After weeks of Taylor Swift teasing track titles via Instagram Reels, Midnights is finally here. While the album departs from the indie folk sound of folklore and evermore, the lyrics are just as explorative. I could spend hours deconstructing the layered meanings of each track. Below, I analyze four songs that explore the ideas of marriage, mental health, gender roles, and women scorned.
Lavender haze
The first track of Midnights sets the tone of the album with synthesized elements, layered vocals, and a dark pop atmosphere. Most notably, Swift addresses how the media simultaneously expects her to get married to long-time partner Joe Alwyn and paints her as a serial dater to be avoided.
She challenges traditional marriage with the lyrics, “All they keep asking me / Is if I’m gonna be your bride / The only kinda girl they see / Is a one-night or a wife.” She goes further with the idea, singing, “I’m damned if I do give a damn what people say / No deal / The 1950s’ shit they want from me.”
Swift isn’t going to fit the mold of a housewife, and that doesn’t make her a villain.
Anti-hero
The third track explores Swift’s mental health and insecurities. It’s an anthem of self-awareness, and Swift’s brutal honesty shines. Standout lyrics include: “I should not be left to my own devices / They come with prices and vices, I end up in crisis” and “Did you hear my covert narcissism / I disguise as altruism like some kind of congressman?” Perhaps most notable, Swift declares the liberating line in the chorus, “It’s me / Hi / I’m the problem, it’s me.”
The music video, which premiered at 8:00 a.m. EST, delves even deeper into Swift’s mental health. In some ways, the 70s vintage aesthetic video is very fun— it features a Taylor Swift double, drinking from doll-sized bottles, and purple glitter. But at one point, Swift checks her weight on a scale, which changes to read “fat.” Fans who watched Miss Americana on Netflix may recall Swift’s struggles with eating disorders. Halfway through the video, Swift’s imagined children and daughter-in-law go to blows over her inheritance. The scene is ridiculous, but it’s also a reflection of Swift’s deep fear that her life has become “unmanageabley sized.”
Speaking about the song, Swift admitted that “Anti-Hero” is “a real guided tour through all the things I tend to hate about myself.”
question…?
Many fans noted that the first line of this standout track, “I remember,” seems to sample 1989‘s “Out of the Woods.” Whether or not Swift is writing about Harry Styles, the lyrics leave fans wondering long after the track ends.
At one point, Swift seems to contemplate the idea of gender roles as a harmful social construct. She sings, “It was one drink after another / Fuckin’ politics and gender roles / And you’re not sure and I don’t know / Got swept away in the grey / I just may like to have a conversation.”
Swift has previously explored gender roles in songs such as “The Man” and “Blank Space.” But “Question…?” marks the first track where Swift admits feeling lost and swept away by the complicated, exhausting concept.
Vigilante shit
In the album’s eighth track, Swift sings about the power of two scorned women uniting against the same man. This track immediately feels different because of its slowed-down, dark electronic sound. While fans have debated if the song is about Kanye West or Scooter Braun, the message about women sticking together is most important. The song feels like a big sister to Speak Now‘s “Better than Revenge.”
Standout lyrics include: “She needed cold hard proof so I gave her some / She had the envelope, where you think she got it from? / Now she gets the house, gets the kids, gets the pride / Picture me thick as thieves with your ex-wife.” Swift also declares, “I don’t dress for women / I don’t dress for men / Lately I’ve been dressing for revenge.”
Conclusion
Midnights is a brilliant success filled with self-doubt, inner demons, and glittering glimpses of hope in tracks like “Labyrinth”, “Snow on the Beach”, and “Mastermind.” I applaud Swift for her honesty and willingness to be ultra-vulnerable because it certainly makes me feel less alone.
Stream Midnights (including the seven bonus tracks) and keep an eye out for upcoming music videos!
This article is part of a series, #FeministFriday, where Chloe Hummel seeks to highlight standout feminists making a difference in the world right now. Stay tuned!