Music Critic Summaya Mehmood critiques Taylor Swift’s latest album as a low-quality summation of chart-topping greed.
Taylor Swift unexpectedly announced her new album, The Life of a Showgirl, on her fiancé’s podcast, ‘New Heights’, and this unusual announcement should have been a warning for how her album would be less about the heights and pitfalls of fame on such an extreme level, and instead be male-centred: focusing on her relationship with Travis Kelce, and taking unnecessary shots at her female contemporaries in the business.
The album, centred around the “showgirl” aesthetic, from one of the biggest artists of our time, who had performed a 2-year tour of 149 shows across 51 cities, yet failed to deliver to its potential. Listeners were expecting an introspective insight into how Swift’s navigates her life when everything she does is highly publicised, the pressures of the industry, and the truth behind the picture-perfect shows. However, the album served nothing but cringy lyrics over beats and melodies popularised by other artists — and lyrics so generic that it has faced ChatGPT accusations.
Lyrics so generic that it has faced ChatGPT accusations.
The first look into Swift’s new era was glitz and glamour, feathers and pearls. She drummed up suspense by not releasing any music videos or singles typical of an album release, but rather by asking fans to pay for 3-second teasers building up to… nothing.
The album itself is 12 songs, and none are particularly exceptional. ‘The Fate of Ophelia’ is a misunderstanding of Hamlet‘s tragic heroine, Ophelia, and credits a man for “saving” her. ‘Wood’ is an innuendo for her being “dickmatised” by her man. ‘The Life of a Showgirl’ is a lament about “pain hidden by lipstick and lace”, saying that the life of her billionaire self is no fun. A cash grab from an artist whose focus is no longer on her artistry, but accumulating wealth…
Perhaps this is burnout from an artist who has released 12 albums over the last 14 years of her career. Or perhaps it is a cash grab from an artist whose focus is no longer on her artistry, but accumulating wealth. Swift releases albums more frequently than her peers, e.g. Lady Gaga and Beyonce, who are her contemporaries yet their influence in the music over the last two decades is undeniable. The quality of her sound dropping is evident over her last five releases.
As of writing this article, there are over 30 variants of The Life of a Showgirl. Eight had dropped before the album had even been released. This relentless manufacturing questions her status as a chart topper, especially after the scandal of Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department blocking Charli XCX’s Brat from reaching No.1 on UK Charts.
“Brat Summer” was a cultural phenomenon and the peak of Charli XCX’s career so far, to the point where neon green can no longer be looked at the same again. As well as the clever marketing, its popularity was driven by the originality of the album, bringing techno-pop rave music to the forefront of the music scene — sounds you can dance to accompanied by vulnerable lyrics about being in your mid 20’s juggling career, family, friends and life. Fans coined the term “Brat Summer” and the Apple dance went viral on TikTok giving Charli more exposure.
During the height of this phenomenon, when Charli XCX was about to reach No.1 on the charts, Swift dropped an England exclusive variant of The Tortured Poets Department receiving criticism from fans and music critics. This sabotage on the charts may have been motivated by Swift’s personal feelings towards Charli XCX. The track, ‘Sympathy is a Knife’, on Brat, is rumoured to be about Swift, and is a vulnerable song about feeling insecure in comparison to another’s stardom and success — the unhealthy bitterness that stems from constant comparison of women in the music industry. This sabotage on the charts may have been motivated by Swift’s personal feelings towards Charli XCX.
Swift’s response in ‘Actually Romantic’, lacked Charli XCX’s nuance but rather insulted her: ‘I heard you call me boring Barbie when the coke’s got you brave. High fived my ex, and then you said you’re glad he ghosted me’. This is a far cry from the Swift who once said, “We see you over there on the internet, comparing all the girls who are killing it… We’ve all got crowns’. The Guardian pointed out how Swift’s diss track against Charli XCX ‘underscores her tedious obsession with conflict’.
Whether it be Katy Perry or Kim Kardashian or Charli XCX, Taylor is constantly provoking tensions with other women in the industry, which contradicts her self-description as a feminist. Taylor’s unnecessary punching down at Charli XCX when she is already the most talked about artist in the world comes off as immature and completely unnecessary. In fact, Taylor’s “clap-back” shows a tone-deafness to the premise of ‘Sympathy is a knife.”
The general consensus expressed by casual listeners and Swifties alike is that Taylor Swift needs a new sound. The repetitive love stories and girl fights that we have heard from Swift since the start of her career are becoming tired and if Swift wants to maintain her status, change is drastically needed.
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