Yesterday (August 28) morning, it didn’t seem like Taylor Swift would have much to do with that night’s MTV VMAs beyond being nominated for some awards. That changed as the day progressed, though. First, it was rumored she would be making a surprise appearance and indeed, she showed up on the red carpet. Then, at the very end of the broadcast, she offered an even bigger shock, using an acceptance speech to announce that she’s releasing a new album on October 21.
Shortly after that, Swift posted about the album, named Midnights, online and offered a short statement on it. There’s one part of that statement that has stuck out and prompted a compelling fan theory.
In her statement, Swift describes the album as “a collection of music written in the middle of the night, a journey through terrors and sweet dreams.” One fan on Reddit’s Taylor Swift subreddit speculated that due to the apparently impromptu nature by which the songs were written, this could mean Midnights is entirely self-written. If that ends up being the case, Midnights would be Swift’s first album with no credited co-writers since 2010’s Speak Now.
Also possible, however, is that Swift started writing the songs herself and later refined them with recent collaborators like Aaron Dessner and Jack Antonoff. It sounds like that wouldn’t be too far off from the process behind Folklore and Evermore, as Antonoff indicated when defending Swift from Damon Albarn’s songwriting jabs earlier this year, tweeting, “i’ve never met damon albarn and he’s never been to my studio but apparently he knows more than the rest of us about all those songs taylor writes and brings in. herb.”