The glitz, glitter, and glamour of a showgirl is the life Taylor Swift lived from the beginning of 2023 to the end of 2024. Her 149 stops, 3-hour show changed the expectation of every music artist’s tour worldwide. Taylor Swift’s 12th studio album, The Life of a Showgirl is a commentary of behind the scenes of this life-changing tour. On this album, she brought back Max Martin and Shelback as producers which many fans were excited to hear. Although the record seemed to have high expectations, many fans were left disappointed by the album.
Swifties Expectation’s
The main expectation of this album was to have upbeat pop songs that were going to bring fans back to her Red, 1989, and Reputation eras, where she last had songs produced by Max Martin and Shelback. Many Swifties long awaited Jack Antonoff’s absence from her music, and were glad Taylor packed up his synth-filled songs and sent him home. After the record’s release however, fans were begging Taylor to bring him back. Swift’s listeners and critics felt they were scammed after expecting more jazz filled, 50’s showgirl, upbeat album, but received a collection of rock-pop songs.
Most people believe the album is a flop, but we believe the more you listen to the album, and learn about the songs, the more you will fall in love with the music. Yes, we were a little disappointed with the failed concept of the showgirl album, but we think looking past that, listeners will find the album to be exciting and reminiscent of her older 2010’s eras.
Marketing
A big reason people felt they were led on by aesthetics The Life of a Showgirl is because Taylor Swift and her team were unsuccessful in the verbal marketing of the album. In the New Heights podcast, where Taylor announced the release of the album, Taylor stated the record would be “a departure from previous works, aiming for infectious melodies and vivid lyrics, all wrapped in a theme of everything going on behind the curtain of my recent life.” She also describes how fans can expect the album to be a twist of Folklore lyricism and 1989 beats.
She explained the concept of The Life of a Showgirl wrong. We understand the 1989 beats, which we think she hit on the nail with every song, but the “Folklorian lyricism” is definitely an inaccurate description for the album. Folklore is known to be her most poetic and lyrically challenging album to date. It’s like poems she wrote with background music, anyone who listens to it will need to pull out a dictionary to completely understand her writing. The Life of a Showgirl does not have this type of songwriting, but it has the same story telling she uses in her 8th studio album. Like in “Ruin the Friendship” Taylor shares her story about her best friend Jeff Lang who she had a crush on in high school. Her lesson is that it’s better knowing if they like you rather than questioning if they did your whole life. She changes the vibe of the song by sharing that she never got to tell him how she felt before he died. This to me is peak story telling, as the song starts with this base driven beat, with a guitar melody that brings the 1989 and Reputation kind of pop, then at the end giving her fans a plot twist reminds me of the Folklore era with her well thought out storytelling, and plot twists at the end of the songs.
Songs and their Controversy
Father Figure
Lots of people think that “Father Figure” is about Olivia Rodrigo and Taylor Swift’s so called beef. All of this started because of Olivia Rodrigo’s song “Deja Vu” being sampled from “Cruel Summer” by Taylor Swift. People started making up rumors that Swift and Rodrigo were not talking anymore. They blamed it on Swift being upset that Rodrigo sampled her song, but in reality Swift didn’t care since she got credit for the song.
“Father Figure” is really about Scott Borchetta. Scott Borchetta is the man who Taylor was originally signed with at the age of 15. Borchetta ended up selling her music to Scooter Braun, a music manager for some of the top artists in the 2010’s. Swift had repeatedly told Borchetta she did not want her music to be sold to Braun and she was very upset that he had done it anyway. This song is her talking about how she got her masters taken from her because she was a “naive and an inexperienced artist.” She sings about how she is “protecting her family” meaning she is protecting her original 6 albums. The whole song is pretty much how Braun and Borchetta tried to play her but she ended up just playing them in the end.
I think “Father Figure” by Taylor Swift is such a poetically beautiful tune. The 3 minute and 32 second song tells her whole story from beginning to end. She almost gives the listener the inside scoop of what happened while trying to regain her music. It is not my favorite song on the album but it is definitely not my least favorite.
Actually Romantic
The beef between Charli XCX and Taylor Swift started in 2018 after Charli opened for Taylor on the Reputation Stadium Tour. During the Lover era, Charli took shots at Swift claiming in a 2019 Pitchfork Feature that she felt she was performing for “five year olds,” which Swifties were not thrilled with. Later on in 2023 Charli and Taylor were in the same circle of friends when they both were dating members of The 1975 band. In 2024 Charli’s album Brat was released with the song “Sympathy is a knife” where she claims she was “crossing my fingers behind my back” and “hoping they’d break up fast” alluding to Taylor Swift and Matty Healy’s situationship. This dispute between the artists was confirmed in Swift’s song “Actually Romantic” with the line, “I heard you call me boring Barbie when the cokes got you brave.” On Tik Tok Charli’s fans have gone off on Taylor for insulting their favorite artist, the main defenses are that Charli makes better music, or that Taylor’s attack was unwarranted. A big misconception about their beef is that “Actually Romantic” is a response to “Sympathy is a Knife” by Charli, but the song might actually be a response to all the things Charli has said or done to Taylor behind the scenes for years. Another theory Swifties believe is that the song isn’t only about Charli XCX. Some listeners think it could be about any fake friend she has had like Blake Lively, or Karlie Kloss who had betrayed her in different ways. Although the fans speculate the song could be about a variety of people, I think part of it could also be about her fake fans. In “Actually Romantic” she wrote, “Like a toy chihuahua barking at me from a tiny purse”, this could be about how many people online send Taylor hate, but she thinks it’s laughable that they are “barking” at her with the barrier of a screen to protect them.
“The Fate Of Ophelia” Music Video
The first single for The Life of a Showgirl is “The Fate of Ophelia” which is based on Ophelia from Shakespeare’s story Hamlet. In the story Ophelia dies after a mental breakdown where she falls into a river while singing, and drowns. Her death symbolizes female helplessness and the destructive impact of the male-dominated world she lives in. Taylor Swift relates the story to her own life but instead of her meeting that same fate she was saved by her fiance, Travis Kelce.
The music video so far has positive reviews, some saying it is her best music video yet, which we partially agree with. Taylor is known for adding many easter eggs in her music videos, which is something that is included with this video. For one she catches a football, for her Fiance Travis Kelce, and her sour dough bread in the beginning scene after she is out of the Ophelia painting. If you look throughout the background dancers you will find some familiar faces, that is because Taylor Swift brought back all her background dancers from the Eras Tour for the music video. Although we don’t think this music video can top the “Lavender Haze” or “Fortnight” music videos, we think it is definitely one of her best visuals in her discography.
Overall Review
The Life of a Showgirl may have misguided listeners through the marketing of the work, but once the glitter fades, it reveals a record that’s worth a deeper listen. It’s the sparkling, upbeat pop-fest many hoped for, rather than a dark and complex addition to Swift’s discography. The album grows on you with each listen, offering nods to her past while continuing to push her narrative forward. Even though the record isn’t what the fans were expecting, the album tells her story as well as some of the best records in her discography.