Zoey Cunningham ‘26, Photo Editor
Taylor Swift’s new album, The Life of a Showgirl, has sparked controversy all over the media alongside various mixed opinions among fans. With the rise in Swift’s popularity in recent years, it is apparent that she has begun reaching new audiences and inspiring many groups of people. However, these people are just discovering Swift at her prime, with her most popular and recent albums like Midnights and The Tortured Poets Department leading people to have high expectations for her upcoming album with the previous hits. However, during these eras, Swift focused on many of the sad aspects of her life, concluding to more emotionally intelligent writing being present in her work. But, in addition, the success of The Eras Tour led to a sweep of new listeners—Swift’s name constantly being present in the press and a common topic in media for about a year and a half—containing 149 different shows across the globe. But if we look at Swift now, we see all the good in her life. She has been recently engaged to NFL star Travis Kelce, is one of the most famous singers of this generation, and has an amazingly supportive fan base. It is no surprise she will have some happy things to write about. Additionally, Swift has commented on this album calling it a “glitter gel pen album,” a term she and many fans use to describe happy pop songs such as “Bejeweled,” “AfterGlow,” and “Hey Stephen.” This led to a massive excitement surrounding the release.
There were loads of billboards, Spotify advertisements, Starbucks drinks, and merch drops surrounding the album’s release.. People added so much hype to the album and expected more. When the album came out, though, many listeners were extremely underwhelmed. People have criticized her writing abilities saying her writing has downgraded from the past years; TikToks were posted saying things along the lines of “She dumbed down the lyrics for Travis,” which is not the case at all, if we compare the release of The Life of a Showgirl to other releases like Reputation and Lover, they too received the same initial reaction from audiences calling both albums extremely cringey. Similarly to The Life of a Showgirl, Reputation had record breaking streams in its first week of release, hitting 27 million streams in the first week. According to Billboard, “The Life of a Showgirl has reached 460 million on-demand official streams as of October 9,” six days after its release. People thought Reputation was trying too hard to be different and thought many songs on Lover, such as “Me!,” were unbearable and hard to listen to. However, after some time, these albums have been known as some of her best works, with Reputation becoming one of her most well-known albums. The writing in The Life of a Showgirl is not really that different from her old songs; comparing the lyrics of “Cancelled,” track 10 from “The Life of a Showgirl,” to “Look What You Made Me Do,” track six from Reputation, much of the lyrics are on a similar basis when looking at their intellectual value and deeper meaning. The lyrics “It’s a good thing I like my friends cancelled/You know that I like ’em cloaked in Gucci and in scandal/Like my whiskey sour and poison thorny flowers,” might seem like a very cringe-worthy line when you first read it; However; if you compare it to the lines “The world moves on, another day another drama, drama/But not for me, not for me, all I think about is karma/And then the world moves on, but one thing’s for sure/Maybe I got mine, but you’ll all get yours,” it does not seem like either of the lyrics are on different levels of complexity. Also, the lyrics from “Look What You Made Me Do” went on to become very famous and well known; proving listeners just need time to adjust. We can expect a similar pattern for the songs on The Life of a Showgirl.
Just like every album beforehand, we can expect to see a trend of fans supporting the songs a while after the release of the album, which is understandable. With new concepts, or eras, comes new opinions. When we hear something we are not used to or not expecting, it may take a while to adjust to the normality of listening to it on a constant basis. Some people have already started changing their mind on the lyrics just four days after the release.
SLHS students also have strong opinions on the album, offering many contradicting views. Senior Sydney Leece said, “I like a lot of the songs on the album, but really miss the Joe Alwyn dedicated songs”, Leece references the songs off of albums such as Reputation, Lover, and Midnights, three albums that are considered to be the most emotionally intelligent lyrics wise. The Life of a Showgirl may take some time to get used to; new things take time to adjust to, after all. However, the album might not be for everyone, but that does not mean the quality of her writing has downgraded. Swift is an incredibly talented artist, as we can see from the impact she has made on our generation, and although this era is not what Swifties expected, it is still good music and fits some people’s personal taste. Although people are entitled to their own opinions, hating on the album will not remove it from the media. But if you have not heard the album yet, it is worth checking out.
Lyon Life 