Enchanting music and elation could be heard in and out of the commons when the clock struck 11 p.m. on Oct. 21. Almost a year after the release of ‘RED: Taylor’s Version’, Swifties celebrated 44 minutes of new music from the singer-songwriter, Taylor Swift.

‘Midnights’ is an alternate-pop genre album based on 13 sleepless nights throughout Swift’s career. Upon release, the album crashed Spotify. The album broke the record for being the most streamed album in a single day on the app.

Recently, Swift has been releasing re-recordings and vault tracks from previous albums, so many fans speculated that Swift would have continued this trend. When she made an announcement in August at the 2022 MTV Music Awards, little to no one guessed getting new music from the artist. 

Midnights, the stories of 13 sleepless nights scattered throughout my life, will be out October 21. Meet me at midnight.

Pre-order now: https://t.co/jjqUNkphuG pic.twitter.com/Fh96zK8vro

— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) August 29, 2022

“I’ve been a fan since 2013,” said sophomore finance major Matthew Vega. “I was a die-hard believer in 1989: Taylor’s Version and grabbing at anything to prove that would be released next. But it’ll happen eventually so, for now, it’s ok.”

After two years since the sister albums ‘Folklore’ and ‘Evermore’ dropped and four years since Swift went on a full tour, there was considerable excitement leading up to the release of Swift’s new album.

The artist also started a Tik-Tok series that fueled the fire of her fandom: ‘Midnight Mayhem’. Swift spun a bingo machine and released song titles based on the corresponding track number of which ball rolled out. 

The biggest drops of the series were track number four, ‘Snow on the Beach (featuring Lana Del Rey)’ and track number eleven, ‘Karma’. 

On Oct. 17, fans began to speculate about track number three, ‘Anti-Hero.’ The artist announced that a music video for the song would drop the same day as the album at 8 a.m. est.

“I was really so shocked when she said she was releasing new music,” said sophomore political science and finance major Caroline Quevedo. “I didn’t know what to expect and I was praying for a rock album or inspired vibes, but from everything so far it gives more Tumblr, indie vibes.”

Even when fans thought they could sleep after the album’s release, at 3 a.m. EST Swift released seven more bonus songs for fans to enjoy as a deluxe edition of the album. The new edition was titled ‘Midnights (3 AM Edition)’. 

Surprise! I think of Midnights as a complete concept album, with those 13 songs forming a full picture of the intensities of that mystifying, mad hour. However! There were other songs we wrote on our journey to find that magic 13.https://t.co/jjqUNkpPke pic.twitter.com/LKI3GmpPRF

— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) October 21, 2022

‘Midnights’ is now available to listen to on Spotify and Apple Music. If fans prefer a physical copy, the album is also available on CD and Vinyl.