taylor Swift a liar? No, instead we must accept both as true, which is where the issue lies for many. Swift has said herself that she is a storyteller and that music is her medium of choice. She has weaved these two personalities throughout her music, especially in her later pop-inspired works. In the case of Midnights, the lines between “The Person” and “The Artist” are so blurred it becomes impossible to tell them apart. The music video for Midnight’s “Anti-Hero” even plays off of this concept of Swift’s duality, having a more realistic and at times self-loathing “Swift: The Person” and a more almost villainous but yet glamorous “Swift: The Artist.”
Rather than telling you what perspective I believe Swift is writing from for each song on Midnights, I encourage you to intently listen and make your own theories. (It’s more fun this way. Trust me.) Those who have forced Swift’s music to fit a singular analysis in the past have always walked away disappointed. I hope that you now walk away with a new perspective on Taylor Swift, or at least an openness to a new perspective.
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