Just watched your reputation video and was thinking of New Year's Day: "I want your midnights." Taylor has never been shy about her anxiety and self-doubt; she leads with her heart, no matter how many times the world breaks it. In the documentary for folklore, she talks about "peace" and how difficult her celebrity is for other people; and for her *self*--who she is in the rare moments when the world isn't watching--which she perceives as being "tolerated" rather than celebrated. She is larger than life, inside and out, and knows she hasn't truly found someone who can embrace and love her the way she is capable and deserving of. It "could've been, would've been, should've been" Joe. He was "more than just a short time"; "bigger than the whole sky." She wants his midnights; but in her Midnights, ultimately, she's alone.
I just realized, midnight is when the spell is broken and the fairytale love story is over. The Bejewelled video was even Cinderella themed, and there's the allusion to Disney princesses in the line "like I'd be saved by a perfect kiss."
Actually I think instead of turning back into a peasant that she’s turning into a full-fledged Disney Queen 👑 (but not a wicked one, that was for Reputation). Remember the album Lover almost got named Daylight. So this is her turning from the sun and heading back into the allegorical Cave, back to the darkness, to be a bright shining Moon Goddess I guess (like Diana/Artemis the archer with a bad habit of shooting down all her boyfriends)
I think Midnights is incredible as a breakING up album - the slow burn of paranoia and uncertainty as you try to work out if you should still be with someone, returning to the truth of the love and trust you know you had and not knowing if its just a memory now or still there, if the future you were so certain of still exists. Especially as its a truly long term relationship, with no dramatic betrayals etc, there's no clarity, nothing to make the decision for you - just staying up past midnight trying to make sense of who you are and where you should be.
I feel like midnights was a reclaiming of her status. She’s showing the world she’s still bejeweled and can make a pop record again after lover. She’s admittedly chasing that fame and I’m all here for it. I think she explains that she was never ready to settle down and can still be a force. Look at all the records she broke. She is career driven and there is nothing wrong with that.
I see a lot of people on twitter criticize her for chasing records or being "charts/award obsessed." Um... don't you want your fave to win? I know external validation like numbers or trophies don't really matter but to some people, they really do. Lover was an experiment of sorts, Midnights is the culmination of everything she's learned. I'm so glad it's her "second" imperial era of sorts after 1989. Agreed!
@@EljohnMacaranas Right? It's such an odd criticism. It's like telling an athlete they're too obsessed with winning & they should stop competing so hard.
@@EljohnMacaranas I found that too with the lyrics of bejewel. It felt like Taylor was wanting more from Joe, e.g. "put me in the penthouse of your heart."
Love the video and agree with a lot of the tales! But, I don’t think Bejeweled is about Joe. They were together for so long and the article says that the breakup was amicable, and they are still in good terms. I don’t see that relationship with Joe lining up with “walking all over my peace of mind.” This song, to me, is still a callback to Calvin Harris, as we know how unhappy that relationship was. But, I do think there is a sense of unresolve to Sweet Nothing, Midnight Rain is likely about Joe given the context, and I think Maroon probably is too.
@Michael West I mean it can based on multiple experience. She herself said that songs can't be reduced to one person. IMO the sapphire tear is specifically chosen to evoke her currently guy but some of the more sassy lines can be from another experience completely
I just love how respectful you were to Taylor and Joe in this video. So many people have been weird af on the internet since they've broken up. I'm glad you're being so understanding and keeping speculation out of it.
Thank you so much! It’s not my (or our) place to play guessing games about stuff we genuinely shouldn’t know about unless they want to share. I did want to share my reinterpretation of the record though! Just navigating my words around “he said, she said” and more on thematic stuff! There’s a clear divide between Taylor the artist and Taylor the person and if we are to discuss her music, we need to try and focus on the former.
I agree! It makes me really happy the amount of respect put into this video and focusing on it from a literary stand point and not literal because it is none of our business and Taylor has said countless times she wishes people would focus on her music and not her love life. GOSH shes such an insanely talented songwriter!
Nice choice with Matty. Did she really string the adoring little Swifties on for as long as two years of trotting out Joe-Joe whenever she wanted to be seen holding hands? Matty's got everything: addict, brags about "conquests", once said taking up with her would be "emasculating". Only thing would make it better is if he was "trans". Please, Swifties, follow her lead! That's what you want in a boyfriend. Not the decent human beings she's so fond of writing hate songs about. Guess Joe-Joe's will be next!
The interesting thing is that she indicated that she wanted the traditional roles in the past - she wanted to be a wife, a mother. "give you my wild, give you a child" - in peace; lover and the whole wedding speech; "I think he knows he'd better lock it down or I won't stick around; paper rings. And in midnights she talks about not wanting to be a bride or to stick with the traditional roles. It does sound like a break up album looking from other perspectives.
Midnights and Lover are connected the way Ever and Folk were, like all the text interacts with each other... but it's kinda wild how Midnights directly contracts a lot of the Lover lyrics. Maybe it's a change in priorities? Another commenter mentioned somewhere that the way the public and discourse about Swift's like shifted so hard from 2016 to now almost a reversal of sorts.
The Take did an analysis about how this breakup reflects a broader cultural shift away from these traditional goals, including being married by 30. It's a good watch combined with this video!
@@EljohnMacaranas i think she wrote this album when she had a feeling they were going to break or she knew they were growing apart they were gonna end eventually
I saw a comment on one of Taylor's Swift song wherein it said "Taylor wanted to name album "Lover" as "Daylight" and she referred to Joe as Daylight. He is sunshine. Then comes this album Midnights. She is midnight rain. Daylight's opposite is Midnights. So, it could be related. Still, I wouldn't call it breakup album. Though, I see the hidden theme. Sorry for my poor English.
I just also thought of another connect with this theory: in her song “peace” theres a line where she says “I’d give you MY sunshine, give you my best, but the rain is always gonna come if you’re standing with me” which somewhat connects to him being her sunshine, and though she tried her best, there will always be (midnight) rain with her. “he was sunshine i was midnight rain.”
After this breakup my interpretation of peace also changed. I believe she looked at Joe as this superior person( it's like I am wasting your honour)because he loved her at the lowest point. After success of red tv her priorities changed. Now she got more focused on her career.
That's honestly really insightful. Reputation and the lead-up to it was probably the one of the darkest periods of her life. I recall watching this crazy video essay about Jurassic World that had a tidbit about how relationships formed in turbulent life situations seldom last.
Yes and that's actually pretty toxic. Like every song she wrote for him, it's always him being the perfect one and her being the one full of flaws. He might be very helpful navigating her life back in 2016 but he ain't her savior. The only one who is responsible to save you is no one but yourself.
@@anisanurraudah8383 to be fair though, I do believe his love for her ultimately played a part in rebuilding her confidence slowly over the years. It’s really a shame when this happens in a relationship, but I have seen it happen before; someone loves you at your lowest point and lifts you up to the point where you feel able to walk without holding their hand any more.
Something to add about Maroon: in the lyric video, the lyrics in the bridge are "that's a real fucking legacy, to leave" (and in the booklet there's an ellipsis), meaning that the specific legacy that the person left on Taylor was leaving
It’s an even better record when we realize Midnight Rain is sorta the thesis of the record and why it’s just sitting there in the center with Question…? 😭
Honestly, Midnights confused me until now. I kept having to shake Joe out of my head when envisioning the breakup songs. Even if they all were about former beau's, I would imagine a fair bit of discomfort hearing one's current love writing in a pining way about them. Like, ?, why are you "just asking" a question about what could have happened if things went differently with HS? Also, let's remember artists have subconscious themes they are not always aware of.
Right? I also got this sense of impeding doom when I first heard the album, especially with how she describes her relationship with Joe on Sweet Nothing. It sounds very melancholic and monotonous and almost like a break up song and Taylor seems to be the type of person who needs to feel that thrill and a bit of chaos in order to not get bored. It really is exhausting to root for the anti-hero when she keeps self sabotaging 😭 I wouldn't like being in a relationship with someone while they describe an ex as a meteor strike and say I'm second best 😂 I kind of overlooked it because she said the songs were inspired by moments scattered throughout her life, but now it makes more sense...
@@purplebutterfly314 a valid point only if you are oblivious to the entire premise and theme of the album. it’s kind of an anthology album, as taylor has explicitly stated that the said songs were written at different points of her life, not specifically during the course of her and joe‘s relationship.
@@folkwh0re right? i don’t get why people are trying to interpret an already blatantly explained album?? she said it herself, and unless she says otherwise it really makes no sense to decode something that doesn’t need it.
hearing this album again after my girlfriend cheated on me and we broke up was so... theraputic. like yeah red is THE taylor swift breakup album the majority of us grew up too but midnights feels much more mature in how it handles its themes -- and looking at it from a breakup/relationship-ending lens makes that even clearer.
Red will always be like the quintessential breakup record for anyone who was in their teens and early 20s hence why I think Gen Z revived interest so fast bc it was timeless. Midnights is definitely for the crowd that’s grown with Taylor or are a bit older. I found some of my friends who don’t follow pop like I do clung onto this one in a way they weren’t around for Lover
This is so interesting. Regardless of anything tbh, when Midnights came out it gave me this.. feeling.. that I found pretty uncomfortable. I didn't know how to understand those songs. And now after these news or rumors or whatever the feeling really got even heavier. I think you mentioned this but the thing about midnights, is that if it is/if we look at it as a breakup album, it's definitely not a traditional one. It emphasizes all the ways a relationship and its end can be nuanced and complicated. It's definitely an interesting perspective to view this album..
It’s for sure not a traditional heartbreak record like Red, which does so many things well and is a classic but i r admire midnights for being nuanced for taking place not linearly but across different dimensions and emotions, it doesn’t feel like a beginning middle end record so much as an anthology of anxiety, unease, acceptance, self-love, empowerment, all these complicated emotions that come with a big life change
I agree. I got this same feeling from it that I couldn’t make sense of it. I know it’s based on 13 sleepless nights, and I do believe the stories on this album are influenced by previous relationships/re-listening to her previous albums for pre-records. But that never explained this underlying tone throughout, something deeply unsettling. I do believe she was subconsciously grappling with emotions she was experiencing in the present through the lens of past experiences. Writing is such a strange boiling pot of ideas stewing away. Now, with the breakup news, the tone of the album makes sense to me and I can sum it up in one word: cathartic.
@@kristina86reacts right! I don’t know how people aren’t talking about that line more? The first time I heard it I thought she said, “two halves not a whole to a home all alone because nobodys there” and immediately got vibes that Joe was no longer in the picture.
Exactly! I just listened to dear reader as a breakup song and it just makes so much more sense overall. I was thinking midnights was just about things that kept her up in the past, but maybe some of the present was in it too as she watched her most precious relationship fall apart. "never take advice from someone who's falling apart"
My favorite line in Bejeweled is definitely "I miss you but I miss sparkling" -- dang, it was there all along! This is indeed a breakup/breaking up album!
I always saw Mastermind like the pina colada song. That she thought she was being a mastermind, but in actuality, he saw through it, allowing it and was being a mastermind as well, cause he wanted her too.
@@Jsjsjsjdjjsj Exactly! Which is why I don’t see how it is a sad song at all. He wasn’t tricked, he wanted them same thing, saw what she was doing, and allowed her to act the mastermind.
i didn't really get bejeweled before this, but when i think that it's about picking yourself up after a breakup/heartbreak (i can *still* make the whole place shimmer) i have a new appreciation for it. songs like maroon and midnight rain also change with this context.
I think the album is purposely vague but that’s the magic of it all, we can recontextualize and make the songs ours throughout time. Taylor’s always said once the songs are out they aren’t (narratively) hers (they def do belong to her fuck scooter) but ours as well!
To be honest I thought that it‘s just about her still standing after everything she‘s been through and also about being so damn successful after all this time since many artists are only popular for a short period time nowadays
I think Bejeweled is about Calvin Harris. He treated her pretty poorly and it’s about her picking herself back up and going to the Met Gala by herself.
@@lbeard7661 I believe it's about joe. She says" Baby boy I think I have been too good of a girl". I believe joe is the baby boy. I believe the biggest shade she gave to calvin harris was not writing about him.
Lover was the ultimate love album which was originally supposed to be called ‘Daylight’ so Midnights does seem like a break up album. Because in a literal sense as well, Midnights is the complete opposite of Daylight (Lover). Taylor loves using symbolism very much.
I felt like Labyrinth was about the beginning and completion of a relationship, and the first time I heard it I thought “oh no, I hope her and Joe are ok”.
I never really considered that reading when I first heard the song. You always assume that people get out of the maze but forget sometimes you leave completely different ways than when you came in. Together or apart.
I had a very similar thought the other day while listening to Lavender Haze. The acoustic version came up on shuffle and I had never heard it before (and I am almost skipped bc I was like RIP) but then I got sucked in by how different the instrumentation of the acoustic version sounds. It completely changed the vibe of the song compared to the original. Like I don’t know that much about music theory but I want to say the guitar is in a minor key or something? It sounds sad. And it got me thinking. The original production is so upbeat and dreamy that it made me feel like Taylor was talking about how she is currently in the lavender haze with her bf and she doesn’t want it to end, i.e., she wants to stay with Joe. But the sadder sounding vibe of the acoustic version made me have an entirely new interpretation of the song. Like maybe she’s saying she wants to stay in the lavender haze, and she’s no longer in it with Joe, so she’s going to leave. I likened lavender haze to the honeymoon phase when a relationship is just starting and you’re both so passionate and infatuated with each other. But once you’ve been in a relationship for a long time, you move past the honeymoon phase and into a more mature type of love. It’s not bad, just different. So yeah that kinda blew my mind to think of it in a totally new way.
I don't know why but I always read Lavender Haze as a sad song. It gives me the feeling of the narrator being under pressure somehow. I loved your analysis of the album a lot by the way!
I feel like even the way the drums hit on it has this melancholic almost ominous feeling to it. Like I still buy the theory it’s very connected to I Think He Knows but like I Think He Knows is the sunshine version and this one’s midnight rain. Thanks for watching!
I do think Midnights could be a "side B" of Lover, but I also think it's not necessarily a break up album. I think Lover is naif love, a form of love that doesn't question much and just believes, forgives, falls into it, sparks, and all that. But Midnights it's a deeper perspective, like you really sat there and thought about it all over again, maybe when you are a little older and more experienced in life. I think I can relate some songs as if they were another perspective of the same thing: Me! / Anti-Hero Soon you'll get better / bigger that the whole sky Cornelia Street / Maroon Afterglow / The great war Miss Americana / Lavender haze The archer/ You're on your own, kid Paper rings / Sweet nothing Daylight / Snow on the beach Some other songs, as Taylor said, are about other moments of her life. But I think the general idea is that she stayed up all those midnights overthinking and reliving situations, so she got a deeper view on things we heard before.
I always felt like Lover was the side B to Red since it was supposed to be called Daylight and I felt like it was a transitional album where she plays around with a bunch of different genres as she moves to the next one. Maybe she was planning for something like Midnights to follow it up but then 2020 happened and she unexpectedly gave birth to twins...
Same analysis as you. Lover the naive, young version, hopeful and still somehow "formated" in this role, this role, this public image. And Midnight being the dark version, afterward, burned by, kind of growing out of it. And also being more a personal narrative, introspective this time, like a change of pov between the 2. But I don't think that the initial theme was breaking up or a break up despite it.
ts mentions religion a lot in lover too and what you're saying is kinda similar. like lover being "a form of love that doesn't question much and just believes.." and midnights being the "deeper perspective" also this comment is not to offend anyone!
@@LaasyasLucky It is not offensive at all. But yeah you're right, religion is there a lot in this record. It surprised me, I didn't thought that it was something for her.
Oddly, I think Vigilante Shit and Karma can both fit in thematically as well. With Vigilante Shit, the narrator is kind of laying out her "mastermind" tendencies before the closing track, and exercising her agency with zero thought to her partner. If you think of it through that lens, it makes sense. Harkening back to "you're on your own kid," she mentions plotting as well, so there are tinges of conquest, narcissism and the idea of needing absolute control and autonomy over those in her life both kind and malevolent. With Karma, it's similar. The narrator puts herself on a pedestal, using luck and Karma as reasoning for all of these good things happening and continuing to happen for her while her enemies suffer. I look at it almost as a reassurance to herself-- regardless of if this breakup happens and it really is over, she had "the guy on the screen" come straight home to her right now, and good things will continue for her. I look at is as anxious in a way, saying KARMA is her boyfriend replaces the narrator's actual boyfriend, and the catchy chorus is her simply reassuring herself through her own insecurity. "Look at all of these great things I did and I am. I will be fine. I will be fine. Good things are coming." There are a ton more layers to this record now that the breakup happened, because all of these songs were theoretically written before the final breakup. It's very interesting to see Taylor peel back the layers of humanity and stardom, fame and love in such a complicated way.
She’s not playing the humble little girl anymore. She’s showing some healthy narcissism and I’m loving it. I knew she was plotting something deep down... I seriously think I found an Easter egg on the LWYMMD video that nobody else has... remember her sawing off the wings? That’s Epstein’s plane.
Waittt this actually makes so much sense! I remember listening to Midnights and being frustrated/disappointed with how even the “love songs” all sounded so sad and moody for seemingly no good reason… but that all makes so much more sense from this perspective!
I'm so glad someone else is talking about this. I sensed a shift when I saw her release the Red remakes last year. She just looked like a woman getting ready to leave. Midnights also felt like a breakaway album, like she was finding herself again in the darkness. She is a powerful artist.
i like this take, i think it really makes sense under this context. I also think the problem with Midnights as an album is that Taylor marketed it as a concept album, something darker and more vulnerable than anything before and it failed to deliver that with the pop production and fun songs., the aesthetic makes way more sense seeing it through the breakup lense
Agreed on the marketing feeling off, the picture set really had me convinced it was going to be a Rock-tinged record or something a bit darker than what we got. I do think if we use the breakup lens it feels more justified but yeah the shock I had release night was… huge.
@@EljohnMacaranas honestly, it reminds me of an interview she did years ago when a woman was asking her who the song “Style” was about and obviously trying to pin her for a specific answer. She explained how it’s about ever-changing fashion and trends; but you could tell she was just glossing that over (to protect her and his privacy, of course). I felt the same vibe with the marketing of this album. It felt like she was trying to gloss over the real, bigger truth. It’s fine, obviously. But when it came out and it didn’t feel like 13 midnights scattered throughout her life, it felt off. It’s a bit sad she felt the need to do that, but also, absolutely understandable.
@@hofhofandaway I seriously think the title “Style” is a red herring. She knew people would take the bait to hide the fact that it’s about Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez. It’s a subtle way of letting Selena know her relationship is toxic as is very subtly conveyed in the song without being too pushy or interfering.
Kudos for Taylor on not using an ex for the marketing this time around. She was just honest with her feelings and respected Joe's privacy. Her maturity all over her writing just made this album timeless. The narrator is an imperfect human who is aware of her limitations. BEAUTIFUL.
@Army of One just because they were still dating doesn't mean they weren't on the rocks or having personal problems. Maybe it was unintentional or maybe she was having doubts and wanted to accurately portray what a healthy relationship looks like for a lot of people, by expressing the doubt an darker aspect of being in love and being with the person who you think is the one.
@Army of One you must not have listened to all the lyrics. She literally has a song about her being the problem and how she fully acknowledges that her company can be toxic at times which could have also contributed to their break up. Especially when the only comment from Taylor's PR team was that they separated due to their differences. She didn't romanticise and dramatised to make herself look good. She wrote her journey still full of hope and love but realistic enough to acknowledge that their relationship was not in a good place.
@@EljohnMacaranas yes! I'm quite excited for her next album. Her journey in her 30s as a mature ambitious woman for sure is gonna be epic and heartfelt.
After I've listened to TTPD (which is sad but the narrator has accepted her fate)... I think Midnights sure was a hearbreak album.. the confusion, the pain, the fear, the struggle to hold on and the delusion of the narrator all makes sense now... Wow
YESSS it makes so much more sense . I think they broke up in private and because it was private she needed to break the news. They felt like after a few good shows of the tour that it was a good time to tell the world Taylor’s single again. Every piece of Taylor’s art means something extremely important to her and she said that this album is really relevant to her life right now. She also said before the lover song last night that she has some songs she’ll be singing that we’re how she felt at one point in her life. 😞
@@EljohnMacaranas Joe always wanted her to be “private” and I don’t think that’s really in Taylor’s nature. She loves her fans and wants to interact with them and share lots of her life with us. I don’t think this song is about Calvin Harris. I think it’s about Joe.
I think a very important information people are missing is there’s evidence on the songs that they broke up and got back together, that’s why there are break songs, songs about exes, and love songs.
That does makes sense! I honestly never bought Maroon or Midnight Rain being about those two. Like sure there’s long running motifs but like the emotionality and depth the songs have are like you said about an enduring relationship, not quite some short term thing.
@@EljohnMacaranas Don’t forget This Love. Written back during Red yet it references the clear blue water she associates with him. Also in OOTW she mentions the number 20 (“stitches in the hospital room”) followed by the sun coming up... the same motif found on “Daylight” and “Lover” and a few others... that was the only song on 1989 I was sure was about Harry (Style is about Jelena, let’s get real) but after the Lover album putting some of this old symbolic imagery into context I’m not so sure anymore... well she did write it while in a trance...
when you said rubies i gave up was connected to king of my heart shocked me because i always felt like maroon’s production always reminded me of king of my heart’s
Allegedly someone on TikTok forgot who said they thought it’s instrumental reminded them of the Rep Tour KOMH Interlude 😭💀 and I think it kinda sounds like it!
I think 3 am version really hammers in the fact that it’s a breakup album. The Great War is about fights & lack of trust & promises or ultimatums that this won’t happen again. Paris, though romantic, is like Lavender Haze in that they had to be completely cut off from the world around them-and convince themselves of the truth of the pretend alleyways and champagne- to be in a loving place where she could freely express her emotions and he could be “brainwashed into loving her forever”. Glitch is about a relationship that the narrator never wanted, but ended up being love even so. She saw red flags (blood moon), but felt they were fake because of the good thing they had. But after years of being in solitude together, the system was breaking down. The extended album ends with the narrator being in a trap, a pen, alone with no love & no friends.
Champagne Problems, Tolerate It, and Cowboy Like Me sounds so different to me right now after their breakup. 😭 It feels like Joe wanted to settle but Taylor isn't ready yet.
No she ended it. It wasn't the life he wanted. She's having a meltdown getting her PR to spread him cheating fallacies and pretending to be SO SO HAPPY announcing it on stage no less.Getting her friends to unfollow him and pretending to be the injured one for sympathy and the strong one to leave him. She is devastated and is acting like she's in love with another and the HAPPIEST she's ever been. Lol You don't act like that if you are really happy especially if you broke someone's heart. It's all so petty mean-girl scorned antics that most can see right through. If she ended it she wouldn't be rubbing it in his face. Joe was the love of her life. Her shattered fairytale.
True, but Folklore and Evermore also clearly took from fiction so I'd take it with a grain of salt. People are trying to see things in her songs that may not actually be true because she made them up.
Listening to the album this is all I was thinking about, that everything was said perfectly about where she’s at and how things have been going. “I made you my world don’t you know I can reclaim the land” is so beautiful and strong post breakup
The line might be one of her all-time lyrics years from now, I kinda was shocked some criticized the lyrical integrity of Midnights on release. Even working with the known limitations of the pop genre (short run time, need for catchiness, etc.), there are hidden gems in the work.
I love how there are so many hidden hints and easter eggs in everything Taylor Swift does. I already liked the midnights lyrics before, but now that I kind of understand what she really meant this has a whole new meaning because I mostly connected them with my own life and that‘s why I had a different view of them. The things you mention really make sense and show me a lot more about how the lyrics are meant from Taylor‘s perspective.
I think often times we take possession of songs and meanings ourselves, with other artists than Taylor I tend to not care so much why the song was written or whom it could be about.
That‘s true. I make some music myself and think that it‘s really important to connect lyrics and melodies with your own feelings and interpretation. But when it comes to Taylor Swift songs I‘m really interested in what she wanted to express with something because I feel like everything she does has a reason or a meaning. She wouldn‘t write lyrics without wanting to tell us something specific, and I‘m really glad if people make the effort to help people like me find it.
It makes a lot of sense that this was my favorite album when it came out, and I was listening to it in repeat. I have been going through a rough patch with my husband for the past few months, and I connected with the songs in the way you outline here as more of a pending demise of a breakup.
I agree with you and I have respect for how you framed it. The best part of songwriting is using your own experience as a guide, and making it relatable to others going through the same things. As an older TS fan, I just hear the songs, I don’t speculate much. Her writing is like Paul Simon. When I listen to “America” I don’t consider who Kathy is. Just the idea of telling a sleeping partner that you’re empty and aching, and you don’t know why.
I feel like the time the songs were unavoidably diaristic is long past. We saw in parts of Lover and the Folklore/Evermore duology a drift away from that, I think the magic of her music was never what it said about her but rather the memories we assign to the songs. We’ll forget who Holy Ground is about but we’ll never forget the time we experienced it for ourselves. Hard agree with Paul Simon!
I Truly think joe wanted marriage and kids and Taylor was like "let's wait I'm focused on my career, i am the biggest Pop star in the world and i need to keep the momentum going" Their goals didn't allign, and I also think she's trying to recreate or have something similar to a previous relationship, probably Harry styles
Honestly, valid wants for both people! Not my place to say but if I was in her shoes I’d take it slow before dating again. I had a good friend break up with their partner after 8 years (YEAH) and they’re single and thriving and chill! Wishing Taylor and Joe all the best!
Eh I think she never truly got over Jake. But yea I guess Styles was also a force in her romantic life. I found it to be rather strange how she kept holding onto conversation with him at the Grammys for Folklore.
Eh I think she never truly got over Jake. But yea I guess Styles was also a force in her romantic life. I found it to be rather strange how she kept holding onto conversation with him at the Grammys for Folklore.
I wouldn't say forecasted. I talked to a good friend of mine today (who mentioned watching this video) who did break off an engagement recently and seemed sorta OK right after. Something she said that shocked me was her saying something "oh I'd been mourning the relationship for maybe a year before we broke up, I didn't know when it'd happen, but I knew it would." People are different but maybe Midnights was written during that time.
As always I want to be absolutely respectful and not speculate too too much. My analysis is about Midnights, the album as a persona. The closest I get to tackling the break up is Sweet Nothing. Thank you. EDIT: a huge apology to anyone who was spoiled by the Succession joke... I really had not realized it wasn't public knowledge yet. I live on Twitter 24/7 and didn't account for the fact that people consume media differently than I do. I will NOT be making any spoiler jokes or references in future works unless it's something like Darth Vader being Luke's dad-level known.
@@eduardofromtx I’m working on having youtube cutting/muting the clip, I had them do that to a Lana video where I mispronounced something that upset fans of that song.
I started to appreciate this album now. It's amazing how her albums transform, depending on her real-life events. She wrote about things the public didn't know, but now that the full context has been revealed, it makes total sense. To me, this album felt like a b-sides album. But now, it feels full, deep, and complete.
It’s crazy because midnights came out the day of my breakup, so I was destined to look at it through that lens of my personal life, and although I could see it being about love, I mostly saw themes of the breakdown of a relationship.
Wow! That’s wild but also I’m glad you had the album at that time in your life! I had Melodrama come out when I ended my first long term relationship and it really did help!
@@EljohnMacaranas oh wow! It’s crazy we had kind of similar experience, I’m glad that you had Melodrama also to get you through. Breakups are not for the faint of heart, but music definitely helps!
I so love your thoughts on your intro! Simply deconstructing the album under the lens of breakup narrative. I love this. Very respectful way of appreciating art.
Thanks! I took extra time to sorta frame the video script around not being personal. I genuinely don’t ever want to be /that/ person who lines up dates or timestamps someone’s life under a microscope. I’d hate for someone to do that to me! I fully understand how artists selectively put parts of their real stories into works and how it’s parasocial to assume the whole story is out there or ours to know. Artistry is so much about persona and to be honest, I don’t want/need to know what happened.
For me, Midnights is lyrically cohesive album(kind of),and i think it could of easily been a visual record, has a cohesive story telling and themed very well, about reclaiming her albums, metaphorically saying that her albums are her jewels, and reclaiming her albums(jewels), about time and ageing like clockwork, also has a medieval imagery but also has a 70s aesthetic, using medieval themed words as lyrics,Fantasy like which themes very well with the concept of midnights, as like a dream where she fantasies and ables to build her castle, her career,ruling it and how she has made it all this time, going back to the past and re exploring, singularly making it after all this time. Starting the album with lavender haze, opening up by saying that she doesn’t want people scrutinising her, and all she wants is to be in her love bubble, starting off with lyrics like staring at the ceiling with you(in bed), entering into midnights, in a dream as this is all in her head, wanting to stay in this dream(love), the production i found really interesting is how the the vocal also spirals, making it more present, and that she is falling in love.moving on to Maroon ,Maroon has a sonically nightmarish sound, sounding more haunting and aged, using the colour maroon to solidify how red(this love) has aged, having flashbacks to the past with all the colours of red, reminding her of past failed relationships, waking her up from the dream, the nightmare,the love. Visually could show her running away but unable to escape with a marooned sky, clips of past relationships flashes in front of her then Going straight to anti hero, having thoughts about maybe she is the problem and exploring her anxiety,(I’ll continue writing but busy rn)
I never stopped to like realize how important the medieval imagery and lyricism was. Especially looking back at the castle and the way the words blend together and The Great War itself which I don’t talk about but fits if we think about that!
@@EljohnMacaranasLyrics like tale as old as time, love potion, pageant queens, reclaim the land… gives a lot medieval imageries, even sonically with some songs and the music videos especially from bejewelled(ofc),she also has used these lyricisms before,”fighting dragons with you” and plenty other ones talking about princesses and prince through her discography. This album feels like a conclusion of her past eras as well, leaving behind these tales she created, moving on, waking up from her dreams and maybe love after realising that they broke up, pursuing onward on her career. A lot like what you’re on your own kid talks about.
honestly, I listened to this album since release, and slowly seen my relationship fall apart with my ex around December, and now it's connected with me more than ever, and I see why... Dear Reader deserves to be analyzed into this... it's like her foreshadowing to the reader, to get away while you can...
Just listened to the whole Album again, she is genius. This is a genius breakup album! It kind of reminded me of the movie midsommar, while watching it you think the movie is just something, and then once you change the narrative of the movie being about the phases of a breakup it is a different movie in a way! I am having that same exact thing with this right now! 😂 all excited
Honestly, mastermind never made a lot of sense to me in the album, but I've recently heard this theory and started to think of this song in two different ways: first, is Taylor telling us about how she planned and schemed this whole relationship she's in (even though the whole rest of the album points to uncertainty and potential breakup); and the second way being that Taylor Swift put out a song called "MASTERMIND" and it's the 13th song on the album Midnights (also the first said to be biographical album since she began re-recordings) and it might not be about her relationship. The theory basically says Taylor is singing about the whole process of getting her MASTERS back. Because she is a business mastermind. The theory goes on to connect everything we know about her masters being stolen to the lyrics of the video, and the creator that came up with this actually thinks that Taylor already owns her masters, but can't tell just yet. Not sure if that could be true, but it's a VERY interesting and intriguing theory!
I have this theory (I don't know why but it feels this way) that Joe must have taken this album to hurt.. it's an album she made while he was away in shooting..so it's a letter about her state of mind.. deep thoughts of midnight to him.. and definitely break of communication..
Joe is Apollo the sun god while Taylor is Artemis the Moon Goddess who can’t stop shooting down her lovers (not even her own “twin brother” apparently)
In Labyrinth, Taylor first talks about hurting. Then she said uh oh, she's falling in love again. That Joe turned it around. So they got back together.
Thank you so much for watching! I think Midnights is a work that’ll age well over the years. Art is all about perception even if it’s not quite the original meaning or how it’s shown.
Love your analysis as always!! Context is everything. I don't think Midnights is quite a full breakup album, especially taking into account what TS said about its concept, which to me indicates it's more reflective of a broader story (her life, career, relationship history in general, etc.) that includes the events & emotions leading up to her split w/ Joe. Red is still the only album that I would consider a true breakup album in the way it portrays such a spectrum of emotions and feelings after the end of a relationship. But I have to say I do appreciate Midnights & its moodiness much more in this new light. Sidenote, I think it's so strange to see the online reaction referencing TS11 upon hearing news of the breakup -- there's definitely something to be said about the whole culture surrounding tortured artists, the belief that artists make better work when they're going through pain or trauma, and what it means to make music that is confessional and diaristic in nature when it comes to the expectations of fans and critics, especially in the kind of commercial landscape music exists in. But that's definitely a completely different video/discussion! Can't wait for the next one :)
Thanks for watching! And I do definitely get what you're saying. Especially about Red. I wanted to add that I think the romanticization of suffering for art is a huge issue. I know many writers (novelists and TV show writers funny enough) who tell me they're in therapy and feel as if they need to have their art reflect the pain they've gone through to be perceived as "legit" whether to other artists, producers, or their audience. I do think great art can stem from dark circumstances but I hate the expectation it needs to. Thanks again for tuning in!
Midnight is about leaving the sunlight to go back into the darkness. Re-entering the allegorical Cave. Joe was the real deal, there’s no denying that. But she just has to go do her own thing and be a Moon/storm goddess...
I definitely see this album differently now hearing the news and you did a great job analyzing it. I like that you made midnights into a persona cause fan analysis videos can get very weirdly parasocial at times. Oddly enough tho I think bejeweled might actually be one of the few songs that could give us some insight on their situation (if the alleged rumors are true) according to "sources" they were suppose to be on a break for her tour which could explain "when I meet the band they ask do you have a man I can still say I don't remember" and "I miss you but I miss sparkling" we will never know though and honestly? Good. I hate that the success of the eras tour is being out shadowed by relationship drama
As someone in their early/mid 30s, there were "break-up red flags" everywhere, starting with lavender and going through. The story I heard as I first listened was not that of someone in a relationship that's going somewhere. The "calling traditional marriage notions in to question" theme was a huge red flag, as we're at the age where you get married, or you don't. Purely spec, but, if one of them wanted marriage and a family and the other wasn't ready yet, that could easily produce the arc we hear in the album. Thank you for the respect with which you went through this, I've seen a lot of anger and blame-throwing the last few weeks and I appreciate you putting this out without going there.
This is a really good video. Plus, apart from being the past tense, Maroon constantly says 'I chose you' meaning that taylor was the one who CHOSE joe, but we don't hear 'You chose me' as in joe chose taylor. This could hint that the relationship was becoming one sided, with taylor CHOOSING joe, but joe not doing the same.
I think categorizing this as a break up album doesn't do it justice. If I had to pick a theme it's a personal growth. She revisits 13 sleepless nights throughout her life and reevaluates these situations and reflect how they shaped her current 'me'. From dear John where she thought she should have known better to would've,could've, should've where she realized she couldn't have done anything nor should she have. She acknowledes that it left her with trauma of trust and insecurity causing her issues in her current relation ship. Personally I even think in bigger than the whole sky she mournes the loss of the woman she should have become since the titel of would've , could've should've directly mirrored in bigger than the whole sky. Maroon feels like a conglomerate of all past relationship she categorized as red which are now just maroon and lost the vibrancy they once had. With questions and high infidelity she ties up these lose ends of unfinished buisnesses. From get away car where the whole theme was just escaping to high infidality where she more so give her reasoning why. I agree there also is a reoccuring theme of social expectations like in lavender haze regarding marriage and the selling of this fairy tail. But in bejeweled she lived that dream yet something was missing. Something like selffullfillment which she found in her 'sparkling' / career/craft. Mastermind in my opinion has nothing to do with Joe but all with her fans neatly packaged in the allegorie a relation ship. We know Glitch is about Joe. But a glitch in the matrix is unexpected and not planned for at the point of design. So is a blackout. With her and Joe it's like woops that wasn't my Plan yet here we are. Just like in invisible string. It all happend for a reason even tho they weren't aware of it at the time yet in the end it all fell into place. And at that time she needed him to work through things (great war) but also as safe space and ancor to be her true self (sweet nothing). All those sleepless nights shaped the person she is today for various reasons. Even with vigilante shit all those non sensical things that happend to her were in the end for a greater good. What brings me to karma. It's accepting that shit happens, letting things Run their course and being faithful that as long as you're able to still look in the mirror afterwards things will fall into place. I truly feel this album reflects a realisation of why she is what she is, how that manifested itself during her life and that that's ok. But also I think she came to find out what she truly wants in life (bejewled) and that it's ok because she worked hard for it.Even if she's on her own as she made this happen all along by herself. For me that's a lot of personal growth even tho she warns the reader not take an unstable persons advice but to me it looks like she has her shit figured out.
I don't think it's necessarily a *break up* album but an album about conflicts, both internal and in a relationship. What you said about impending doom makes a lot of sense, I feel like Taylor might have processed some conflicting emotions in this album without really knowing where it would go. I always viewed maroon as being about Joe rather than a past breakup and assumed it was about a long past conflict rather than a long gone break up. (Maybe part of that is because initially I misheard "the rust that grew between telephones" as "the rose that grew between telephones" and that made me think that the couple in the song would be fine again)
Viewing this album through a breakup lens ( or as another commenter mentioned, a personal growth lens ) actually makes a lot of sense!!! I immediately like this album way more lol. Though initially I found the personal growth idea a bit weird, since so much of this album is about love and breakups, on reflection it makes more sense to me than a breakup theme. Taylor based her whole career on love, wanting love and feeling hurt from it. It won’t be a stretch to say her life goals often had love on a high pedestal as well. I guess this album is a culmination of her realising that actually, love isn’t as important to her as she thought it was, and it’s definitely less important than her career is, not equally. She mentions traditional relationship expectations a lot, and I think that feeds into this theory. Society teaches women to prioritise love, and it becomes so ingrained into your mind ( love being a heady , and almost universally wanted feeling doesn’t help this ) that it’s kind of hard to break free from that expectation, and it does require a LOT of reflection on past relationships and experiences with love. I recently had a breakup and the experience was….disillusioning, and it taught me that I value agency, independence, and ambition way more than I thought I did. I didn’t feel for him as strongly as he did for me, and he wanted a future with me way before I even considered it. In the wake of our breakup, I found myself thinking a lot about my past experiences with love, even wanting to write creatively about them or the lessons they taught me. It’s almost like I dealt with my present by looking deeply into the past. Only now I’m starting to want to write creatively about my ex and reflect on my relationship with him. It sounds pretty damn similar to midnights as an experience Edit: on a personal note, ‘does it feel like everything’s just second best after that meteor strike?’ Is downright one of the most relatable lyrics she’s ever written for me. I fell for someone a few years ago who didn’t feel the same for me, and everybody since has really felt second best. I could never put that feeling into works before question
Yesss I definitely had this weird feeling when the album was released and now it definitely makes sense, it's not fully a break up album but the theme is there and i love it!!
loved this analysis of midnights even though I don't necessarily agree with you on almost any of it lol. you certainly made me see how some verses could be interpreted differently in hindsight. although I completely disagree that midnights had a lack of thematic cohesion. imo midnights is her MOST cohesive album after folklore. midnights to me is almost like a memoir? like someone sitting down with you and telling you their life story in the 13 moments they feel define them the most as a person. although I agree that hits different…hits different after april 8th and if you are reading midnights as a breakup album it fits in perfectly as a bittersweet conclusion.
I approached this the way people make fan theories. I'd agree with you sonically but I never quite gelled the themes together even with the 13 separate moments. But that might be me not being a fan of anthologies. Hits Different... genuinely is kinda insane to close any version of the album. I know Target versions aren't "canon" per se but I did find it odd some fans listened to the record for the first time and it ended with that song.
This is a really thoughtful analysis. I've been exhausted by or maybe disinterested this idea because of the context I've been seeing it argued in (generally just not cute responses to the relationship/breakup) - but you did a great job of talking about album themes. I can appreciate this without needing information about their journey to and through the breakup. That said, I've always likened the content of The Great War (an all-timer for me) to Afterglow. Now I can see a trajectory from Afterglow to The Great War to You're Losing Me - the way conflict in a deep relationship can evolve, have beauty to it, but sometimes eventually become untenable.
I think being glib and sassy about Taylor and Joe’s personal business and like making timelines and looking at pics and stuff is weird. I’ve seen a few creators treat it like TMZ and I’m not interested in the sort. Taylor’s music IS autobiographical but it’s appeal is universality and relatability. Her stories morph into ours when we attach ourselves to a song. I think the music itself eventually overcomes the times it’s written in and instead of being “the one about so-and-so” it becomes a way to look at a general relationship (maybe even our own.) Love the three tracks you chose by the way, they do form a lovely and haunting trilogy.
The release of Midnights caught me in the middle of an emotionally messy situation and it really resonated with me at that time. I found it comforting, it felt like home. For some reason that I couldn't really pinpoint. Now that people are seeing it as a heartbreak album in the light of the recent events, it suddenly makes so much more sense to me why it clicked with me in fall and it sort of validates my initial feelings about the album
i’m not gonna say this is definitively what happened but it’s pretty common for an artist to make art that reflects what they’re currently going through without even realizing it
We need to bring up the Bonus Tracks tho. Paris. It's a reflection of where they were, but no longer. High Infidelity. Revisiting the breakup with Calvin/Tom/ and into Joe's relationship.
I felt like the bonus tracks were hard to interpret because looking back they didn’t feel sequenced as thoughtfully as the standard but I do like interpreting Paris on there! I saw someone else say Glitch also seemed to speak volumes.
It’s so interesting that she described it as a “love blackout”, which at first seemed romantic like the lavender haze because it’s so cheerful and all-consuming. But on second reflection it’s kind of sad. She put her whole life on hold. She put her dreams on the back burner. He met her at a time when the media hated her, two albums that got slammed critically (even though they’re great), and then they were isolated in private during the quarantine. Even with all that isolation the beginning of their relationship was a little rocky, as evidenced by Cruel Summer and Afterglow and The Great War. What really gets me is Dancing With Our Hands Tied, “I knew that there was no one in the world who could take it.” She knew he was a private person, and that due to the nature of her career and her aspirations her life would never be that way. Even in her most vulnerable love songs she’s plagued with anxiety… “Past me, I want to tell you…” “Who could ever leave me, but who could stay” “One day I’ll watch as you’re leaving” “Would it be enough if I could never give you peace” “There was nothing in the world that could stop it.” “I know that it’s delicate” “I’m so terrified of if you ever walk away.” She expresses this desire to live in their relationship bubble: Lavender Haze, False God, The Lakes, King of my Heart. But she is still never able to shake those anxieties. It’s the same reason why peace is my favorite song of hers, as tragic as it sounds. All of the things she loved doing with him “walking the beach, meeting at a bar, hanging with his friends at the pub” aren’t things Taylor Swift can do. She even can’t go to a grocery store without a huge commotion. She’s had someone break into her private home. It’s not ever going to be a life he would be satisfied with, and she knows this. Ultimately, she has sacrificed so much in pursuit of her career and obviously she has earned every ounce of her success, but she’s traded a lot of her privacy for that. This album feels like she’s reached a point where she realizes she will NEVER be able to give him what he wants/needs, and she has been putting her needs/wants/aspirations aside in pursuit of that. So either she puts aside her career for a relationship where she worries he’s not going to thrive, or they end a lovely relationship because they are always both going to be a little bit dissatisfied.
@corneliastreet I love your thoughtful and insightful reply. You touch on so many valid points. I think someone wise out there has said sometimes the hardest heartbreak is the kind where nobody really does anything wrong, it's just circumstances or life.
@@SarahBurnette1007 100% You can love someone so much, but if your core values or desires in life don’t align, it’s just a matter of time before one or both of you is asked to sacrifice something non-negotiable and you reach an impasse.
Watching this and reading through the thoughtful insights from the comments definitely made me appreciate this record more. My god. This needs a second part- a deep dive with the 3 AM tracks and Hits Different!
Definitely need to listen to it again from this perspective. I couldn't figure out a theme to this album. Maroon + Bejeweled + labyrinth made me think of breaks up immediately, but as I listened to more songs, I thought mastermind + you're on your own kid + karma talked about her career as opposed to a love life/ break up. This combination together just makes something add up for me in a way i can't articulate. Must listen again (for the billionth time)
Wonderful analysis. I think she drew inspiration from past relationships and why they went wrong while also ruminating on her current relationship and seeing it’s demise. It’s similar to folklore and evermore where she created fictional stories based on her own experiences (in my opinion).
I think in some ways Midnights is both autobiographical (at least more than Folk/Ever were) and fictional. The use of archetypes to describe the narrator like Anti-hero and Mastermind more create a barrier of sorts so the text doesn't consume real life, there's definitely a storytelling aspect that doesn't feel diaristic like early records were for sure.
@@EljohnMacaranas “Stare directly at the sun” is that her speaking her mind to Joe? “but never in the mirror...” but she’s the Moon which makes her the mirror to the Sun?
Agreed. One more thing that i noticed for being a break up album is that it starts with the clock from Groundhog day. The movie about one day keep happening over and over the same. So she has fed up with the routine.
Thank you. for a very good analysis of the poetry including the musical comments - isn't it interesting how much the Poet's context interacts with the poetry's impact, relatability, and the reader's experience of the art? And, along with multiple millions of others, I'm still rooting for Taylor Swift.
If we're being real, she gave so many signs...as far as Lover(Cornelia Street, Afterglow etc etc), folklore(hoax, peace)....sorry but people who think that the albums shouldn't be looked at retrospectively with the breakup news are delulu.
I think when it comes to diaristic writers, it’s almost negligence to not revisit records with context. I will say though that we can’t use albums to exactly pinpoint what happened like some crazy Tumblr stans have been doing. Love them but it’s invasive sometimes!
@@EljohnMacaranas I think the Tumblr stans are reading everything wrong. They miss all the deep allegorical significance. Like Daylight literally has Platonic themes. (I could link you to a Nazi crackpot site as well that has some... interesting thoughts regarding the colors gold and red... she uses them for symbolism in a similar way to how the Nazis advocate actually...)
This was recommended and I am so glad about that, I really love your eloquence! So I didn't know about her personal life but when I first listened to the album I was sure it's a sad melancholic album. Sure stars write songs and often publish them years after the fact that inspired it, but it seems she is writing and publishing in a short period? Thank you for this very respectful analysis! will now explore your channel
Thank you for watching! Again, I think it’s important to respect boundaries and stop at some point of analyzing a public persona. I left TikTok bc my feed was filled with baseless weird conspiracy theories about Taylor and other celebs actually. Which made me go ick. I’ve always admired Taylor’s candor and quickness to publish so fast. For some fans, they definitely felt as if they were growing up with Taylor which seems magical.
"I just wanna stay in that lavender haze" a relationship can fizzle out. I think of Bejeweled... and I'm reminded how she showed up alone at the awards without Joe and was really letting lose, and enjoying herself. I was happy for her.
Maybe because I’m not a fan who hears all the commentary from Swift or knew too much about the relationship, but when I heard random songs from this album it seemed clear the relationship was the rocks. It actually surprised me that they were still together and I think publicly saying, oh, we just like sad songs. I don’t enjoy a song saying, I’m the problem. Wish them both well.
i’ve noticed many parallels with midnights and TTPD, Labyrinth & Guilty As Sin (hedge maze), Maroon and Chloe (scarlet maroon), it seems like some of that pining and longing for another is captured in this album and we didn’t even notice
This is honestly a really interesting and compelling lense to look at the album with. When i listened to it the first time, I thought it was good, but was confused at all the seemingly contradictory themes. You have romantic songs praising the narrator's muse like Labyrinth, Sweet Nothing, Lavender Haze; and then there's songs that imply a breakup or resentment, Bejeweled, Question, Midnight Rain. This offers a really interesting and logical view!
I think the fact it’s contradictory makes it so much more interesting than something like Lover which for the most part might be her most direct to the point face value record to date.
If you think about Mastermind being about her career (with seducing a lover just being a metaphor) then it's also a culmination of the ideas in YOYOK and Bejeweled, choosing her dreams and "sparkling" over an unsatisfying relationship
I made a followup about You’re Losing Me and the Til Dawn versions! Check it out if you want more Midnights analysis! Thank you! 💜
Just watched your reputation video and was thinking of New Year's Day: "I want your midnights." Taylor has never been shy about her anxiety and self-doubt; she leads with her heart, no matter how many times the world breaks it. In the documentary for folklore, she talks about "peace" and how difficult her celebrity is for other people; and for her *self*--who she is in the rare moments when the world isn't watching--which she perceives as being "tolerated" rather than celebrated. She is larger than life, inside and out, and knows she hasn't truly found someone who can embrace and love her the way she is capable and deserving of. It "could've been, would've been, should've been" Joe. He was "more than just a short time"; "bigger than the whole sky." She wants his midnights; but in her Midnights, ultimately, she's alone.
I just realized, midnight is when the spell is broken and the fairytale love story is over. The Bejewelled video was even Cinderella themed, and there's the allusion to Disney princesses in the line "like I'd be saved by a perfect kiss."
😭😭😭 (disney pls cast her in a princess movie written/directed by her)
and “tale as old as time” in anti hero could be a beauty and the beast reference??
That is genuinely so perfect. Wow.
Actually I think instead of turning back into a peasant that she’s turning into a full-fledged Disney Queen 👑 (but not a wicked one, that was for Reputation). Remember the album Lover almost got named Daylight. So this is her turning from the sun and heading back into the allegorical Cave, back to the darkness, to be a bright shining Moon Goddess I guess (like Diana/Artemis the archer with a bad habit of shooting down all her boyfriends)
@@nuclearcatbaby1131 this. is. perfect.
I think Midnights is incredible as a breakING up album - the slow burn of paranoia and uncertainty as you try to work out if you should still be with someone, returning to the truth of the love and trust you know you had and not knowing if its just a memory now or still there, if the future you were so certain of still exists. Especially as its a truly long term relationship, with no dramatic betrayals etc, there's no clarity, nothing to make the decision for you - just staying up past midnight trying to make sense of who you are and where you should be.
I think you nailed it!
Aaaah! Great reading! The emphasis on Midnight and past that time itself… I never quite got why it was highlighted until now
This is so beautifully articulated. Sometimes the hardest breakups are the amicable ones, where nobody did anything wrong but the love just dissolved.
Nailed it! Just…Excatly!
Beautifully written 💯
I feel like midnights was a reclaiming of her status. She’s showing the world she’s still bejeweled and can make a pop record again after lover. She’s admittedly chasing that fame and I’m all here for it. I think she explains that she was never ready to settle down and can still be a force. Look at all the records she broke. She is career driven and there is nothing wrong with that.
I see a lot of people on twitter criticize her for chasing records or being "charts/award obsessed." Um... don't you want your fave to win? I know external validation like numbers or trophies don't really matter but to some people, they really do. Lover was an experiment of sorts, Midnights is the culmination of everything she's learned. I'm so glad it's her "second" imperial era of sorts after 1989. Agreed!
Omg her song "midnight rain" makes so much sense 💥
@@EljohnMacaranas Right? It's such an odd criticism. It's like telling an athlete they're too obsessed with winning & they should stop competing so hard.
@@IvyCowboy Believe it or not, that was one of the weird criticisms I read ppl made about Michael Jordan (another GOAT in his respective field) 😭
@@EljohnMacaranas They did it to Simone Biles too. POC and women aren't supposed to achieve and hold on to that kind of success, I guess.
Their relationship was really going through a lot and "The Great War" portrays it beautifully.
That song felt WAY TOO REAL to not have been semi autobiographical
@@EljohnMacaranas hiding in plain sight!!
i think that one alludes to her time in hidding when everyone was cancelling her etc and when she made reputation
Bejeweled makes sooo much sense now. I kinda saw it as a partner who is holding you back from achieving your full potential.
I found it so… bizarre to release as a music video and a song when like you’re absolutely “in love”, I was bopping but major harsh vibes!
@@EljohnMacaranas I found that too with the lyrics of bejewel. It felt like Taylor was wanting more from Joe, e.g. "put me in the penthouse of your heart."
The fact she specifically chose her tear to be sapphire is a major nod this is about Joe given she has always associated the color blue with him.
Love the video and agree with a lot of the tales! But, I don’t think Bejeweled is about Joe. They were together for so long and the article says that the breakup was amicable, and they are still in good terms. I don’t see that relationship with Joe lining up with “walking all over my peace of mind.” This song, to me, is still a callback to Calvin Harris, as we know how unhappy that relationship was. But, I do think there is a sense of unresolve to Sweet Nothing, Midnight Rain is likely about Joe given the context, and I think Maroon probably is too.
@Michael West I mean it can based on multiple experience. She herself said that songs can't be reduced to one person. IMO the sapphire tear is specifically chosen to evoke her currently guy but some of the more sassy lines can be from another experience completely
I just love how respectful you were to Taylor and Joe in this video. So many people have been weird af on the internet since they've broken up. I'm glad you're being so understanding and keeping speculation out of it.
Thank you so much! It’s not my (or our) place to play guessing games about stuff we genuinely shouldn’t know about unless they want to share. I did want to share my reinterpretation of the record though! Just navigating my words around “he said, she said” and more on thematic stuff! There’s a clear divide between Taylor the artist and Taylor the person and if we are to discuss her music, we need to try and focus on the former.
@@EljohnMacaranas That's what the internet needs to hear! Great content 👌
I agree! It makes me really happy the amount of respect put into this video and focusing on it from a literary stand point and not literal because it is none of our business and Taylor has said countless times she wishes people would focus on her music and not her love life. GOSH shes such an insanely talented songwriter!
Nice choice with Matty. Did she really string the adoring little Swifties on for as long as two years of trotting out Joe-Joe whenever she wanted to be seen holding hands? Matty's got everything: addict, brags about "conquests", once said taking up with her would be "emasculating". Only thing would make it better is if he was "trans". Please, Swifties, follow her lead! That's what you want in a boyfriend. Not the decent human beings she's so fond of writing hate songs about. Guess Joe-Joe's will be next!
The interesting thing is that she indicated that she wanted the traditional roles in the past - she wanted to be a wife, a mother. "give you my wild, give you a child" - in peace; lover and the whole wedding speech; "I think he knows he'd better lock it down or I won't stick around; paper rings. And in midnights she talks about not wanting to be a bride or to stick with the traditional roles. It does sound like a break up album looking from other perspectives.
Midnights and Lover are connected the way Ever and Folk were, like all the text interacts with each other... but it's kinda wild how Midnights directly contracts a lot of the Lover lyrics. Maybe it's a change in priorities? Another commenter mentioned somewhere that the way the public and discourse about Swift's like shifted so hard from 2016 to now almost a reversal of sorts.
The Take did an analysis about how this breakup reflects a broader cultural shift away from these traditional goals, including being married by 30. It's a good watch combined with this video!
i also got the vibe that bejeweled was kind of a threat when reading the lyrics but idk
@@EljohnMacaranas i think she wrote this album when she had a feeling they were going to break or she knew they were growing apart they were gonna end eventually
i truly believe her soulmate is her career. she has become the product she was always destined to be.
Honestly, I think sometimes a person’s greatest love is the work they do or the actions they commit in their lifetime. And that’s perfectly valid!
@@EljohnMacaranas right on, i fully agree
I saw a comment on one of Taylor's Swift song wherein it said "Taylor wanted to name album "Lover" as "Daylight" and she referred to Joe as Daylight. He is sunshine. Then comes this album Midnights. She is midnight rain. Daylight's opposite is Midnights. So, it could be related. Still, I wouldn't call it breakup album. Though, I see the hidden theme. Sorry for my poor English.
Your english is great! I got everything you meant to say.
Your English is great!
I just also thought of another connect with this theory: in her song “peace” theres a line where she says “I’d give you MY sunshine, give you my best, but the rain is always gonna come if you’re standing with me”
which somewhat connects to him being her sunshine, and though she tried her best, there will always be (midnight) rain with her.
“he was sunshine i was midnight rain.”
Absurd... Joe is not sunshine at all. PLEASE. And that song was clearly not about him...
@@devyneecarrell even if it is or isn’t ab joe, more like a lover in general, it’s so dope to have that daylight-peace-midnight rain connection
After this breakup my interpretation of peace also changed. I believe she looked at Joe as this superior person( it's like I am wasting your honour)because he loved her at the lowest point. After success of red tv her priorities changed. Now she got more focused on her career.
That's honestly really insightful. Reputation and the lead-up to it was probably the one of the darkest periods of her life. I recall watching this crazy video essay about Jurassic World that had a tidbit about how relationships formed in turbulent life situations seldom last.
Yes and that's actually pretty toxic. Like every song she wrote for him, it's always him being the perfect one and her being the one full of flaws. He might be very helpful navigating her life back in 2016 but he ain't her savior. The only one who is responsible to save you is no one but yourself.
@@anisanurraudah8383 well said 👏
@@anisanurraudah8383 well she actually says it in call it want you want “you don’t need to save me, but will you run away with me?”
@@anisanurraudah8383 to be fair though, I do believe his love for her ultimately played a part in rebuilding her confidence slowly over the years. It’s really a shame when this happens in a relationship, but I have seen it happen before; someone loves you at your lowest point and lifts you up to the point where you feel able to walk without holding their hand any more.
Something to add about Maroon: in the lyric video, the lyrics in the bridge are "that's a real fucking legacy, to leave" (and in the booklet there's an ellipsis), meaning that the specific legacy that the person left on Taylor was leaving
wait the ellipsis was in the booklet?! oh god… 😭
I LOVE YOU
😂
Midnights makes so much sense now that they’ve broken up!
It’s an even better record when we realize Midnight Rain is sorta the thesis of the record and why it’s just sitting there in the center with Question…? 😭
@@EljohnMacaranas bigger than the whole sky is crazy now too…
@@Jamieswiftie13 oh that song hurts more now 😢
@@EljohnMacaranasalso.. it must be exhausting always rooting for the anti hero 💔
@ask taylor i'm going to yell "taylor you'll be fine" so loud at my eras show now
The idea of a Taylor Swift album "multiverse" is a proof that Taylor herself, is poetry...
it’s her universe and we’re living in it
Honestly, Midnights confused me until now. I kept having to shake Joe out of my head when envisioning the breakup songs. Even if they all were about former beau's, I would imagine a fair bit of discomfort hearing one's current love writing in a pining way about them. Like, ?, why are you "just asking" a question about what could have happened if things went differently with HS? Also, let's remember artists have subconscious themes they are not always aware of.
Right? I also got this sense of impeding doom when I first heard the album, especially with how she describes her relationship with Joe on Sweet Nothing. It sounds very melancholic and monotonous and almost like a break up song and Taylor seems to be the type of person who needs to feel that thrill and a bit of chaos in order to not get bored. It really is exhausting to root for the anti-hero when she keeps self sabotaging 😭
I wouldn't like being in a relationship with someone while they describe an ex as a meteor strike and say I'm second best 😂 I kind of overlooked it because she said the songs were inspired by moments scattered throughout her life, but now it makes more sense...
@@purplebutterfly314 a valid point only if you are oblivious to the entire premise and theme of the album. it’s kind of an anthology album, as taylor has explicitly stated that the said songs were written at different points of her life, not specifically during the course of her and joe‘s relationship.
@@folkwh0re right? i don’t get why people are trying to interpret an already blatantly explained album?? she said it herself, and unless she says otherwise it really makes no sense to decode something that doesn’t need it.
I know. “The 1” weirded me out too.
@@folkwh0re no she said the song were written recently about events from different times in her life, they weren't written at those times
hearing this album again after my girlfriend cheated on me and we broke up was so... theraputic. like yeah red is THE taylor swift breakup album the majority of us grew up too but midnights feels much more mature in how it handles its themes -- and looking at it from a breakup/relationship-ending lens makes that even clearer.
Red will always be like the quintessential breakup record for anyone who was in their teens and early 20s hence why I think Gen Z revived interest so fast bc it was timeless. Midnights is definitely for the crowd that’s grown with Taylor or are a bit older. I found some of my friends who don’t follow pop like I do clung onto this one in a way they weren’t around for Lover
This is so interesting. Regardless of anything tbh, when Midnights came out it gave me this.. feeling.. that I found pretty uncomfortable. I didn't know how to understand those songs. And now after these news or rumors or whatever the feeling really got even heavier.
I think you mentioned this but the thing about midnights, is that if it is/if we look at it as a breakup album, it's definitely not a traditional one. It emphasizes all the ways a relationship and its end can be nuanced and complicated.
It's definitely an interesting perspective to view this album..
It’s for sure not a traditional heartbreak record like Red, which does so many things well and is a classic but i r admire midnights for being nuanced for taking place not linearly but across different dimensions and emotions, it doesn’t feel like a beginning middle end record so much as an anthology of anxiety, unease, acceptance, self-love, empowerment, all these complicated emotions that come with a big life change
It made more sense to me than Evermore which is an album for old ladies
I agree. I got this same feeling from it that I couldn’t make sense of it. I know it’s based on 13 sleepless nights, and I do believe the stories on this album are influenced by previous relationships/re-listening to her previous albums for pre-records. But that never explained this underlying tone throughout, something deeply unsettling.
I do believe she was subconsciously grappling with emotions she was experiencing in the present through the lens of past experiences. Writing is such a strange boiling pot of ideas stewing away. Now, with the breakup news, the tone of the album makes sense to me and I can sum it up in one word: cathartic.
As she said in dear reader, “As I wander through these nights / I prefer hiding in plain sight”
I fell to my knees at my Target just now 😭
@@EljohnMacaranas awww yeah you made me think of that when you said “hiding in plain sight” 🤯🤯🤯
Return to house not home all alone….and I pace with my pen….how did we miss this?!
@@kristina86reacts
right! I don’t know how people aren’t talking about that line more? The first time I heard it I thought she said, “two halves not a whole to a home all alone because nobodys there” and immediately got vibes that Joe was no longer in the picture.
Exactly! I just listened to dear reader as a breakup song and it just makes so much more sense overall. I was thinking midnights was just about things that kept her up in the past, but maybe some of the present was in it too as she watched her most precious relationship fall apart. "never take advice from someone who's falling apart"
My favorite line in Bejeweled is definitely "I miss you but I miss sparkling" -- dang, it was there all along! This is indeed a breakup/breaking up album!
That line sounds so much sadder out of the context of the song, I’d love an acoustic version of the record one day
I always saw Mastermind like the pina colada song. That she thought she was being a mastermind, but in actuality, he saw through it, allowing it and was being a mastermind as well, cause he wanted her too.
@asava17 If you mean, He could see through her act to coincidentally meet up with him and impress him, yes.
now thats even more tragic 😭😭😭
I mean she does says "then saw a wide smirk
On your face, you knew the entire time
You knew that I'm a mastermind"
@@Jsjsjsjdjjsj Exactly! Which is why I don’t see how it is a sad song at all. He wasn’t tricked, he wanted them same thing, saw what she was doing, and allowed her to act the mastermind.
i didn't really get bejeweled before this, but when i think that it's about picking yourself up after a breakup/heartbreak (i can *still* make the whole place shimmer) i have a new appreciation for it. songs like maroon and midnight rain also change with this context.
I think the album is purposely vague but that’s the magic of it all, we can recontextualize and make the songs ours throughout time. Taylor’s always said once the songs are out they aren’t (narratively) hers (they def do belong to her fuck scooter) but ours as well!
@@EljohnMacaranas that is what makes her a true artist.
To be honest I thought that it‘s just about her still standing after everything she‘s been through and also about being so damn successful after all this time since many artists are only popular for a short period time nowadays
I think Bejeweled is about Calvin Harris. He treated her pretty poorly and it’s about her picking herself back up and going to the Met Gala by herself.
@@lbeard7661 I believe it's about joe. She says" Baby boy I think I have been too good of a girl". I believe joe is the baby boy. I believe the biggest shade she gave to calvin harris was not writing about him.
Lover was the ultimate love album which was originally supposed to be called ‘Daylight’ so Midnights does seem like a break up album. Because in a literal sense as well, Midnights is the complete opposite of Daylight (Lover). Taylor loves using symbolism very much.
She released the song anti hero because she knew she'd be breaking up with him and didn't want to deal with all the hate. She's one smart cookie
Good catch!
I felt like Labyrinth was about the beginning and completion of a relationship, and the first time I heard it I thought “oh no, I hope her and Joe are ok”.
I never really considered that reading when I first heard the song. You always assume that people get out of the maze but forget sometimes you leave completely different ways than when you came in. Together or apart.
Makes sense. Taylor did once say "everything that falls gets broken" and the song repeats "falling in love again "
I had a very similar thought the other day while listening to Lavender Haze. The acoustic version came up on shuffle and I had never heard it before (and I am almost skipped bc I was like RIP) but then I got sucked in by how different the instrumentation of the acoustic version sounds. It completely changed the vibe of the song compared to the original. Like I don’t know that much about music theory but I want to say the guitar is in a minor key or something? It sounds sad.
And it got me thinking. The original production is so upbeat and dreamy that it made me feel like Taylor was talking about how she is currently in the lavender haze with her bf and she doesn’t want it to end, i.e., she wants to stay with Joe. But the sadder sounding vibe of the acoustic version made me have an entirely new interpretation of the song. Like maybe she’s saying she wants to stay in the lavender haze, and she’s no longer in it with Joe, so she’s going to leave. I likened lavender haze to the honeymoon phase when a relationship is just starting and you’re both so passionate and infatuated with each other. But once you’ve been in a relationship for a long time, you move past the honeymoon phase and into a more mature type of love. It’s not bad, just different. So yeah that kinda blew my mind to think of it in a totally new way.
Perfectly said
This is exactly what I was thinking when I first listened to it!
Ya, I always interpreted it as trying to hold onto that Lavender Haze, especially toward the end when it’s fading.
I don't know why but I always read Lavender Haze as a sad song. It gives me the feeling of the narrator being under pressure somehow.
I loved your analysis of the album a lot by the way!
I feel like even the way the drums hit on it has this melancholic almost ominous feeling to it. Like I still buy the theory it’s very connected to I Think He Knows but like I Think He Knows is the sunshine version and this one’s midnight rain. Thanks for watching!
I do think Midnights could be a "side B" of Lover, but I also think it's not necessarily a break up album. I think Lover is naif love, a form of love that doesn't question much and just believes, forgives, falls into it, sparks, and all that. But Midnights it's a deeper perspective, like you really sat there and thought about it all over again, maybe when you are a little older and more experienced in life. I think I can relate some songs as if they were another perspective of the same thing:
Me! / Anti-Hero
Soon you'll get better / bigger that the whole sky
Cornelia Street / Maroon
Afterglow / The great war
Miss Americana / Lavender haze
The archer/ You're on your own, kid
Paper rings / Sweet nothing
Daylight / Snow on the beach
Some other songs, as Taylor said, are about other moments of her life. But I think the general idea is that she stayed up all those midnights overthinking and reliving situations, so she got a deeper view on things we heard before.
Oh and
I forgot that you existed / Bejeweled
I always felt like Lover was the side B to Red since it was supposed to be called Daylight and I felt like it was a transitional album where she plays around with a bunch of different genres as she moves to the next one. Maybe she was planning for something like Midnights to follow it up but then 2020 happened and she unexpectedly gave birth to twins...
Same analysis as you. Lover the naive, young version, hopeful and still somehow "formated" in this role, this role, this public image. And Midnight being the dark version, afterward, burned by, kind of growing out of it. And also being more a personal narrative, introspective this time, like a change of pov between the 2. But I don't think that the initial theme was breaking up or a break up despite it.
ts mentions religion a lot in lover too and what you're saying is kinda similar. like lover being "a form of love that doesn't question much and just believes.." and midnights being the "deeper perspective" also this comment is not to offend anyone!
@@LaasyasLucky It is not offensive at all. But yeah you're right, religion is there a lot in this record. It surprised me, I didn't thought that it was something for her.
All I want to say is, amazing analysis, really changed my whole perspective on the album, thank you so much for sharing this! 🤩
Thank you for watching! ❤️
Oddly, I think Vigilante Shit and Karma can both fit in thematically as well.
With Vigilante Shit, the narrator is kind of laying out her "mastermind" tendencies before the closing track, and exercising her agency with zero thought to her partner. If you think of it through that lens, it makes sense. Harkening back to "you're on your own kid," she mentions plotting as well, so there are tinges of conquest, narcissism and the idea of needing absolute control and autonomy over those in her life both kind and malevolent.
With Karma, it's similar. The narrator puts herself on a pedestal, using luck and Karma as reasoning for all of these good things happening and continuing to happen for her while her enemies suffer. I look at it almost as a reassurance to herself-- regardless of if this breakup happens and it really is over, she had "the guy on the screen" come straight home to her right now, and good things will continue for her. I look at is as anxious in a way, saying KARMA is her boyfriend replaces the narrator's actual boyfriend, and the catchy chorus is her simply reassuring herself through her own insecurity. "Look at all of these great things I did and I am. I will be fine. I will be fine. Good things are coming."
There are a ton more layers to this record now that the breakup happened, because all of these songs were theoretically written before the final breakup. It's very interesting to see Taylor peel back the layers of humanity and stardom, fame and love in such a complicated way.
Thank you for taking the time to write that out! Honestly I feel like you’re right on the money.
Ya! Karma is now her new boyfriend 😢
She’s not playing the humble little girl anymore. She’s showing some healthy narcissism and I’m loving it. I knew she was plotting something deep down... I seriously think I found an Easter egg on the LWYMMD video that nobody else has... remember her sawing off the wings? That’s Epstein’s plane.
Waittt this actually makes so much sense! I remember listening to Midnights and being frustrated/disappointed with how even the “love songs” all sounded so sad and moody for seemingly no good reason… but that all makes so much more sense from this perspective!
I'm so glad someone else is talking about this. I sensed a shift when I saw her release the Red remakes last year. She just looked like a woman getting ready to leave. Midnights also felt like a breakaway album, like she was finding herself again in the darkness. She is a powerful artist.
For real! I’m prepping my final video about it (covering the Til Dawn version which does confirm the record’s meaning)
@@EljohnMacaranas can't wait to watch it! ❤️
i like this take, i think it really makes sense under this context. I also think the problem with Midnights as an album is that Taylor marketed it as a concept album, something darker and more vulnerable than anything before and it failed to deliver that with the pop production and fun songs., the aesthetic makes way more sense seeing it through the breakup lense
Agreed on the marketing feeling off, the picture set really had me convinced it was going to be a Rock-tinged record or something a bit darker than what we got. I do think if we use the breakup lens it feels more justified but yeah the shock I had release night was… huge.
@@EljohnMacaranas honestly, it reminds me of an interview she did years ago when a woman was asking her who the song “Style” was about and obviously trying to pin her for a specific answer. She explained how it’s about ever-changing fashion and trends; but you could tell she was just glossing that over (to protect her and his privacy, of course).
I felt the same vibe with the marketing of this album. It felt like she was trying to gloss over the real, bigger truth. It’s fine, obviously. But when it came out and it didn’t feel like 13 midnights scattered throughout her life, it felt off.
It’s a bit sad she felt the need to do that, but also, absolutely understandable.
@@hofhofandaway I seriously think the title “Style” is a red herring. She knew people would take the bait to hide the fact that it’s about Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez. It’s a subtle way of letting Selena know her relationship is toxic as is very subtly conveyed in the song without being too pushy or interfering.
Kudos for Taylor on not using an ex for the marketing this time around. She was just honest with her feelings and respected Joe's privacy. Her maturity all over her writing just made this album timeless. The narrator is an imperfect human who is aware of her limitations. BEAUTIFUL.
The usage of a narrator starting from Folklore onwards... just brilliance overall.
@Army of One just because they were still dating doesn't mean they weren't on the rocks or having personal problems. Maybe it was unintentional or maybe she was having doubts and wanted to accurately portray what a healthy relationship looks like for a lot of people, by expressing the doubt an darker aspect of being in love and being with the person who you think is the one.
@Army of One you must not have listened to all the lyrics. She literally has a song about her being the problem and how she fully acknowledges that her company can be toxic at times which could have also contributed to their break up. Especially when the only comment from Taylor's PR team was that they separated due to their differences. She didn't romanticise and dramatised to make herself look good. She wrote her journey still full of hope and love but realistic enough to acknowledge that their relationship was not in a good place.
@@EljohnMacaranas yes! I'm quite excited for her next album. Her journey in her 30s as a mature ambitious woman for sure is gonna be epic and heartfelt.
@Army of One ok then we’ll give you time to cope lmao
After I've listened to TTPD (which is sad but the narrator has accepted her fate)... I think Midnights sure was a hearbreak album.. the confusion, the pain, the fear, the struggle to hold on and the delusion of the narrator all makes sense now... Wow
I think it’s the prologue to this album. The origin story before she became the Chairman.
@@EljohnMacaranas Glad I found your channel ❤️
YESSS it makes so much more sense . I think they broke up in private and because it was private she needed to break the news. They felt like after a few good shows of the tour that it was a good time to tell the world Taylor’s single again. Every piece of Taylor’s art means something extremely important to her and she said that this album is really relevant to her life right now. She also said before the lover song last night that she has some songs she’ll be singing that we’re how she felt at one point in her life. 😞
Oh, watching the Lover part of the tour is gonna wreck me.
It makes more sense now that she wore the cape and hood from Ready For It as she sings “I miss you. But I miss ✨ Sparkling ✨
Wait… I forgot about that.
@@EljohnMacaranas Joe always wanted her to be “private” and I don’t think that’s really in Taylor’s nature. She loves her fans and wants to interact with them and share lots of her life with us. I don’t think this song is about Calvin Harris. I think it’s about Joe.
I think a very important information people are missing is there’s evidence on the songs that they broke up and got back together, that’s why there are break songs, songs about exes, and love songs.
That does makes sense! I honestly never bought Maroon or Midnight Rain being about those two. Like sure there’s long running motifs but like the emotionality and depth the songs have are like you said about an enduring relationship, not quite some short term thing.
@@EljohnMacaranas Don’t forget This Love. Written back during Red yet it references the clear blue water she associates with him.
Also in OOTW she mentions the number 20 (“stitches in the hospital room”) followed by the sun coming up... the same motif found on “Daylight” and “Lover” and a few others... that was the only song on 1989 I was sure was about Harry (Style is about Jelena, let’s get real) but after the Lover album putting some of this old symbolic imagery into context I’m not so sure anymore... well she did write it while in a trance...
I forgot how good midnight rain was lol…I think it’s time to listen again to midnights
Midnight Rain hits different! Love it so much now, might be my fave rn!
when you said rubies i gave up was connected to king of my heart shocked me because i always felt like maroon’s production always reminded me of king of my heart’s
Allegedly someone on TikTok forgot who said they thought it’s instrumental reminded them of the Rep Tour KOMH Interlude 😭💀 and I think it kinda sounds like it!
I think 3 am version really hammers in the fact that it’s a breakup album. The Great War is about fights & lack of trust & promises or ultimatums that this won’t happen again. Paris, though romantic, is like Lavender Haze in that they had to be completely cut off from the world around them-and convince themselves of the truth of the pretend alleyways and champagne- to be in a loving place where she could freely express her emotions and he could be “brainwashed into loving her forever”. Glitch is about a relationship that the narrator never wanted, but ended up being love even so. She saw red flags (blood moon), but felt they were fake because of the good thing they had. But after years of being in solitude together, the system was breaking down. The extended album ends with the narrator being in a trap, a pen, alone with no love & no friends.
Champagne Problems, Tolerate It, and Cowboy Like Me sounds so different to me right now after their breakup. 😭
It feels like Joe wanted to settle but Taylor isn't ready yet.
Cowboy Like Me was one of the surprise tour songs so far 😭
No she ended it. It wasn't the life he wanted. She's having a meltdown getting her PR to spread him cheating fallacies and pretending to be SO SO HAPPY announcing it on stage no less.Getting her friends to unfollow him and pretending to be the injured one for sympathy and the strong one to leave him. She is devastated and is acting like she's in love with another and the HAPPIEST she's ever been. Lol You don't act like that if you are really happy especially if you broke someone's heart. It's all so petty mean-girl scorned antics that most can see right through. If she ended it she wouldn't be rubbing it in his face. Joe was the love of her life. Her shattered fairytale.
True, but Folklore and Evermore also clearly took from fiction so I'd take it with a grain of salt. People are trying to see things in her songs that may not actually be true because she made them up.
Listening to the album this is all I was thinking about, that everything was said perfectly about where she’s at and how things have been going. “I made you my world don’t you know I can reclaim the land” is so beautiful and strong post breakup
The line might be one of her all-time lyrics years from now, I kinda was shocked some criticized the lyrical integrity of Midnights on release. Even working with the known limitations of the pop genre (short run time, need for catchiness, etc.), there are hidden gems in the work.
I love how there are so many hidden hints and easter eggs in everything Taylor Swift does. I already liked the midnights lyrics before, but now that I kind of understand what she really meant this has a whole new meaning because I mostly connected them with my own life and that‘s why I had a different view of them. The things you mention really make sense and show me a lot more about how the lyrics are meant from Taylor‘s perspective.
I think often times we take possession of songs and meanings ourselves, with other artists than Taylor I tend to not care so much why the song was written or whom it could be about.
That‘s true. I make some music myself and think that it‘s really important to connect lyrics and melodies with your own feelings and interpretation. But when it comes to Taylor Swift songs I‘m really interested in what she wanted to express with something because I feel like everything she does has a reason or a meaning. She wouldn‘t write lyrics without wanting to tell us something specific, and I‘m really glad if people make the effort to help people like me find it.
I think that's what makes Taylor so brilliant. Everyone can relate her songs to their lives in one way or another.
@@lisajones6107 Very true :)
It makes a lot of sense that this was my favorite album when it came out, and I was listening to it in repeat. I have been going through a rough patch with my husband for the past few months, and I connected with the songs in the way you outline here as more of a pending demise of a breakup.
I agree with you and I have respect for how you framed it. The best part of songwriting is using your own experience as a guide, and making it relatable to others going through the same things. As an older TS fan, I just hear the songs, I don’t speculate much.
Her writing is like Paul Simon. When I listen to “America” I don’t consider who Kathy is. Just the idea of telling a sleeping partner that you’re empty and aching, and you don’t know why.
I feel like the time the songs were unavoidably diaristic is long past. We saw in parts of Lover and the Folklore/Evermore duology a drift away from that, I think the magic of her music was never what it said about her but rather the memories we assign to the songs. We’ll forget who Holy Ground is about but we’ll never forget the time we experienced it for ourselves. Hard agree with Paul Simon!
I Truly think joe wanted marriage and kids and Taylor was like "let's wait I'm focused on my career, i am the biggest Pop star in the world and i need to keep the momentum going"
Their goals didn't allign, and I also think she's trying to recreate or have something similar to a previous relationship, probably Harry styles
Honestly, valid wants for both people! Not my place to say but if I was in her shoes I’d take it slow before dating again. I had a good friend break up with their partner after 8 years (YEAH) and they’re single and thriving and chill! Wishing Taylor and Joe all the best!
Eh I think she never truly got over Jake. But yea I guess Styles was also a force in her romantic life. I found it to be rather strange how she kept holding onto conversation with him at the Grammys for Folklore.
Eh I think she never truly got over Jake. But yea I guess Styles was also a force in her romantic life. I found it to be rather strange how she kept holding onto conversation with him at the Grammys for Folklore.
@@hofhofandaway She and Harry are gal pals
personally I think that the previous relationship was with Karlie Kloss
If these rumors are true, then Swift is a true innovator for creating a "forecasted break-up album"
I wouldn't say forecasted. I talked to a good friend of mine today (who mentioned watching this video) who did break off an engagement recently and seemed sorta OK right after. Something she said that shocked me was her saying something "oh I'd been mourning the relationship for maybe a year before we broke up, I didn't know when it'd happen, but I knew it would." People are different but maybe Midnights was written during that time.
As always I want to be absolutely respectful and not speculate too too much. My analysis is about Midnights, the album as a persona. The closest I get to tackling the break up is Sweet Nothing. Thank you.
EDIT: a huge apology to anyone who was spoiled by the Succession joke... I really had not realized it wasn't public knowledge yet. I live on Twitter 24/7 and didn't account for the fact that people consume media differently than I do. I will NOT be making any spoiler jokes or references in future works unless it's something like Darth Vader being Luke's dad-level known.
Thank you, but I totally think you should still mute/remove that part of the video though!
@@eduardofromtx I’m working on having youtube cutting/muting the clip, I had them do that to a Lana video where I mispronounced something that upset fans of that song.
I started to appreciate this album now. It's amazing how her albums transform, depending on her real-life events. She wrote about things the public didn't know, but now that the full context has been revealed, it makes total sense. To me, this album felt like a b-sides album. But now, it feels full, deep, and complete.
I can’t help but recall how many people came around on Reputation (especially when that album got its tour!)
It’s crazy because midnights came out the day of my breakup, so I was destined to look at it through that lens of my personal life, and although I could see it being about love, I mostly saw themes of the breakdown of a relationship.
Wow! That’s wild but also I’m glad you had the album at that time in your life! I had Melodrama come out when I ended my first long term relationship and it really did help!
@@EljohnMacaranas oh wow! It’s crazy we had kind of similar experience, I’m glad that you had Melodrama also to get you through. Breakups are not for the faint of heart, but music definitely helps!
Honestly it makes the album feel so much more cohesive through this lens. Thank you!
No, thank you for watching! I genuinely was sorta worried ppl were gonna call me nuts!
I so love your thoughts on your intro! Simply deconstructing the album under the lens of breakup narrative. I love this. Very respectful way of appreciating art.
Thanks! I took extra time to sorta frame the video script around not being personal. I genuinely don’t ever want to be /that/ person who lines up dates or timestamps someone’s life under a microscope. I’d hate for someone to do that to me! I fully understand how artists selectively put parts of their real stories into works and how it’s parasocial to assume the whole story is out there or ours to know. Artistry is so much about persona and to be honest, I don’t want/need to know what happened.
For me, Midnights is lyrically cohesive album(kind of),and i think it could of easily been a visual record, has a cohesive story telling and themed very well, about reclaiming her albums, metaphorically saying that her albums are her jewels, and reclaiming her albums(jewels), about time and ageing like clockwork, also has a medieval imagery but also has a 70s aesthetic, using medieval themed words as lyrics,Fantasy like which themes very well with the concept of midnights, as like a dream where she fantasies and ables to build her castle, her career,ruling it and how she has made it all this time, going back to the past and re exploring, singularly making it after all this time. Starting the album with lavender haze, opening up by saying that she doesn’t want people scrutinising her, and all she wants is to be in her love bubble, starting off with lyrics like staring at the ceiling with you(in bed), entering into midnights, in a dream as this is all in her head, wanting to stay in this dream(love), the production i found really interesting is how the the vocal also spirals, making it more present, and that she is falling in love.moving on to Maroon ,Maroon has a sonically nightmarish sound, sounding more haunting and aged, using the colour maroon to solidify how red(this love) has aged, having flashbacks to the past with all the colours of red, reminding her of past failed relationships, waking her up from the dream, the nightmare,the love. Visually could show her running away but unable to escape with a marooned sky, clips of past relationships flashes in front of her then Going straight to anti hero, having thoughts about maybe she is the problem and exploring her anxiety,(I’ll continue writing but busy rn)
I never stopped to like realize how important the medieval imagery and lyricism was. Especially looking back at the castle and the way the words blend together and The Great War itself which I don’t talk about but fits if we think about that!
@@EljohnMacaranasLyrics like tale as old as time, love potion, pageant queens, reclaim the land… gives a lot medieval imageries, even sonically with some songs and the music videos especially from bejewelled(ofc),she also has used these lyricisms before,”fighting dragons with you” and plenty other ones talking about princesses and prince through her discography. This album feels like a conclusion of her past eras as well, leaving behind these tales she created, moving on, waking up from her dreams and maybe love after realising that they broke up, pursuing onward on her career. A lot like what you’re on your own kid talks about.
This was an interesting watch after TTPD!
I’m shocked how it aged pretty well, I was expecting TTPD to make it age poorly
@@EljohnMacaranas Must be satisfying! 😁
I wouldn't dismiss Snow on The Beach. Snow on a beach never lasts. It's impermanent and melts away. It's only temporary
Huh… now I can’t unhear that!
Good one
This makes so much sense as I cried soo much, thinking about my breakup, when I listened to the album on the first day
Awwww 😭
honestly, I listened to this album since release, and slowly seen my relationship fall apart with my ex around December, and now it's connected with me more than ever, and I see why... Dear Reader deserves to be analyzed into this... it's like her foreshadowing to the reader, to get away while you can...
Just listened to the whole Album again, she is genius. This is a genius breakup album! It kind of reminded me of the movie midsommar, while watching it you think the movie is just something, and then once you change the narrative of the movie being about the phases of a breakup it is a different movie in a way! I am having that same exact thing with this right now! 😂 all excited
Midsommar had me so gagged the first time I watched it
I agree with all of your analysis except with Mastermind bc I think that’s about her relationship w her fans 🥰
I like that read a bit better than mine! It’s sweet! 💙
Honestly, mastermind never made a lot of sense to me in the album, but I've recently heard this theory and started to think of this song in two different ways: first, is Taylor telling us about how she planned and schemed this whole relationship she's in (even though the whole rest of the album points to uncertainty and potential breakup); and the second way being that Taylor Swift put out a song called "MASTERMIND" and it's the 13th song on the album Midnights (also the first said to be biographical album since she began re-recordings) and it might not be about her relationship. The theory basically says Taylor is singing about the whole process of getting her MASTERS back. Because she is a business mastermind. The theory goes on to connect everything we know about her masters being stolen to the lyrics of the video, and the creator that came up with this actually thinks that Taylor already owns her masters, but can't tell just yet. Not sure if that could be true, but it's a VERY interesting and intriguing theory!
I have this theory (I don't know why but it feels this way) that Joe must have taken this album to hurt.. it's an album she made while he was away in shooting..so it's a letter about her state of mind.. deep thoughts of midnight to him.. and definitely break of communication..
Hmmm... Dear Reader might actually back that... I never quite bought it was just for fans. It seemed like it had a specific recipient.
Joe is Apollo the sun god while Taylor is Artemis the Moon Goddess who can’t stop shooting down her lovers (not even her own “twin brother” apparently)
In Labyrinth, Taylor first talks about hurting. Then she said uh oh, she's falling in love again. That Joe turned it around. So they got back together.
This is such a great analysis! You discussed so many perspectives that I would have never thought of! Love thisss
Thank you so much for watching! I think Midnights is a work that’ll age well over the years. Art is all about perception even if it’s not quite the original meaning or how it’s shown.
Love your analysis as always!! Context is everything. I don't think Midnights is quite a full breakup album, especially taking into account what TS said about its concept, which to me indicates it's more reflective of a broader story (her life, career, relationship history in general, etc.) that includes the events & emotions leading up to her split w/ Joe. Red is still the only album that I would consider a true breakup album in the way it portrays such a spectrum of emotions and feelings after the end of a relationship. But I have to say I do appreciate Midnights & its moodiness much more in this new light.
Sidenote, I think it's so strange to see the online reaction referencing TS11 upon hearing news of the breakup -- there's definitely something to be said about the whole culture surrounding tortured artists, the belief that artists make better work when they're going through pain or trauma, and what it means to make music that is confessional and diaristic in nature when it comes to the expectations of fans and critics, especially in the kind of commercial landscape music exists in. But that's definitely a completely different video/discussion!
Can't wait for the next one :)
Thanks for watching! And I do definitely get what you're saying. Especially about Red. I wanted to add that I think the romanticization of suffering for art is a huge issue. I know many writers (novelists and TV show writers funny enough) who tell me they're in therapy and feel as if they need to have their art reflect the pain they've gone through to be perceived as "legit" whether to other artists, producers, or their audience. I do think great art can stem from dark circumstances but I hate the expectation it needs to. Thanks again for tuning in!
Midnight is about leaving the sunlight to go back into the darkness. Re-entering the allegorical Cave. Joe was the real deal, there’s no denying that. But she just has to go do her own thing and be a Moon/storm goddess...
I definitely see this album differently now hearing the news and you did a great job analyzing it. I like that you made midnights into a persona cause fan analysis videos can get very weirdly parasocial at times. Oddly enough tho I think bejeweled might actually be one of the few songs that could give us some insight on their situation (if the alleged rumors are true) according to "sources" they were suppose to be on a break for her tour which could explain "when I meet the band they ask do you have a man I can still say I don't remember" and "I miss you but I miss sparkling" we will never know though and honestly? Good. I hate that the success of the eras tour is being out shadowed by relationship drama
Remember - her aura’s MOONstone. She’s the Full Moon and she’s being blocked by the rain clouds directly overhead like the Full Moon at midnight.
As someone in their early/mid 30s, there were "break-up red flags" everywhere, starting with lavender and going through. The story I heard as I first listened was not that of someone in a relationship that's going somewhere. The "calling traditional marriage notions in to question" theme was a huge red flag, as we're at the age where you get married, or you don't. Purely spec, but, if one of them wanted marriage and a family and the other wasn't ready yet, that could easily produce the arc we hear in the album. Thank you for the respect with which you went through this, I've seen a lot of anger and blame-throwing the last few weeks and I appreciate you putting this out without going there.
wonder if they broke up a long time ago.... and that's why taylor has decided to go on tour now that there is no man to come home to :/
That's so dark 😭
So that’s why this tour has a farewell vibe. I thought it was because she was going to settle down
This is a really good video. Plus, apart from being the past tense, Maroon constantly says 'I chose you' meaning that taylor was the one who CHOSE joe, but we don't hear 'You chose me' as in joe chose taylor. This could hint that the relationship was becoming one sided, with taylor CHOOSING joe, but joe not doing the same.
I think categorizing this as a break up album doesn't do it justice. If I had to pick a theme it's a personal growth.
She revisits 13 sleepless nights throughout her life and reevaluates these situations and reflect how they shaped her current 'me'. From dear John where she thought she should have known better to would've,could've, should've where she realized she couldn't have done anything nor should she have. She acknowledes that it left her with trauma of trust and insecurity causing her issues in her current relation ship. Personally I even think in bigger than the whole sky she mournes the loss of the woman she should have become since the titel of would've , could've should've directly mirrored in bigger than the whole sky.
Maroon feels like a conglomerate of all past relationship she categorized as red which are now just maroon and lost the vibrancy they once had. With questions and high infidelity she ties up these lose ends of unfinished buisnesses. From get away car where the whole theme was just escaping to high infidality where she more so give her reasoning why.
I agree there also is a reoccuring theme of social expectations like in lavender haze regarding marriage and the selling of this fairy tail. But in bejeweled she lived that dream yet something was missing. Something like selffullfillment which she found in her 'sparkling' / career/craft. Mastermind in my opinion has nothing to do with Joe but all with her fans neatly packaged in the allegorie a relation ship. We know Glitch is about Joe. But a glitch in the matrix is unexpected and not planned for at the point of design. So is a blackout. With her and Joe it's like woops that wasn't my Plan yet here we are. Just like in invisible string. It all happend for a reason even tho they weren't aware of it at the time yet in the end it all fell into place. And at that time she needed him to work through things (great war) but also as safe space and ancor to be her true self (sweet nothing).
All those sleepless nights shaped the person she is today for various reasons. Even with vigilante shit all those non sensical things that happend to her were in the end for a greater good. What brings me to karma. It's accepting that shit happens, letting things Run their course and being faithful that as long as you're able to still look in the mirror afterwards things will fall into place.
I truly feel this album reflects a realisation of why she is what she is, how that manifested itself during her life and that that's ok. But also I think she came to find out what she truly wants in life (bejewled) and that it's ok because she worked hard for it.Even if she's on her own as she made this happen all along by herself.
For me that's a lot of personal growth even tho she warns the reader not take an unstable persons advice but to me it looks like she has her shit figured out.
I don't think it's necessarily a *break up* album but an album about conflicts, both internal and in a relationship. What you said about impending doom makes a lot of sense, I feel like Taylor might have processed some conflicting emotions in this album without really knowing where it would go.
I always viewed maroon as being about Joe rather than a past breakup and assumed it was about a long past conflict rather than a long gone break up. (Maybe part of that is because initially I misheard "the rust that grew between telephones" as "the rose that grew between telephones" and that made me think that the couple in the song would be fine again)
Viewing this album through a breakup lens ( or as another commenter mentioned, a personal growth lens ) actually makes a lot of sense!!! I immediately like this album way more lol. Though initially I found the personal growth idea a bit weird, since so much of this album is about love and breakups, on reflection it makes more sense to me than a breakup theme. Taylor based her whole career on love, wanting love and feeling hurt from it. It won’t be a stretch to say her life goals often had love on a high pedestal as well. I guess this album is a culmination of her realising that actually, love isn’t as important to her as she thought it was, and it’s definitely less important than her career is, not equally. She mentions traditional relationship expectations a lot, and I think that feeds into this theory. Society teaches women to prioritise love, and it becomes so ingrained into your mind ( love being a heady , and almost universally wanted feeling doesn’t help this ) that it’s kind of hard to break free from that expectation, and it does require a LOT of reflection on past relationships and experiences with love. I recently had a breakup and the experience was….disillusioning, and it taught me that I value agency, independence, and ambition way more than I thought I did. I didn’t feel for him as strongly as he did for me, and he wanted a future with me way before I even considered it. In the wake of our breakup, I found myself thinking a lot about my past experiences with love, even wanting to write creatively about them or the lessons they taught me. It’s almost like I dealt with my present by looking deeply into the past. Only now I’m starting to want to write creatively about my ex and reflect on my relationship with him. It sounds pretty damn similar to midnights as an experience
Edit: on a personal note, ‘does it feel like everything’s just second best after that meteor strike?’ Is downright one of the most relatable lyrics she’s ever written for me. I fell for someone a few years ago who didn’t feel the same for me, and everybody since has really felt second best. I could never put that feeling into works before question
Question is also a song I love
Yesss I definitely had this weird feeling when the album was released and now it definitely makes sense, it's not fully a break up album but the theme is there and i love it!!
loved this analysis of midnights even though I don't necessarily agree with you on almost any of it lol. you certainly made me see how some verses could be interpreted differently in hindsight. although I completely disagree that midnights had a lack of thematic cohesion. imo midnights is her MOST cohesive album after folklore. midnights to me is almost like a memoir? like someone sitting down with you and telling you their life story in the 13 moments they feel define them the most as a person. although I agree that hits different…hits different after april 8th and if you are reading midnights as a breakup album it fits in perfectly as a bittersweet conclusion.
I approached this the way people make fan theories. I'd agree with you sonically but I never quite gelled the themes together even with the 13 separate moments. But that might be me not being a fan of anthologies. Hits Different... genuinely is kinda insane to close any version of the album. I know Target versions aren't "canon" per se but I did find it odd some fans listened to the record for the first time and it ended with that song.
This is a really thoughtful analysis. I've been exhausted by or maybe disinterested this idea because of the context I've been seeing it argued in (generally just not cute responses to the relationship/breakup) - but you did a great job of talking about album themes. I can appreciate this without needing information about their journey to and through the breakup. That said, I've always likened the content of The Great War (an all-timer for me) to Afterglow. Now I can see a trajectory from Afterglow to The Great War to You're Losing Me - the way conflict in a deep relationship can evolve, have beauty to it, but sometimes eventually become untenable.
I think being glib and sassy about Taylor and Joe’s personal business and like making timelines and looking at pics and stuff is weird. I’ve seen a few creators treat it like TMZ and I’m not interested in the sort. Taylor’s music IS autobiographical but it’s appeal is universality and relatability. Her stories morph into ours when we attach ourselves to a song. I think the music itself eventually overcomes the times it’s written in and instead of being “the one about so-and-so” it becomes a way to look at a general relationship (maybe even our own.) Love the three tracks you chose by the way, they do form a lovely and haunting trilogy.
Yes! This is what I think so. Thank God somebody pointed this out now.
Oh TikTok’s insanely faster than I was, I legit had to get off the app to make sure I wasn’t just regurgitating all of their takes!
Why i couldnt have seen this coming 😭😪the breakup caught me off guard hard also the theory that midnights is a breakup album is so fascinating
The release of Midnights caught me in the middle of an emotionally messy situation and it really resonated with me at that time. I found it comforting, it felt like home. For some reason that I couldn't really pinpoint. Now that people are seeing it as a heartbreak album in the light of the recent events, it suddenly makes so much more sense to me why it clicked with me in fall and it sort of validates my initial feelings about the album
Well, I'm devastated!😭 Now, I need to go listen to the whole album again.
It’s so much stronger from a melancholic POV 😭
Hits Different NEEDS to be on streaming!!!!
I'm so sad it's not up yet but it's the Target contract. I know New Romantics and the 1989 tracks took some time.
Or just buy it
i always thought anti-hero was an odd title(/promoted) track for the album before the breakup but now it makes much more sense
😭😭😭
i’m not gonna say this is definitively what happened but it’s pretty common for an artist to make art that reflects what they’re currently going through without even realizing it
We need to bring up the Bonus Tracks tho.
Paris. It's a reflection of where they were, but no longer.
High Infidelity. Revisiting the breakup with Calvin/Tom/ and into Joe's relationship.
I felt like the bonus tracks were hard to interpret because looking back they didn’t feel sequenced as thoughtfully as the standard but I do like interpreting Paris on there! I saw someone else say Glitch also seemed to speak volumes.
It’s so interesting that she described it as a “love blackout”, which at first seemed romantic like the lavender haze because it’s so cheerful and all-consuming. But on second reflection it’s kind of sad. She put her whole life on hold. She put her dreams on the back burner. He met her at a time when the media hated her, two albums that got slammed critically (even though they’re great), and then they were isolated in private during the quarantine. Even with all that isolation the beginning of their relationship was a little rocky, as evidenced by Cruel Summer and Afterglow and The Great War. What really gets me is Dancing With Our Hands Tied, “I knew that there was no one in the world who could take it.”
She knew he was a private person, and that due to the nature of her career and her aspirations her life would never be that way. Even in her most vulnerable love songs she’s plagued with anxiety…
“Past me, I want to tell you…”
“Who could ever leave me, but who could stay”
“One day I’ll watch as you’re leaving”
“Would it be enough if I could never give you peace”
“There was nothing in the world that could stop it.”
“I know that it’s delicate”
“I’m so terrified of if you ever walk away.”
She expresses this desire to live in their relationship bubble: Lavender Haze, False God, The Lakes, King of my Heart.
But she is still never able to shake those anxieties. It’s the same reason why peace is my favorite song of hers, as tragic as it sounds. All of the things she loved doing with him “walking the beach, meeting at a bar, hanging with his friends at the pub” aren’t things Taylor Swift can do. She even can’t go to a grocery store without a huge commotion. She’s had someone break into her private home. It’s not ever going to be a life he would be satisfied with, and she knows this.
Ultimately, she has sacrificed so much in pursuit of her career and obviously she has earned every ounce of her success, but she’s traded a lot of her privacy for that. This album feels like she’s reached a point where she realizes she will NEVER be able to give him what he wants/needs, and she has been putting her needs/wants/aspirations aside in pursuit of that. So either she puts aside her career for a relationship where she worries he’s not going to thrive, or they end a lovely relationship because they are always both going to be a little bit dissatisfied.
@corneliastreet I love your thoughtful and insightful reply.
You touch on so many valid points.
I think someone wise out there has said sometimes the hardest heartbreak is the kind where nobody really does anything wrong, it's just circumstances or life.
@@SarahBurnette1007 100%
You can love someone so much, but if your core values or desires in life don’t align, it’s just a matter of time before one or both of you is asked to sacrifice something non-negotiable and you reach an impasse.
Watching this and reading through the thoughtful insights from the comments definitely made me appreciate this record more. My god. This needs a second part- a deep dive with the 3 AM tracks and Hits Different!
Thanks for listening! I think a few comments on here like were pretty spot on.
Sobbing over "You're Losing Me" 😭
It’s too good 😭😭😭
Definitely need to listen to it again from this perspective. I couldn't figure out a theme to this album. Maroon + Bejeweled + labyrinth made me think of breaks up immediately, but as I listened to more songs, I thought mastermind + you're on your own kid + karma talked about her career as opposed to a love life/ break up. This combination together just makes something add up for me in a way i can't articulate. Must listen again (for the billionth time)
I’m on my like 3rd relisten this week!
Yeah she really wants her career’s BODY
Wonderful analysis. I think she drew inspiration from past relationships and why they went wrong while also ruminating on her current relationship and seeing it’s demise. It’s similar to folklore and evermore where she created fictional stories based on her own experiences (in my opinion).
I think in some ways Midnights is both autobiographical (at least more than Folk/Ever were) and fictional. The use of archetypes to describe the narrator like Anti-hero and Mastermind more create a barrier of sorts so the text doesn't consume real life, there's definitely a storytelling aspect that doesn't feel diaristic like early records were for sure.
@@EljohnMacaranas “Stare directly at the sun” is that her speaking her mind to Joe? “but never in the mirror...” but she’s the Moon which makes her the mirror to the Sun?
Agreed. One more thing that i noticed for being a break up album is that it starts with the clock from Groundhog day. The movie about one day keep happening over and over the same. So she has fed up with the routine.
I don't usually watch these kinds of videos, but I really enjoyed your thoughts on everything. I'm glad I watched. 💕
Thank you so much!!
It only hurts this much Right Now, is what I was thinking, The Whole Time.
💗
😭😭😭
Thank you. for a very good analysis of the poetry including the musical comments - isn't it interesting how much the Poet's context interacts with the poetry's impact, relatability, and the reader's experience of the art? And, along with multiple millions of others, I'm still rooting for Taylor Swift.
If we're being real, she gave so many signs...as far as Lover(Cornelia Street, Afterglow etc etc), folklore(hoax, peace)....sorry but people who think that the albums shouldn't be looked at retrospectively with the breakup news are delulu.
I think when it comes to diaristic writers, it’s almost negligence to not revisit records with context. I will say though that we can’t use albums to exactly pinpoint what happened like some crazy Tumblr stans have been doing. Love them but it’s invasive sometimes!
@@EljohnMacaranas I think the Tumblr stans are reading everything wrong. They miss all the deep allegorical significance. Like Daylight literally has Platonic themes. (I could link you to a Nazi crackpot site as well that has some... interesting thoughts regarding the colors gold and red... she uses them for symbolism in a similar way to how the Nazis advocate actually...)
This was recommended and I am so glad about that, I really love your eloquence! So I didn't know about her personal life but when I first listened to the album I was sure it's a sad melancholic album. Sure stars write songs and often publish them years after the fact that inspired it, but it seems she is writing and publishing in a short period? Thank you for this very respectful analysis! will now explore your channel
Thank you for watching! Again, I think it’s important to respect boundaries and stop at some point of analyzing a public persona. I left TikTok bc my feed was filled with baseless weird conspiracy theories about Taylor and other celebs actually. Which made me go ick.
I’ve always admired Taylor’s candor and quickness to publish so fast. For some fans, they definitely felt as if they were growing up with Taylor which seems magical.
you've opened my third eye
Thank you bubbletea! Now I need to go get some actual bubble tea 🧋rn!
HITS DIFFERENT IS FINALLY ON STREAMING ❤️😭❤️😭
Literally all my friends who didn’t get the Target version won’t think I’m crazy anymore! 😭 We made it! ❤️😭❤️😭
"I just wanna stay in that lavender haze" a relationship can fizzle out. I think of Bejeweled... and I'm reminded how she showed up alone at the awards without Joe and was really letting lose, and enjoying herself. I was happy for her.
Maybe because I’m not a fan who hears all the commentary from Swift or knew too much about the relationship, but when I heard random songs from this album it seemed clear the relationship was the rocks. It actually surprised me that they were still together and I think publicly saying, oh, we just like sad songs. I don’t enjoy a song saying, I’m the problem. Wish them both well.
i’ve noticed many parallels with midnights and TTPD, Labyrinth & Guilty As Sin (hedge maze), Maroon and Chloe (scarlet maroon), it seems like some of that pining and longing for another is captured in this album and we didn’t even notice
It’s wild how deep the lore goes like
This is honestly a really interesting and compelling lense to look at the album with. When i listened to it the first time, I thought it was good, but was confused at all the seemingly contradictory themes. You have romantic songs praising the narrator's muse like Labyrinth, Sweet Nothing, Lavender Haze; and then there's songs that imply a breakup or resentment, Bejeweled, Question, Midnight Rain. This offers a really interesting and logical view!
I think the fact it’s contradictory makes it so much more interesting than something like Lover which for the most part might be her most direct to the point face value record to date.
This album helped me through my breakup because I felt it was all about heartbreak and trying to get back to normalcy. It’s a great album.
If you think about Mastermind being about her career (with seducing a lover just being a metaphor) then it's also a culmination of the ideas in YOYOK and Bejeweled, choosing her dreams and "sparkling" over an unsatisfying relationship