The Swift Society, a student-led organization at the University of Mississippi, hosted a “Tortured Poets Department” release party on April 19 in Guyton Hall. Swifties and non-Swifties alike gathered to indulge in music, fun and free food.
Listening parties consist of fans gathering to hear an album, EP or single release. The functions gained traction during COVID-19 lockdowns and have grown in popularity, especially among college students.
The “The Tortured Poets Department” release party began with games such as Taylor Swift Jeopardy and a Taylor Swift version of board game Trivial Pursuit dubbed “Taylor Pursuit,” followed by a screening of Swift’s “Fortnight” music video, which debuted at 7 p.m.
The party concluded with a Taylor Swift-themed scavenger hunt around campus featuring clues in the form of poems in honor of the album.
Swift Society President Seth Harmon, a sophomore secondary English education major, described the organization and release party.
“The Swift Society is for any students who are fans of Taylor Swift and like her music. You don’t have to be a Swiftie,” Harmon said. “Anytime there’s a new album or any kind of drop, we just do fun events to be out on campus and meet other people. Basically, as soon as (Taylor Swift) announced the new album back in February at the Grammys, we immediately thought, ‘Okay we have our next one.’ We did (a release party) back in the fall for “1989 (Taylor’s Version),” so this is our second one. We just wanted a fun opportunity for people who wanted to enjoy the album and maybe don’t have a place to go.”
Sophomore elementary education major Kaitlin White expressed her reasons for attending the event and her favorite part of the night.
“I like Taylor Swift, and I knew people who were going,” White said. “I really liked the Taylor Swift Pursuit game.”
Sophomore special education major Nadia Corder explained why she attended.
“I went to the last one, so I felt obligated,” Corder said. “I was excited to come and listen to the album with other Swifties. I liked the scavenger hunt. I like trying to figure stuff out, like maybe if it was closer together and we didn’t have to walk as much, and we could just do some decoding.”
Harmon also discussed the possibility of future plans for The Swift Society.
“We’ve only done the album release parties right now,” Harmon said. “We are next semester wanting to start doing some general meetings inspired by the eras. … We have a lot of education majors in the society, so we’re talking about doing kind of an educational outreach program, working on something with some of the music programs in the area. We’re still figuring out what that’s going to look like … and still talking about that, but that’s something that we’re kind of excited to maybe get going in the fall.”
