Pop star legend Taylor Swift is coming out with her new album, Midnights, on October 21st and fans all over the world are ecstatic. Her new album is said to contain work from different eras of her life focusing on late-night thoughts and emotions, a topic many can relate to giving them more reason to count down the days until the album’s release. The release of the upcoming music has led many fans to go down a rabbit hole of analyzing Swift’s posts, teasers, and outfit choices because she is infamous for leaving little clues and hints for her fans. 

As the date approaches more “easter eggs,” as fans call it, are being discovered causing swifties to grow in anticipation. These easter eggs have been a staple of her label for years and have become an unavoidable part of her release process. They allow her to become closer to her fans and her fans adore searching for them. Junior Lauren Xiao said, “I don’t know all of the easter eggs she’s hidden or what they mean but I think the concept of them is really smart. It’s one of the reasons why I know about the album and can’t wait to listen and hear the music videos.” Swift herself stated that she meticulously plans her easter eggs, sometimes having them ready up to three years in advance. 

The most prominent theory for Midnights is the clock theory. The Spotify artwork in many of her re-recorded songs now features a clock with very specific details. The numbers on the clocks all have very distinct colors (blue, yellow, red, green, and white) which are leading fans to theorize that the colors could be linked to past albums and show when each track was written. This means that tracks 7 & 8, which appear yellow on the clock, are most likely from her Fearless era, while tracks 4 & 5, which are a deep red, are probably from her Red era. Not all of the numbers on the clock are the same however, tracks 3, 6, and 9 are all multicolored leading fans to believe that these tracks could have been written in between different eras. 

Another broad Midnights theory is its connection to Taylor Swift’s previous albums. Her seventh studio album titled Lover was initially planned to be titled Daylight, and is the talk of many conspiracies for Midnights. Lover is notoriously associated with pastel colors, a daydream aesthetic, being utterly infatuated with someone, and the beautiful positives of love. So when connecting this with Midnights it is safe to assume that the new album will have a more emotional, possibly even sadder and heavier take on similar topics as is already seen in the color scheme of this “sister album” with colors such as navy blue and burnt orange showing up in many videos and posts. The term sister album is being used among theorizing swifties because while the two albums have different themes the ideas and stories they will focus on could possibly be the same. One of the most prominent examples of this is the track titled “Lavender Haze.” The phrase itself appeared in Swift’s song Lover and is making a comeback as a song name showing the importance of the concept of a lavender haze in Swift’s life. She explained that “If you were in the lavender haze, then that meant that you were in that all-encompassing love glow. I thought that was really beautiful. I guess theoretically when you’re in the lavender haze, you’ll do anything to stay there and not let people bring you down off of that cloud.” She continued, “I think a lot of people have to deal with this now, not just like ‘public figures,’ because we live in the era of social media and if the world finds out that you’re in love with somebody, they’re going to weigh in on it. My relationship for six years, we’ve had to dodge weird rumors, tabloid stuff, and we just ignore it. So this song is sort of about the act of ignoring that stuff to protect the real stuff.”

Other theories surrounding the new album are a lot more specific than that of the entire album and tend to focus on specific songs or correlations rather than overarching messages or themes. The top two specific ideas surrounding this have to do with Taylor’s Midnight Mayhem videos. Swift began posting videos on her TikTok and Instagram of her revealing track names and fans began to pick on subtle details she hid in these videos. In the videos she would choose a ball with a track number, pick up a vintage phone and say the name. In tracks Anti-Hero and Vigilante Shit she picks up the phone and brings it to the opposite side of her face and in tracks You’re on Your Own Kid and Bejeweled she brings the phone up to her ear upside down. While these things may seem like honest mistakes that anyone would make or do without even realizing, Taylor Swift does everything with intention, especially in her announcements. Theories for these differ among many different people but there may be a hidden message that she is trying to send to us through her actions. 

With the album release just around the corner, fans are trying their best to figure out as much as they can and be ahead of the game. At midnight this Friday, we will see if the theories are true and will have our lives changed with the release of an album by one of the most famous names in pop music this decade. 

Additional reporting by Emily Daza

Art by Annie Park