Clip from New Heights Podcast plays
Taylor Swift: Basically, the reason why I chose to exit that way is because I kind of wanted to give a little subliminal hint to the fans that I may be leaving the Eras Tour era, but I was also entering-
Jason Kelce: A new era.
Taylor Swift: a new era. So, I wanted to show you something
Jason Kelce: Okay, what do we got?
Taylor Swift: We got uh,
Jason Kelce: A briefcase
Taylor Swift: Yup.
Jason Kelce: Mint green,
Taylor Swift: Yup.
Jason Kelce: With T.S. on it.
Taylor Swift: Yup
Jason Kelce: What’s in it?
Taylor Swift: This is my brand new album.
Jason and Travis Kelce: OHHHHHHHHH *clapping*
Travis Kelce: We got T.S. 12 baby!
End clip, narration begins
Background music begins: The Fate of Ophelia Instrumental
On August 12th, 2025, Taylor Swift announced that she had a new album, titled The Life of a Showgirl, coming out October 3rd. For reference, her previous album, The Tortured Poets Department, was released April of 2024. The Eras Tour had just ended December of 2024. So, a new album so soon shocked everyone, fans, critics, and haters alike.
Flashing forward to October 3rd, despite the nationally sold-out album premiere movie shown at hundreds of major theatres, and its record-breaking sales, a lot of people really didn’t like the album.
And I mean, really didn’t like the album.
Pitchfork gave it a 5.9 out of 10. For reference, Midnights, her 2022 album, was given a 7. Meanwhile, famous YouTube music critic theneedledrop, real name Anthony Fantano, gave it a 4 and called it a “surprisingly immature album” in the video description.
So…
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What happened?
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In true Swift fan fashion, I have theories.
Today, we are going to discuss why people didn’t like The Life of a Showgirl, and how it might not be entirely Swift’s fault.
I’m River Fundock, and welcome to the Lack of a Showgirl.
Audio Transition: play the Life of a Showgirl instrumental
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Now, in Swift’s defense, the Life of a Showgirl, which I will just be referring to as Showgirl for the remainder of this podcast, came out at the tail-end of a pretty bad year of music.
For reference, allow us to look at what won the 2026 Grammys Song of the Year;
Play the Wildflower Grammy announcement clip
Carole King: As selected by the 15k voting members of the Recording Academy, the Grammy goes to…Wildflower by Billie Eilish (cheers)
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Look, this is a really good song. However, its eligibility is purely because Eilish waited to make it a single during the 2026 Grammys eligibility period. Regardless, the best song in the category wasn’t even from 2025, which speaks for itself.
Nonetheless, that doesn’t change the fact that this era has truly felt weird. The more I think about it, the more I think I know why.
End wildflower instrumental. Play Eras tour Documentary clip.
The bathtub filling up sounds
Taylor Swift: I’ll not be able to get to sleep cause I can’t like, come down, so I just watch tons of TV, I get room service in bed, I sign a box of 2k CDs, and then, and then I’m tired. And then I do the whole thing again.
Disney+ tune plays. End clip
Background music, the Life of a Showgirl title track, resumes. Narration resumes.
What you just heard is a clip from the trailer for the Eras Tour Documentary on Disney+. Now, many people in the fandom wanted this, especially since her life has changed so much from 2020’s Miss Americana, the first documentary following her life during the Reputation Tour and the beginning of the Lover album.
However, with the documentary coming out only a couple of months after Showgirl, it feels like Showgirl was almost an ad for the documentary. At the end of each episode, Showgirl tracks are literally used as credit songs.
Not to mention, almost all of the promo she’s done for the album has been radio and TV show interviews.
Something is missing though: Singles and performances.
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Two of the music videos she’s released, “The Fate of Ophelia” and “Opalite”, are really good. Even critics who don’t care for the album have agreed on that. In Todd in the Shadows’ review of “The Fate of Ophelia”, after spending twenty or so minutes ripping the song apart, he said, “I will say this, it’s a really good video.”
The production quality, storytelling, and how she uses her famous connections and Eras Tour collaborators really worked in her favor.
Then, on March 31st, she released a music video for her song “Elizabeth Taylor”, which was simply a compilation of clips from Taylor’s films and archival footage. To put into perspective how Swifties felt after release, one post by user @OhItsRyan on X, formerly Twitter, said, “this kinda just goes back to my entire issue with this album and the fact that everything about it feels completely phoned in.”
To add insult to injury, she hasn’t performed a single song from Showgirl live. The closest she’s gotten was the acoustic versions of a few of the tracks, initially released for digital purchase, only before being made available on streaming.
For comparison, her previous few albums, minus Midnights and arguably Red (Taylor’s Version), had one video each, but Folklore and Evermore had Award Show performances and both Midnights and The Tortured Poets Department had dedicated sections in the Eras Tour.
The Tortured Poets Department was announced at the Grammys, she teased the lyrics and announced different versions of the album on livestreams during certain Eras Tour dates, and did an event with Spotify in specific cities where fans could see various easter eggs and artifacts related to the album.
If anything, the extreme amount of content she created between 2020 and 2024 helped create the problem Showgirl is suffering from.
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It’s time to discuss the elephant in the room: Taylor Swift fatigue.
Delicate instrumental plays
Speculation about her dating life, decoding songs to prove her identity, and people lining up outside of her longtime producer Jack Antonoff’s wedding for a chance of maybe seeing her have all impacted how people view her.
In one instance back in early 2024, the New York Times published a 5k word piece to their editorial board explaining that Taylor Swift has been secretly hiding that she’s actually gay, but has been putting clues to her true identity within her music. Following the article’s publication, an anonymous associate of Swift’s told CNN, “…in this moment there is a Taylor-shaped hole in people’s ethics.”
But, she’s always had this problem.
She was publicly involved with Travis Kelce when that article was published and it was before the Tortured Poets Department. That album received backlash as well, but not like Showgirl did.
And, again, she arguably did more promotion for the Tortured Poets Department, so maybe Taylor Swift the person isn’t the problem; Taylor Swift the brand is.
Transition to Father Figure instrumental
A common criticism of the album is shallow lyricism that appeals too much to the mainstream, especially in comparison to her previous works.
Alexa Meyer from The Daily said in her review of Showgirl, “This album has no layers to peel back, no interesting metaphors to ponder, no songs that are going to click later in my life once I have a better emotional vernacular. It’s not that I don’t get it. I understand every single thing that Swift is trying to communicate in these songs because it is literally spoonfed to me. It simply isn’t interesting to me in the slightest anymore.”
It’s a possibility that people just want uniqueness and that global artists need to take more risks.
Sam McNerney, a writer for BigThink, said it best in his article titled Embracing the Senses: Balancing Novelty and Habituation, “…this is why in terms of enjoyment classic pieces of art are not fleeting: innovative features and novelty give us something different with each exposure. We don’t get sick of them because there is something new each time around. It takes many repeats for overabundance to downgrade its value.”
Of course, there are always smaller artists and independent artists out there doing interesting things. It just might take some time and research to find them, but they’re there, and it’s worth checking out if pop isn’t doing it for you.
Also, if you like Swift but don’t like Showgirl, she has other albums.
You can listen to the other albums.
She owns her master’s now. They’re there.
Also, no one is forcing you to pay attention to her. If they are,
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That might be a kidnapping situation. You are in danger and should call the police.
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Okay, seriously, complaining online won’t solve anything. If nothing else, this is a corporate problem, not a Taylor Swift problem. Find new music. You can even create your own art if you feel compelled to! There are so many options out there that don’t require hate.
Well, that’s all for now. I’m River Fundock, and this was the Lack of a Showgirl.
Fade out
END
