Swiftie Theories About Taylor Swift’s Upcoming Album, ‘Midnights’!

While we impatiently wait for Taylor swifts new album Midnights, which was announced at the 2022 MTV VMAs, we’ve collected some of the internet’s most popular theories about what we can expect!

Swifties love to theorize, and Taylor Swift loves to leave strategically planted Easter eggs for her fans to find all over the Internet. Ever since Taylor Swift’s iconic 2022 MTV VMA announcement of her new album, Midnights, Swifties have been buzzing with theories and searching for clues as to what the album is about, what the songs may be titled, and what this means for Taylor and her career. Here’s the consensus so far!

Taylor has been dropping hints about Midnights for months, and has been planning this album years in advance!

Taylor has been dropping hints about Midnights on social media since May 2022 when she posted the trailer for The Summer I Turned Pretty on her Instagram account. The caption reads: “This Love (Taylor’s Version) comes out tonight at m i d n i g h t!” Her writing partner on “Carolina” for Where The Crawdads Sing, Aaron Dessner, posted on his Instagram story his excitement for the song dropping “at midnight” before tagging Taylor with ten exclamation marks–a hint to her tenth album perhaps? Taylor’s also been dropping merchandise for Folklore, Evermore, and her re-released albums, including items with a mysterious blue aesthetic mirroring that of the Midnights album cover. Is it possible she’s been telling us of her plans for this long?

@mrperfectlyfine13 Taylor was giving us signs and some of you still had the audacity to bully theorists who were just having some fun #SwiftTok #taylorswift #swiftie #TS10 #TSmidnighTS ib: @eatlocalcword ♬ original sound – Anna

Well, it’s possible it may have been even longer. Taylor is known to plan her albums out years in advance, concepts for future albums forming during the process of writing another album. Taylor has gone on record on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon that she has been trying to hint at things “three years in advance.” What happened three years in advance of Midnights announcement? Her seventh album, Lover, where she includes a song called “Daylight,” including lyrics such as “I’ve been sleeping so long in a twenty-year dark night.” Is it possible she’s been hinting at this Midnights concept since 2019? This brings us to our next theory…

@pixelamezzie YOU ARE MAD but i love it and im so excited @Taylor Swift #taylorswift #swifttok #lover #daylight #midnights #ts10 #meetmeatmidnight ♬ Daylight – Taylor Swift

Midnights is the sister album to Lover.

In August 2019, Taylor told Entertainment Weekly that Lover was originally going to be called Daylight. Can that be a coincidence? With Taylor, it’s hard to tell. With this information, Swifties theorize that the themes explored in Lover, such as the feeling of feeling light and in love, will be parallel to themes explored in Midnights, which has a darker, more chaotic aesthetic.

Taylor even introduced the album’s concept on Instagram with, “We lie awake in love and in fear, in turmoil and in tears.” Is the blatant reference to love, and the potential link to Lover, something Taylor left behind for us to decode?

Taylor’s music videos are hardly safe from Easter eggs, and often contain the most evidence of Taylor’s methodical pre-planning. In her “ME! (feat. Brendon Urie of Panic! At The Disco)” music video, old-school rotary phones appear sporadically throughout the video. One sits beside her while she argues with Brendon, and another one soars through the air on a cloud. And what appears on the Blood Moon special edition cover of Midnights? Taylor holding a rotary phone. Is this further evidence of her linking Lover to Midnights? Or perhaps…

The different versions of the album may indicate lyrics.

During her Folklore era, when Taylor released different special edition versions of the album she named them after different lyrics featured in the songs. She had the “in the trees” edition and an “in the weeds” edition, both titles being lyrics from “seven,” as well as editions “meet be behind the mall” and “betty’s garden,” referencing “august” and “betty” respectively. Does this mean that Moonstone, Blood Moon, Jade, and Mahogany are all references to lyrics from Midnights?

Taylor’s VMA dress reveals her intentions about the album.

At the 2022 MTV VMAs, Taylor Swift wore a bedazzled, crystalline mini-dress that was reminiscent of her “Look What You Made Me Do” music video, where she sits in a bathtub full of diamonds. That song is about taking back what’s hers and reclaiming the narrative. Swifties theorize that perhaps her choice of outfit for the VMAs is a message about her intentions for Midnights. If Midnights does juxtapose Lover, it could be delving into darker themes than just love, like vengeance and feeling wronged by someone.

Midnights is being produced by a woman!

It is always amazing to see better representation of women in the industry, and this theory indicates that Midnights may be produced by rock producer Catherine Marks. Swifties clocked that Catherine recently followed Taylor Swift, Taylor Nation, her romantic and songwriting partner, Joe Alwyn, and her long-time collaborators, Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner. Her Instagram is also suspect, as she’s recently been posting Polaroid pictures on her feed–a staple of Taylor’s aesthetic since her 1989 era. Could Catherine and Taylor be working together to create an all-female produced album?

Midnights marks the end of an era for Taylor.

Finally, we reach the final theory that has Swifties excited for the future of Taylor’s career. Taylor’s music video for “Lover” features what is popularly referenced as “The Lover House,” which is a large, four story house where the music video takes place. All of the nine rooms have different color themes, which Swifities have attributed to being references to Taylor’s nine different albums. The green room is for her self-titled album, the purple room for Speak Now, the red room for Red, the yellow room for Fearless, and so on. But now that the Lover House is complete, what’s left? Well, surrounding the Lover House is a beautiful night sky–a midnight sky.

Swifties believe that if Lover was indeed dropping hints about Midnights, this is Taylor telling her fans that this era of her music journey is over. The fact that the sky is outside the house, free of the house’s bindings, perhaps this is Taylor saying she’s moving on from those past nine eras, but encapsulating them into her future work as she moves on to something new. Midnights could very well be the first sign that Taylor’s music will be evolving once again, and fans are excited to see what new surprises Taylor has in store for them with future releases.

@thethriftyswiftie Replying to @TheThriftySwiftie @Taylor Swift #swifttok #taylorswift #midnights #midnightstaylorswift #tsmidnights #midnightstaylorswift #midnight #meetmeatmidnight #iwantyourmidnights #midnight #midnightsnack #loverhouse #lovertaylorswift #taylorswiftlover ♬ original sound – TheThriftySwiftie