​​Swift’s ‘The Life of a Showgirl’ is full of pity

By Jasmine White

The music realm would not be what it is today without the occasional “I just broke up with my ex” or an “I am so in love” type of song, but consistently spamming this type of sound gets old. 

Taylor Swift’s newest album, “The Life of a Show Girl” has a majority of her songs repeating the same themes of a woman yearning to find themself in the likes of a man, disregarding the true power a woman holds all on her own. The other half of the selections speak on Swift’s true feelings of being in the coveted limelight.

Swift’s album cover showcases her likeness scantily clad in a distorted collage, with her face plastered with makeup. What concerns me is that this hyper-sexualization of the star could leave the impression on younger fans that such an image is the standard for how women should look in the public eye. Before even listening to the record I felt that Swift missed the mark with the cover art alone.

The album opens up with the song, “The Fate of Ophelia.” This song was designed to represent the story of the character Ophelia from Shakespeare’s “Hamlet.” Ophelia dies a tragic death in the play, unable to be alongside the love of her life. Though Swift attempted to change Ophelia’s fate, the main theme of the song is a woman losing herself and unable to continue on in life without being “in love,” with another person. For all the Swifties, especially the younger girls just hitting the phase of developing feelings and crushes, the wrong ideology of what love is can be strongly impacted by the subliminal messaging in Swift’s songs.

The second song, “Elizabeth Taylor,” has similar themes, opening up with the story of a woman who thought the love of her life would stay, but because Swift is “under bright lights,” referring to her life in stardom, “all the right guys promised they’d stay” and soon “they withered away.”

Those lyrics emphasize the pity party Swift throws for herself, though she seems to be in a very convincingly happy relationship with the Kansas City Chiefs’ tight end, Travis Kelce.

With what seemed to be a new relationship during and after every album Swift released, previous songs to match up to her current ones, honing in on her longing to be wanted by someone.

A few other songs featured are “Father Figure” and “Eldest Daughter.” These songs focus more solely on the different experiences Swift had previously in her music career. These two songs expose the reality of what it means to be a celebrity, having to give up one’s innocence and freedoms for the price of fame — the themes are more respectable and more of a lesson to be learned when dealing with society’s most desired lifestyles of being in the eye of a camera lense 24/7. 

This leads me to her song, “CANCELLED!,” which guides fans to believe that she is feeling the pressures of being famous. Though walking on eggshells, Swift expresses she is tired of being the center of attention, wanting a more private life. 

For someone that takes shots at celebrity culture for being implanted into her everyday life, the music she produces and the people she involves herself with will only continue to draw her media attention. It screams, “pick me, choose me!”

The album ends with “The Life of a Showgirl” featuring pop star Sabrina Carpenter. This has to be one of Swift’s stronger songs on this album just because she implemented another booming artist, adding intriguing flares to her monochromatic sound. 

The world perceived Swift’s past albums like “Red,” as her experiencing intense emotions and mood shifts upon dealing with one of her alleged 13 breakups over the years. However, because Swift claims to have finally settled down with Kelce, there needs to be a shift of tone for her songwriting.

“The Life of a Showgirl” album was definitely not Swift’s best work and exemplifies a downward spiral in her creativity, but lucky for her, the only direction left to go from rock bottom is up. Swift’s music themes need a change before the masses lose interest; out with the old and in with the new.

Jasmine White is a senior journalism major