No time to dissect that title, just take it as you will (although it’s not lost on me how I look when telling people that I’ve started “getting into” Taylor Swift).
In order to properly capture the full range of people’s opinions on this album, this is a story that needs to be told in three parts.
Into the Lion’s Den: The Fans of a Showgirl
About two weeks ago, I was about to leave one of my classes when a friend of mine turned to me and asked if I was a part of The Guidon. I said yes, and she then told me about this little event that her and a couple other people were putting on to celebrate the then-upcoming release of Taylor Swift’s newest album. She was wondering if I could help get the word out by putting it up on The Guidon’s Instagram story
And honestly, I don’t know what came over me in that moment. Call it what you will—morbid curiosity, sheer ignorance, or simply just the urge to see if Swifties were actually as rabid as everyone says they are. Regardless of what I was thinking, I quickly proceeded to tell her that I could do one better. I would listen to Swift’s entire discography over the next few days, put out the ad on the Guidon IG story, attend the event myself, and write a piece for my film column about my whole experience. I could probably even frame it as “how I went deep behind the lines into Swiftie territory” or something. It’s not like I’d been dying for an excuse to fully dive into everything Taylor Swift, but I did at least have some shred of curiosity in me to see if I was truly missing something or not.
You know the next part. The next couple days of my life were spent going through her entire discography, from her humble beginnings as a Hannah Montana clone all the way back in 2006 to the myriad of Taylor’s Versions that she’s released over the last couple years. I truly left no stone unturned.
Last Friday afternoon, I went down to the Krietzburg Library North Instruction Room—ready to actually see what being a Swiftie was all about. There were about 5 or 6 people there in total, and once everyone got settled in, they pressed play on the title track. What we essentially did was listen through the whole album, and have a discussion after each song about our thoughts on it.
Now if I could be honest for a second (and perhaps a little shallow, so sorry in advance), I wasn’t really looking forward to the whole “song discussion” part. Having been born two years before her first solo album was released, I vividly remember what it was like growing up during the peak of Taylor Swift’s success…well, the first peak anyways.
And, perhaps just as vividly, I remember how agonizing it was to talk to a Swiftie. Praising everything she did as the second coming of Christ, never being able to shut up about the best of her songs, and doing all these mental gymnastics to defend the worst of them. But back then, my hate was shallow. I didn’t have nearly as much musical experience as I do now—both in terms of the amount of artists I’ve listened to as well as my general understanding of what makes for “good music”.
It’s been a good minute since I’ve interacted with a Swiftie, and a lot has changed since then…but that didn’t make me any less nervous walking into the library last Friday. I was still worried that I’d be out of my depth, and faced with a bunch of people that would explode at the mere notion that Taylor Swift made something that was anything short of perfection.
But to my (ignorant) surprise, I actually was able to have some real conversation and discussion with the people there. Not only were we able to mutually enjoy some of the better tracks off the album, but we also got to criticizing certain elements—and even got into some pretty intricate detail about stuff like the songwriting and music theory in general. It was so much fun, and genuinely refreshing to have conversations about music like this.
Long Time No See: A Friend’s Opinion of a Showgirl
In the days since the album’s release, I’ve had nothing really to do except to meditate on my overall thoughts on Taylor Swift as a musician (well…it was Parent Family Weekend, so I did have a couple things to do). And in order to really organize my thoughts effectively, I wanted to get some outside perspective. So I reached out to one of my friends from back home to see what they think of Swift’s music. Well…she reached out to me, actually.
It’s a pretty funny story actually, we knew each other in high school and got along nicely. Then we graduated and went our separate ways, which is just kinda how life goes. But last night, I got a message from her from pretty much out of nowhere…and it’s about how much she hates this new album with every fiber of her being. And just like it says in the picture, it was the first time we’ve talked in 3 years. What an opener.
Looking past that though, it was pretty shocking to me that she was so passionate about her hate of this new album. I always thought she’d been a ride-or-die Swiftie, even before our high school days. But according to her, Taylor Swift’s music has been going “downhill since Midnights”.
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While critics at the time praised the 2022 studio album for its dreamscape conceptualism and mature storytelling, some fans (my friend included) felt like this is the album where her songwriting and choice of lyrics got a bit too…ambitious.
“Some of the songs were really good…and then the just cringe songs like Snow on the Beach really feel like the start of the downfall”, she said. And I can’t say I completely disagree with her here. As much as I think a lot of the more hazy ethereal lyrics of the album fit the dreampop atmosphere, there are certain lines that fly too close to the sun—whether that be because they’re too wordy or just plain confusing (and not the interesting kind).
But it’s not only Midnights that she holds in contempt, but the subsequent release of “The Tortured Poet’s Department” as well. I mean, it makes sense though—if you’re someone who dislikes the self-indulgent lyricism of “Midnights”, I can only imagine how irritating and pretentious TTPD would come across as.
“There were [maybe] 3 songs I liked”, she said, referring to the 2024 anthology double album. 3 out of 30-something songs is objectively pretty rough, so I asked her why…and shocker: it’s for the same exact reason she wasn’t crazy about “Midnights”.
From what I’ve gathered, the most important part of any Taylor Swift song to a Swiftie is the lyricism. And whether it be writing about a breakup for the billionth time or some other huge emotional pillar in her life, I’ve got to admit that she’s a pretty damn good songwriter. However, some feel like they have to draw the line somewhere…and if people choose to believe that her downfall started in 2022, then I guess those same people would consider “The Life of a Showgirl” the bottom.
Again, if you’re someone who dislikes the self-indulgent lyricism that has defined Swift’s music in the last few years…then I can’t imagine that this is the album for you. Simply put, “The Life of a Showgirl” sports some of the most cheeky and playful lyrics of her entire career. But not everyone likes it when a songwriter as accomplished as Swift purposely holds themselves back, and…well, that’s exactly what’s happening here on this album. Songs about Shakespeare, songs about getting cancelled, songs about her high school friends, songs about superstition (that also acts as a double entendre for her fiancé’s…ummm, manhood)—these aren’t exactly the deeply personal ballads that her fans have come to know and love over the years.
The Reason We’re All Here (probably): My Own Opinion of a Showgirl
So…here we are, at the end. But before we wrap things up, I recall that I promised up top to share my opinions on Taylor Swift—as an artist. Which won’t be easy, because what if one of the 3 people who read this is a diehard Swiftie? This could get messy.
Here we go: after the last week of listening to and analyzing all of her music and finally forming my own well-developed opinion on her as an artist, and after discussing my feelings on some of her music with fans of various different levels, can I officially agree with the masses and say that Taylor Swift truly is the talent of a generation?
Uhh…I mean, kinda?
Real quick, here’s my take/interpretation on the evolution of her career up to this point. Her first three studio albums are all very similar, as the bulk of her songwriting and general sound was pretty consistent. Her debut self-titled album in 2006, “Fearless” in 2008, and “Speak Now” in 2010 all feel like they’re cut from the same cloth. A bit dull and somewhat aimless in parts, but most of that can be chalked up to her still finding her own style.
Then “Red” came along in 2012 with an incredibly deliberate (and arguably aggressive) shift into much more pop rock, while 1989 was even further of a dive into pop. 2017’s “Reputation” was probably the first “big” shift for her both in terms of lyrical inspiration and playing with genre, introducing both R&B and industrial influences into her discography. All of the complications that came with her rise to stardom in early-to-mid 2010s came to a head, and she laid all of these feelings out bare in what was some of her most unique and compelling songwriting to date.
“Lover” was her next studio album in 2019, which couldn’t be more different from “Reputation”—both in genre, mood, and substance. But even with such a dynamic pivot in every sense of the word, a lot of the songwriting maintained its consistency in both quality and depth. At its core, “Lover” is an album about Taylor redefining herself and her sense of purpose as an artist. And while it does have its fair share of overly cheesy and dumb lyrics we can gawk at all day, I still have a good deal of respect for “Lover” and what it means in the context of her wider discography.
Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit and she dropped the two most critically successful albums of her career, “folklore” and “evermore”. Again, another shift in genre for her…but the music is still incredibly strong and deeply intimate, so it evens out. And then she continued the streak with “Midnights”, an incredibly conceptual album that has a fantastic throughline…but felt a bit pretentious to some people, which was unfortunately a sign of things to come.
“Tortured Poets Department” was a pretty big leap from the ethereal longing and dreamlike melancholy of “Midnights”, as it saw yet another dramatic shift in her sound. And while I don’t want to sound mean right off the bat, I will say that the lesser tracks on this album can best be described as “Taylor Swift doing a Lana Del Ray impression but without everything that makes Lana Del Ray so effective”.
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And here’s where I stop sitting on my fence and actually take a stance: I think that, in recent years anyways, Taylor Swift has gotten a bit of an inflated ego when it comes to her writing ability. Cloaking everything in symbolism, metaphors, and entendre to show everyone she’s this intellectual holier-than-thou songwriter. Although she’s got a plethora of beautifully-written lyrics under her belt, these last couple albums of hers have made her think she can write anything and get away with it. But to quote a line from this new album, I think she might finally be girlbossing too close to the sun.
Look, she’s good at what she does. In some cases, she’s really good. The deeply personal songwriting, the consistency yet self-awareness of the messages she sends to her audience, the eye for a catchy yet intimate pop tune, and a wonderfully collaborative creative process with her two producers and everyone else in her life that gives her inspiration. If you ask me, I think she’s more than earned all the success that she’s enjoyed over the last 2 decades. But with “The Life of a Showgirl”, we might actually be starting to see the cracks in this pop culture icon. And like I said earlier, she’s now at a very delicate crossroads.
To put it bluntly, “The Life of a Showgirl” seems to have unearthed a lot of Taylor Swift’s own insecurity with her place in the pop music landscape of 2025. The rising/current stars of the scene, like Sabrina Carpenter and Olivia Rodrigo are all carving their own paths and cultivating very unique brands for themselves. And while Taylor Swift has more than enough street cred and notoriety to carry her for a long long time…there’s still this lingering feeling that she’s still trying to fit it. Trying to imitate other styles.
From the Lana Del Ray comparisons on “Tortured Poet’s Department” to several of the tracks on this album feeling like Swift’s ripping off a Sabrina Carpenter track, it’s pretty clear that she’s worried about her staying power. Now it’s not lost on me that these kinds of claims almost perfectly line up with the symbolism of this new album and the overarching theme of how “fame doesn’t last forever”.
But I’m more than willing to go out on a limb here and say that this symbolism isn’t entirely on purpose. If I had to guess—I’d say that the Eras Tour and writing an album like this has forced her to confront these insecurities, and some of it bled into the songwriting…maybe a little more than was supposed to.
However, I personally don’t mind the album. Maybe it’s just because I’ve only had about a week to sit with her music, but I think that there are still a handful of decently well written tracks that are bolstered by some surprisingly dynamic instrumentation. Of course, there are still just as many clunkers and this is far from my favorite Taylor Swift album…but I don’t think it’s terrible, at least sonically speaking.
But then again, it’s important to remember that this is art. And art is subjective. Especially in the case of music, where your opinion of it can be based on several different factors. For me, I place a lot of importance on instrumental work. And in that aspect, a lot of this album works for me. The lyrics are still noticeably bad in some places though, which does often take me out of it.
But overall, I think that “The Life of a Showgirl” still accomplishes what it sets out to do: paint a portrait of what it’s like to be a showgirl, in all senses of the word. A couple songs towards the middle lose the plot just a little like “Wi$h Li$t” and “Wood”, which are unsurprisingly considered the weakest of the album by many, but outside of that—”The Life of a Showgirl” is pretty alright. A foreboding sign/cautionary tale of things to come in Swift’s musical career if she continues down this path of trying to be like every other pop girlie out there? Yes. A tongue-and-chic cutesy little one-off album? Hopefully that’s all it is…but I’m not holding my breath.
