Taylor Swift can easily be named one of the most prolific musical artists of recent decades. In only the past five years, combining new music and re-released albums (a journey she began a few years after the rights to her first six studio albums were sold), Swift has announced eight separate records. Through the release of Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), the re-recording of her 2010 album, Swift earned the title of having the most No.1 albums of any female musical artist in history. Records like this are continually broken only by the album she releases next. With her popularity constantly growing, in part due to her current world tour, “The Eras Tour,” which became the highest-grossing tour in history over the summer, Swift is a global phenomenon who, for the past eighteen years, has been approaching the peak of her career, not yet reaching it.
At the 2024 Grammy Awards ceremony, Swift’s album Midnights was nominated in six separate categories. While accepting her first win of the night, Best Pop Vocal Album of the Year, Swift surprised fans watching at home with the announcement of her brand new studio album. “I know that the way that the Recording Academy voted is a direct reflection of the passion of the fans,” Swift said, “so I want to say thank you to the fans by telling you a secret that I’ve been keeping from you for the last two years, which is that my brand-new album comes out April 19th. It’s called The Tortured Poets Department.”
Earlier in the night, users on social media noticed that Swift had changed her profile picture across multiple platforms to black and white. Swifties began to theorize it was a hint to Swift’s next re-release, one of the two left to be announced, reputation (Taylor’s Version)– an album with a prominent black and white aesthetic. While fans anticipated special news in one of Swift’s acceptance speeches, the announcement of a brand new album was a complete surprise.
Although we can dig for clues on what this album will sound like, it is always a surprise with Swift, as her discography stretches across multiple genres. Will it be another pop sensation like 1989 and Midnights? Will it be, what many fans seem to be expecting, another alternative folk album like folklore and evermore? Or will it be something completely new? Swifties await the answer coming on April 19th.
