The Attempt of a Showgirl

On October 3rd, 2025, The Life of a Showgirl, Taylor Swift’s album was released to the world. It was certainly a topic of discussion, some either loved it or hated it. This was Swift’s 12th album and it was released shortly after her wrap of her famous Eras Tour. For being a short album, standing at 12 songs, the controversy of the album is certainly noteworthy. In this article, two students, on different ends of the Swift spectrum, share their opinions on Swift’s work.

Brooke: After my first listen through, I’ll admit the album wasn’t even close to what I would consider her best work. After watching the short lyric film, and building my understanding and background information, my appreciation grew immensely. The lyricism wasn’t hitting the spot per se, as Jonathan mentions, but the music production is really different compared to her other works. The album is a mix of pop and rock with notes of R&B, having a 1970s soft-rock feel to it with hip-hop beats. This style of music and instrumentation is new in her career. Notably, the album had a different producer rather than her usual Jack Antonoff, this time it was Max Martin and Shellback–a throwback from her album 1989. Another impressive fact: for one of the first times in Swift history, her lead single, The Life of a Showgirl (feat. Sabrina Carpenter), wasn’t the most popular song on the album. Instead, The Fate of Ophelia, proved to be the most popular song on the album shortly after it was released. However, regarding The Life of a Showgirl’s music video, in my opinion it is one of her best in the sense that it is fun and packed with different generations of showgirls. I didn’t catch onto this my first watch-through, but after connecting the dots it made me like the music video even more. At first, the music video was only available at the release party which fans could see in theaters the weekend of the release. The music video was then released to the public on the following Monday, but for those of us who went out of our way to see this “film”, it was a fun “secret” we were privy to. All in all, this album definitely catered to her fanbase rather than the general public. Understanding the “Swift lore” was a key factor to enjoying the album and the information she shared about her life. Therefore, the album may not be immediately appealing to listeners who are not in the know.  

Jonathan: To be quite frank, I have never been the biggest fan of Taylor Swift; however, I could appreciate when she would release good music. But to be completely transparent, when having to listen to this album to write this article, all I could think about was when the songs would end. I know Taylor has a lot of hidden meanings behind her songs, which is fun to look at and speculate about. But in my opinion, when focusing on making an album, what should come first is music, and I don't think it came first. In one of her songs, “Wood”, she goes into fair detail about a man's genitalia, which quite frankly made me uncomfortable. In another song, “W$sh L$st”, she discusses having kids and driving up a driveway with a basketball hoop, mind you she's already a millionaire, I think she can afford a basketball hoop, which I know is representing having a family, but it isn't explicitly obvious. I'm not completely putting the blame on just Taylor: she worked with Max Martin again after he produced 1989, which in my opinion is one of her best albums and a best selling album as well. Taylor has also released 4 different versions of this album, which in my opinion is just pure greed. I mean realising this much product with the same songs just for more money is quite literally insane considering she is a billionaire. All in all, while I believe Taylor Swift is an amazing advocate for women and some of her albums are masterpieces, “The Life of A Showgirl” fell flat.