“Everybody's so punk on the internet. Everyone's unbothered 'til they're not. Every joke's just trolling and memes.” To me, this sounded like poetry written by some angsty Gen Z teenager.
Shockingly, the real author is supposedly a great songwriter and lyricist, Taylor Swift. This lyric features on the track Eldest Daughter from her controversial album, The Life of a Showgirl. The album caused a frenzy of debate and disagreement.
Musicians often face a backlash with new music, so what makes this album different? Swift's 12th studio album The Life of a Showgirl was released on 3rd October. The event was deemed so momentous, cinemas hosted official release parties showing exclusive performances, behind-the-scenes footage, and more.
This skilfully marketed global event shows how popular she is as a business and brand, not merely a celebrity pop star. However, the initial thrill of the album's release is wearing thin as listeners have noticed problems scattered throughout the album. Lyrically, I found it exceedingly challenging, making me cringe during many tracks and some I couldn’t even finish.
Many fans described similar feelings, especially with the tracks “CANCELLED” and “Wood”, containing cringeworthy lyrics and Gen Z slang phrases. This contrasts with Swift’s previous albums, which often contained poetic storytelling through lyrics. Indeed, it seems the latest lyrical themes are out of character for Swift, disingenuous and disconnected from the real world, focusing on celebrity status and her NFL fiancé.
I and others felt her showgirl character was inauthentic and just didn’t work. We can compare this showgirl character to the character Pamela Anderson plays in the film The Last Showgirl. This highlights themes of aging, self-worth, and motherhood.
The contrast between glamour and rawness demonstrated the superficial nature of Swift’s album for me: a showgirl characterised as having expensive, perfect clothing and makeup in videos and photoshoots. Swift is losing her originality and attempted to copy other female artists. Sexuality is a theme in this album not witnessed in her previous work.
The lyrics are crass instead of clever. Following recent collaborations with Sabrina Carpenter, she has seemingly copied her focus on sex appeal. Perhaps Swift's team saw how much attention Carpenter got and decided to imitate accordingly.
Swift is attempting to emulate Lana Del Rey’s whimsical yet troubled character in the aesthetic of the album. There are clear similarities between melodies in this album and songs by Lana Del Rey. The Fate of Ophelia’s melody and pace is uncommonly similar to Del Rey's song Text Book.
Also, in the track Father Figure, the line “Mistake my kindness for weakness” is a near copy of a line from Del Rey’s song Mariners Apartments Complex, “They mistook my kindness for weakness”. It causes a loss of identity for Swift by seemingly copying others to garner more devotees. Many Swifties believe through her music they knew her on a personal level.
This shift in tone and direction is creating a separation, a new Swift that they do not recogise. What happens when an idol like Swift falls from their podium? We have seen division amongst Swifties with some unable to defend her whereas others do so strongly.
This division demonstrates the current state of music and other creative industries where copying seems to be rife in the race to stay relevant, sacrificing originality. No matter how hard Swift tries, her showgirl character seems out of touch