OCTOBER 10, 2025 | ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT | By Rebekah Vaisman-Spear
Taylor Swift released her highly anticipated album “The Life of a Showgirl” on Friday, Oct. 3, and the album immediately received immense backlash for its millennial-cringe lyrics, shallow topics and capitalist appetite.
But despite the response, “The Life of a Showgirl” is breaking streaming records with the lead single, “The Fate of Ophelia,” becoming the most-streamed song in a single day in Spotify history, a record previously held by Swift’s own “Fortnight” from “The Tortured Poets Department”. It’s clear, regardless of the negative comments flooding social media, that Swift stays at the top.
One critique of “The Life of a Showgirl” is that its lyrics do not demonstrate the talent Swift is known for. Fans cite lines such as “Every joke’s just trolling and memes,” “I’m not a bad bitch / And this isn’t savage” and “Did you girlboss too close to the sun,” which all fall short of the poetic standards Swift has set for herself.
I agree with this critique of the album, as part of the reason I admire Swift as a songwriter is her ability to craft timeless narratives in her songs. Hearing “memes,” “trolling” and “girlboss” felt very jarring upon first listen and instantly dated “The Life of a Showgirl.”
To add insult to injury, her more recent albums, “Folklore,” “Evermore” and “The Tortured Poets Department,” contained some of her most beautiful lyricism to date, so it was disappointing to receive an album that was so lacking.
It is important to note, though, that while Swift is known for her poetry, she has also been making pop music with cringe lyrics for decades — “Shade never made anybody less gay” from “Lover” (2019) and “To the fella over there with the hella good hair” from “1989” (2014) to name a few — with both albums topping the charts and becoming fan favorites despite lacking lyrical depth. I believe “The Life of a Showgirl” will follow suit.
It is also necessary to point out that many other artists have recently released songs with similarly cringeworthy lyrics, yet they were not criticized as aggressively. Sabrina Carpenter’s recent single “Manchild” contained the lyric “Why so sexy if so dumb.”
The song reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and created a widely adored TikTok trend. Sometimes, music can be good for music’s sake; not every song needs to have some deep philosophical meaning. It seems to me that people have simply forgotten how to have fun.
“The Life of a Showgirl” is also under fire for the sheer amount of product it has yielded. I have lost track of how many vinyl variants this album has, most of which were on sale even before the album’s release. A hoodie, an infamous cardigan, four signed CDs and acoustic versions of several tracks have dropped on Swift’s website over the past month. This is ridiculous. I will be the first to admit that when I like an artist, I purchase their products; I own most of the cardigans from Swift’s previous albums. However, fans have become increasingly ravenous and willing to spend hundreds of dollars on the same vinyl with the same songs, just in a different color.
I have not purchased anything from this album cycle because the amount available has made me extremely uncomfortable. As a fan, it is disheartening to see Swift — one of the world’s wealthiest women — releasing an unnecessary amount of product as a cash grab, simply because she knows people will buy it regardless of the cost, quality or environmental consequences.
Overall, I did enjoy “The Life of a Showgirl.” “The Fate of Ophelia” makes me want to dance. “Ruin the Friendship” makes me want to cry. “Opalite” makes me want a boyfriend. Even “Eldest Daughter,” the song containing many cringeworthy lines, has a bridge that elicits a beautiful, bittersweet nostalgia.
That being said, I can empathize with the disappointment felt by many listeners, as I agree that “The Life of a Showgirl” is not Swift’s best work. I also agree that this album felt very “capitalist core” and its product rollout is ultimately harmful environmentally and financially.
With that being said, I’m going to continue dancing around my room, saving my money, and remembering that some things just aren’t that deep. If I need them to be, I’ll look to any of the other additions to Swift’s 200+ song discography.