Friends, Food, and Taylor Swift’s new album
The days when people only listened to one song from a new album, or waited days to listen to a new release, are over. At least when it comes to major releases like Taylor Swift’s new album.
For Taylor Swift fans, like my friends and me, the release of the album was almost as exciting as the album itself.
When Taylor Swift announced her 10th studio album “Midnights,” my friends Emily Davis, Isa Mehlitz, Meaghan Stewart, and I decided to throw an album release party so we could experience the album for the first time together. This was my first album release party ever, and I was so excited.
All four of us are in the “Communications and Taylor Swift” class being offered at St. Thomas University this year. Each week leading up to the release of the album, we discussed Swift’s marketing techniques and the rollout for “Midnights”. For my friends and me, talking about the album every week fueled our excitement and solidified our plans for an album release party.
“After taking the Taylor Swift class and just being with a bunch of people that were also super into Taylor Swift, it made me excited to listen to it with other people,” said Emily.
The album wasn’t released until 1:00 a.m. on October 21st, so we had a long night ahead of us before we could listen to the new songs. To pass the time, we made so many snacks.
I brought deli meat and cheese to make a charcuterie board, and fresh mozzarella for us to melt on a baguette and top with bruschetta. We had candy, nachos and nacho dip, and homemade guacamole. It was hard not to snack while putting everything together.
We cracked open some wine to celebrate, and Meaghan made cupcakes with midnight blue icing for the occasion.
We gathered around the coffee table after the food was ready to listen and sing along to Swift’s old music videos. Most of the songs made us nostalgic of our childhood. We had a great time sitting around and chatting while waiting for the album.
Meaghan is one of the biggest Taylor Swift fans I know, so she was the life of the party and the most excited for all the surprises Swift had planned for her fans.
“I was most excited for all the surprises that were coming throughout the night of the “Midnights” release. Like the 3 a.m. surprise and the Anti-Hero music video coming out the next morning,” said Meaghan.
On top of these two surprises, Swift also released a teaser trailer for the album during Thursday Night Football. The trailer was a compilation of music video clips for songs on the album.
After the trailer was released, we still had to pass some time before the album came out. We danced around Meaghan and Emily’s apartment and sang Taylor Swift karaoke. Meaghan and Isa entertained us with some “Just Dance”.
Before we knew it, the clock struck 1 a.m. and it was time to listen to “Midnights” for the first time.
“It felt like an event. It was kind of a mystery, and we were going to be getting pieces of a puzzle that we got to put together,” said Emily.
We sat together and listened to the album in order from start to finish. We took time after each song to talk about it and what we liked, didn’t like, and what we thought the song meant. Meaghan even wrote down her thoughts in her journal.
It was so fun to get together with my friends and throw a party to experience “Midnights” for the first time. I hope we get to do something similar again in the future.