The clock struck midnight and everywhere “Swifts” tuned in to Spotify to hear what they’ve been waiting for almost two months: Taylor Swift’s new tenth album. In fact, their longing for what their favorite pop star was supposed to give them was such that they nearly broke the platform, as “Midnight” even before he completed graduation day, he made most played album in 24 hours on Spotify. Together Swift became the most perverted musician in one day.

Of course, her career has been so dizzying that she can classify this feat as “routine”. Another loud, but not unprecedented confirmation that Swift can eat “for breakfast” not only most of the pop stars and starlets around her, but also the music industry itself, if only she would cross her legs and look with her famous sly look. smile. All this in one traditional quasi-pop songwriting that rarely deviates from its compositional basis, in an age that feeds on the weird, the innovative, which will seem more alien to the “boomers”.

the million dollar question It’s not about what Taylor Swift does, it’s about how she does it.

“Meet me at midnight” is the first and main clue on her new album. Midnight here is not dark, it is fabulous transformation element. In each of Midnights’ 13 tracks (or 20 if you prefer its special 3 AM version), Taylor Swift tells a story that follows love stories chapter by chapter in the case of the pop star herself.

Midnight – business hours “Anti Hero” in the video of which she will have to confront herself. after all, “You are your own child” as a musician who has no inhibitions will say elsewhere (and rightly so) “Inspirer”. The ticking of the clock will make her the Cinderella of the pop planet “All of me has changed like midnight” say “Midnight Rains” and even play a version of Cinderella in his video “Jeweled”, next on Laura Dern and her friends now HAIM. Some to expand on the princely theme behind the “dress of vengeance” in his lyrics. vigilant shit they see what Diana was wearing when Charles revealed his affair with Camilla.

Musically, Swift won’t have to travel centuries back in carriage towers, but in “1989”. Of course, we are referring to her eponymous record, whose freshness of synthesizers echoes here as well – skeptics are waiting for “welcome to New York” on the second track. “burgundy”. Almost like another easter egg, her participation (with a dropper) also works Lana Del Rey in “Snow on the Beach” because Taylor Swift borrowed something from the laziness of the melancholy queen of California and sprinkled it here and there on the record, and she also admired Billie Eilish’s wonder girl in “Vengeful shit.”

Possibility to write effortlessly good melodies hiding their intelligence in the details (listen carefully to his male vocals “Lavender Mist”) is Taylor Swift’s trademark, but in Midnight she also perfects it. light musicality of her lyrics: “I shouldn’t be left to my own devices / They come with prices and vices / I get into a crisis” (“Anti-Hero”) is a prime example of how her words flow like a river.

“Midnight” is finally here typical Taylor Swift album, that is, learning to write pop songs with faith in one’s own style, which this time is not chasing “hits” (and there are no explicit singles on the album).

It seems almost unnerving how, after 16 years and 10 albums, he can not only receive solid recognition from the public and critics, but each time raise the bar even higher with music that many would hasten to call banal, sweet. outdated. The answer seems simple, even if in practice it is not: Taylor Swift knows how to speak the same language with everyone.

Her songs could have been written in the 80s, 90s, 00s and still be the same. Synthetic Swift materials have the timelessness of pop music, which allows them to sound incredibly familiar and fresh at the same time, those who grew up with Madonna, with Britney Spears, and now grow up with Billy Eilish.

But since, as we have said before, “the medium is the message,” Swift never forgot where the game was being played: on social media. From MySpace to TikTok, she’s the pop star of her time who can drive her fans crazy with every post – and for her new album, she took advantage of tik tak with video “Midnight Mayhem” in which he announced his tracks.

And then, Swift easter egg art ends in every movement of her career, which at times looks like a landscape of crime, which the most persistent of her fans are called upon to uncover like little detectives. Apart from the impressive detailing of all this “evidence” in songs, booklets and publications, the pop star achieves something more important: reduce the desired marketing “engagement” to your brand, to your brand’s organic material. We’d say Taylor Swift needs to be taught, but it’s already been done (at NYU with Rolling Stone’s Brittany Spanos as a teacher).

One could write entire books about Taylor Swift and analyze one of the most powerful and consistent pop music phenomena of all time. He could, of course, just listen to the record or a few of her songs and understand exactly the same. By this meaning, Taylor Swift is a classic.