Millions of Taylor Swift fans, self-titled, “Swifties,” have been eagerly anticipating the release of Taylor Swift’s 12th album, “The Life of a Showgirl.” With its release date being Oct. 3, Swift has already set new streaming records on “Spotify” and “Apple Music,” surpassing 249.9 million streams within the first 24 hours. Swift beat her own record of vinyl sold on the first day of its release with 2.7 million copies sold, compared to the previous record of 859,000 copies for “The Tortured Poets Department.”
Most of the popularity from this album ironically comes from the hate and backlash it’s faced. Critics said that many of the tracks sample other artists’ works, which leads to an overall consensus of a lazy, weak album. Some of the sampled melodies and common chord progressions are evident in songs like “Wood” and”Actually Romantic.” The titular track, “The Life of a Showgirl (featuring Sabrina Carpenter),” samples tracks like Jackson 5’s “I Want You Back,” The Pixies’ “Where Is My Mind?” and “Cool” by the Jonas Brothers.
Josephine Gjoshevska, a junior at California State University, Long Beach, said, “Every single song on the tracklist sounded like she copied it from someone else and it made it more boring and overall just a horrible listen.”
Although “The Life of a Showgirl” is the start of Swift’s new musical era after the record breaking Eras Tour, it also shared many musical similarities to the rest of her discography. For example, Swift’s main producers for the “Red,” “1989” and “reputation” albums, Max Martin and Shellback, return on “The Life of a Showgirl,” drifting away from her usual writer, Jack Antonoff. A main theme found in the album is newfound love, similar to Swift’s past albums like “Lover” and “Fearless.”
Many fans speculate that tracks like “Wi$h Li$t” and “The Fate of Ophelia” were directly inspired by Swift’s relationship with Travis Kelce, a tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs. Allegedly, “The Fate of Ophelia” compares Swift’s previous long-term relationship with actor Joe Alwyn to her relationship her now fiance, Kelce, with lyrics like, “Late one night / You dug me out of my grave and / Saved my heart from the fate of / Ophelia.”
Despite controversy over the overall quality of the album, there are still those who enjoyed it.
Madison Cook, a freshman and “Swiftie” at HBHS said, “I enjoyed the album, I feel like it’s a new style for her. It gives off a very happy and energetic vibe, much different from her last album.” With Swift’s previous few albums such as “The Tortured Poets Department,” “folklore,” “evermore” and “Midnights” having a very melancholic, heartbreaking vibe, this new era definitely has an upbeat and bubblegum-pop jump to it.
Another local “Swiftie,” Charlotte Dimas, a freshman at HBHS, said, “The new album is very bold and full of energy. I think that some songs were a little overdone, such as “Actually Romantic,” but I still think that this is a much more fun and confident chapter in her music.”
Many “Swifties” are more than familiar with Swift’s extravagant ways to hide spoilers and hints, referred to as easter eggs, in her music, interviews and everyday life. “Swifties” often call this method “clowning” or wildly jumping to conclusions with little to no evidence. However, Swift herself reveled in her small hints and efforts in publicizing the album, even before it was officially announced and released.
For instance, lyrics on some of Swift’s songs from previous albums such as “reputation” and “1989,” on “Apple Music” had specific letters capitalized. Many “Swifties” assumed that they were signs for “reputation (Taylor’s Version),” but the letters ended up spelling the phrase “they don’t make loyalty like they used to,” or “you’re only as hot as your last hit baby.”
These phrases were eventually revealed to be lyrics to Swift’s “Father Figure” and “Elizabeth Taylor.”
On Aug. 11, Swift posted 12 different images on her Instagram of herself in orange outfits and costumes, hinting at the main color scheme for “The Life of a Showgirl.” The twelfth image showed Swift and Carpenter together, who was one of the surprise guests on Swift’s “Eras Tour” the previous year. This turned out to be a huge easter egg towards her feature in track 12 of the album.
Hate it or love it, “The Life of a Showgirl” marks the start of Swift’s new era of love and music discovery. The album shows that a showgirl’s life is full of drama and sparkly feather boas. It continues to keep “Swifties” and music listeners alike inspired and content.
