Headlines after headlines, captions after captions, and don’t forget the TikTok reviews. This past week has been a whirlwind for the music industry. Whether you’re a fan of Renee Rapp, Sabrina Carpenter, Lorde, Olivia Rodrigo, or Taylor Swift, you’ve had something to talk about. If you are a Swiftie or have a Swiftie friend, you’re probably overwhelmed by the mass amount of conversations around Taylor’s new album, “The Life of a Showgirl”. To put it simply, right now, you either love the album or you were actively cringing wherever you were listening to it.
No matter your opinion on it, there is controversy, and not the normal type “I just need to listen to it more then I’ll like it”. This time its AI controversy, people calling it her “lobotomy era”, and speculations on the overall quality of Taylor’s writing.
There are remaining questions among the 96 million monthly listeners. Most of them revolve around the old but familiar face of Max Martin, who originally worked with Taylor on “Reputation”. The heart of them being, would Jack Antonoff have written a better album with Taylor? Other burning questions were summed up to, did Taylor Swift push herself too far this time? We all know about her global phenomenon of the Eras Tour, based on when the album was released most signs point to Taylor writing and producing most of the album on tour! Did this proximity to her almost 2 year long tour affect overall quality? During the interviews I also prompted to get more of a history, what were they thinking before the release, and after? Did they follow the controversy or stand true to Taylor’s skills? Most importantly, did the chaos around this album alter their opinion of the superstar?
Aiyana Vasquez, a junior at iSchool, hits a key point about the difference between Jack Antanoff and Max Martin’s writing with Taylor: “I think they were such a good and creative pair, you can really connect with their songs regardless of what you’ve actually experienced.” It’s no question that these songs are harder to relate to your own life. Somehow Jack and Taylor always seemed to make a situation vague enough but still following the storyline so the listeners were involved, that small factor is even what draws most listeners in. Unfortunately Max and Taylor just don’t seem to have the same effect on the listeners heartstrings.
Lyricism has not always been Taylor’s strong suit. Taylor Swift started to get the acknowledgement of her poetic song writing during the “Folklore” era, but was that a result of being cooped up during quarantine? Or the poetic scenery of Long Pond Studio? We won’t really ever know. Her following albums, “Evermore”, “Midnights”, and “The Tortured Poets Department” (TTPD) all have that poetic and complex lyricism.
It’s almost as if we could see how that spark dwindled out, possibly as a result of her breakup? Or meeting Travis? Regardless, “The Life of a Showgirl” was lacking in the lyric field. While you may be thinking “all of her lyrically complex songs are just so sad, that’s why this album is more simple.” I would disagree. Take a listen to the bridge of “Death by a Thousand Cuts”, “Getaway Car”, “King of My Heart”, “Dress”, “Out of the Woods”, or even the song with 3 billion streams, and heart of the Eras Tour, “Cruel Summer”. All of these songs are for the most part upbeat; and, if you are familiar with Taylors producer history, all were worked on with either Jack Antonoff or Max Martin.
When we talk about the Eras Tour you might think of the surprise when Taylor re-arranged her entire setlist to fit 7 new “TTPD” tracks on May 9th, 2024. Re-arranging a 3 and a half hour show is no easy feat, and that’s not even including writing and producing “TTPD”, creating choreography, costumes, and set pieces.
Taylor Swift has shown us time and time again that when she is passionate about something she works her hardest to make it work. So why was this album so deficient? Many Swifties point to the release’s proximity to the Eras Tour, but after earlier examples of “TTPD” and the Eras Tour, we just can’t make that excuse. Lulu McNally, a senior at iSchool, brings up an important point, “Yeah I don’t see the proximity to the Eras Tour being a problem, but more of it being too close to her last album, she writes a ton and doesn’t filter it leading her writing to be sudden and watered down. She likes her music that’s why she releases it. That doesn’t mean we have to like it.” This whole idea that Taylor Swift was incapable of writing a 41 min, 12 song album while on tour is just insulting to Taylor herself and her team.
Everyone knows AI, whether you like it or not, AI is an integrated part into our modern life. Of course due to its ability to create, many people have developed distrust around media, whether it’s films, social media videos, music, or photos. Recently the allegations around Taylor Swift using AI for her “The Life of a Showgirl” promo videos. Rolling Stone wrote about these allegations saying, “Swifties say they’ve noticed odd irregularities in the clips, which can still be found online. A squirrel that, for a fleeting second, doesn’t have a fourth limb. Different fonts used for the same letters in a notepad.” These irregularities are commonly seen in AI created media, but some Swifties are staying loyal, saying that “nothing Taylor does is an accident” they seemed to be convinced that it was a marketing plan, catching people’s attention to spread the name.
There had also been a theory saying that Taylor made the album intentionally bad to get peoples reactions and show that “The Life of a Showgirl” isn’t all money, fame, and support. While I personally can’t say I fully believe the extent of the theory, I do believe that Taylor, whether it was intentional or not, made a point with this album. When I prompted Lulu about this she said, “I don’t know Taylor Swift, but she’s putting out music because she’s writing it, no one’s forcing her. But right now it feels like she’s putting career on the line, it’s so hard to top her status, it might just go downhill from here.”
Taylor Swift has sold out 152 stadiums, ran 3 and a half hour concerts that have brought people together, wrote 12 studio albums, lost ownership 6 of them, re-record 5 of them, and then in the end gained ownership back of all 12. Regardless of personal opinions, Taylor Swift has worked hard to get to where she is now, no one can deny it. She’s gotten this amount of hate before back in 2016, then came back even stronger. While this current album might not be what we wanted, it’s not about us. Taylor Swift doesn’t release music for the fans, she writes and releases music that she likes and when she has something to say. The lyrics might not be complex, the sound might be cringe, but at the end of the day, the reaction and push back that this album got really does speak for how women in the music industry treated in celebrity positions.
