Pop icon Taylor Swift dropped her 12th studio album on Friday, Oct. 3, which showcased her inner showgirl. Swift was able to bring out her popstar personality again with these catchy tunes.
“The Life of a Showgirl” is an upbeat album where Swift dives back into a very familiar style of pop music. Swift wrote this album with Max Martin & Shellback, two producers who also appeared in her “1989” album.
The last we had heard from Swift was her gut-wrenching 2024 album “The Tortured Poets Department.” It was a rollercoaster of an album that mostly focused on Swift’s emotions through her “Eras Tour” that she wrote with Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner.
Eighteen months later, Swift updated her fans on what’s going on in her life with “The Life of a Showgirl.” This album is lyrically centered mostly around her love for her fiancé, Travis Kelce, with a few songs straying in different emotions.
Many fans were disappointed to hear her new album lacked the same lyricism as previous albums, with lyrics such as “Did you girl-boss too close to the sun?” from the track “CANCELLED!”
Yet it’s still catchy enough to be stuck in your head. Swift did what she does best with this album: create an upbeat pop-funk album where the feeling is more important than the lyrics. Swift has regained the pop girl spark she hasn’t had since her “Midnights” album in 2022.
The style of “The Life of a Showgirl” is very similar to that of Swift’s previous albums “1989” and “Reputation.” Many fans had believed Swift moved on from her pop roots and delved more into folk music. Swift proved those fans wrong with this album; you can never take the fun, pop girly out of Taylor Swift’s music.
Swift interpolates George Michael’s song “Father Figure” on this album with a track of the same name. She keeps a very similar beat but speeds it up to create a more soft, pop-rock feeling.
Her version of this song seems to be a diss at Scooter Braun, who bought out the masters to her first six albums from Big Machine Records. She opens the song saying, “When I found you, you were young, wayward, lost in the cold. Pulled up to you in the Jag, turned your rags into gold.”
“Actually Romantic” also appears to be a diss track on the album. Swift opens this song with the line, “I heard you call me ‘Boring Barbie’ when the coke’s got you brave. High-fived my ex and then you said you’re glad he ghosted me.”
It’s speculated that this track is about Charli XCX, potentially in response to Charli’s 2024 song “Sympathy is a Knife” that was rumored to be a diss at Swift. This track was a subtle way of Swift saying she doesn’t care what people say about her. She was able to turn the drama into a playfully upbeat, catchy song. It’s very similar to her 1989 track “Shake It Off.”
Throughout this album, we are met with fast-paced pop-funk beats. Swift takes sample beats from many places for this album. Fans have noted that her track “Wood” is reminiscent of The Jackson 5’s “I Want You Back,” with almost the same beat and melody for both songs.
On the track “Honey,” we get a feel of the Speak Now-style banjo instrumentation with the hip-hop funk from 1989. Since Swift has such an extensive discography, she’s able to experiment with past beats and instrumentals from older songs.
This album was written while Swift was on her worldwide, record-breaking “Eras Tour.” She stated on Kelce’s podcast, “New Heights,” that this album would showcase what she was going through in her life offstage.
The track “Wi$h Li$t” is a very playful track with an upbeat pop vibe, where Swift talks about slowing down her life and settling down. This track shows off what Max Martin and Shellback were able to create on “Reputation.” It’s an upbeat, funky pop song with a clear story being told through the lyrics.
“The Life of a Showgirl” brings back the old pop music that brought Taylor Swift into the mainstream. This soft pop-rock album showcased Swift outside of her celebrity lifestyle in an authentic way.
The showgirl inside her was finally able to make it out, “and, baby, that’s show business for you!”
