Taylor Swift's Walk of Greed: The Life of a Showgirl

TAYLOR SWIFT - THE LIFE OF A SHOWGIRL

SCORE: 39/100 - 3.9

This is one I've been meaning to get to, but I'm not even entirely sure on where to start here.

Entirely classless, run down, and beat to the ground, 'The Life of a Showgirl' is just another victimized attempt at chart-hogging by the strikingly inhumane "popstar". This album managed to be so poor quality that even her most dedicated soldiers left the war for her, and her usage of AI, poor marketing, buying out accounts, and genuine propaganda have led to this album having one of the worst rollouts in history. Although the production does wonders compared to her previous, more mediocre projects, this album is so lyrically immature, left behind, and thoughtless that it feels like too high of a compliment to ever even get immersed within some genuinely bubbling moments that reside on some of the stronger tracks.

Taylor has shown her greed time and time again, with the most striking examples being her previous two albums and her continuous approaches to expensive merchandising and marketing herself in a way that makes die-hard fans feel like they "need" to buy multiple variants in fear of missing out (FOMO over some voice memos... boy.), but this album has showcased a brand new low for her. She doesn't want to tour because she's tired, which is great! Except her emissions aren't going down, seeing as she's contributing to the massive AI crisis by using AI for all of the "visuals" for the album, releasing a lazy lyric video "movie" in theatres, and releasing almost thirty variants in under a week. And the songs are surely catchy, Max Martin knows a thing or two about production; but when the material is this soulless, mean, and immature - it's hard to even see that.

Slowly I have grown to dislike Taylor more and more, and this album is the last straw. She has taken to sexualizing herself (which sets a HORRIBLE example for her mostly young fanbase, and she knows that her fanbase is mostly young girls, too.), making music only for charts, and using AI, cheaping out for quick hits because she knows she can. One of the richest singers in the world can't even hire actual artists or use her resources to make complex music with messages - instead it's all the same, her victim mentality shining through into one of her most strikingly disgusting and sinful projects that is greed at its core, but the greed isn't so well hidden this time - it's seeping out of almost every corner.

It's not musically offensive, but it's so "artistically" offensive and disgustingly cheap that this album cannot get almost any praise at all. Taylor Swift manages to be one of the world's biggest popstars, and she uses this to get by making cheap and effortless pop music, because it sells, right? The lyrics here are so strikingly horrific in how poorly written and childish they are that this album is almost too much to pick apart. The light, airy sound of this album is highly digestible and almost enjoyable at times, but it's hard to enjoy something that has so many striking moments of juvenile behaviour and everything that makes Taylor so easy to loathe.

Sure, "Showgirl" does have some highs, but the overall aspect of this album is so shockingly anger inducing that it's somehow worse than expected. From a mid-thirties woman victimizing herself, singing about other men while engaged, and yearning for a dead friend whom she wished she could've gotten with, this album is easily one of the most disgustingly insensitive things to ever come out. It continues her middle school-esque style of writing with some of her most cringeworthy moments of trying to be intimidating and mature, and a more immature and petty woman has never existed. This album is pure greed in its most sickening forms, and Taylor sounds like she is trying to take the spark of younger peers such as Sabrina Carpenter to try and make herself shine (because god knows she can't let her friends get bigger than she is!), but the result is something completely washed up and cringeworthy. Never has an album had such a negative reaction out of me due to the way it was released and how greedy it is; but enough is enough.

One of the most disturbing moments on "showgirl" resides from tracks five through seven, and it continues to decline even after this point - with the second half of the record somehow taking an even bigger nosedive into entirely baffling and unbelievable territories. 'Ruin The Friendship' is a song about one of her friends that passed away, which is fine, sure - except the song is about how she should have been with him and kissed him while his girlfriend was away. It is a detailed portrait on how he died - but it's a detailed portrait on how she wanted to be with him. She made this song over fifteen years after his passing while *engaged*… and to make matters worse? She followed it with one of the most disgusting, petty, and rage inducing songs of her entire unfortunate career.

What was labeled as a complex record coming out of one of the most triumphant and interesting periods of Swift's life has led to songs like 'Father Figure', 'Eldest Daughter', and of course, 'Actually Romantic'. Swift's hatred for younger artists that are undoubtedly full of more potential and talent than she ever has been shows with her petty and disgusting jabs at Charli XCX, all because XCX had said that she feels "small in a room" with Taylor - because who *wouldn't*? What smaller, younger artist *isn't* going to feel small next to the worlds biggest popstar? Taylor manages to see everything as a hit on her and her "reputation" to a point where she feels the need to make herself look entirely tortured and like she is a traumatized victim when nothing has happened to her. She has been through her fair share of hardships that I do sympathize with, but I don't sympathize with her ruining her relationships, dating teenagers, feeling inferior to artists that are clearly better than her (when she will still always be bigger), and her deserved backlash. She has had everything handed to her since she was a child and has been a cliché "mean girl" since her hillbilly high school days, and it's not that easy to forget.

Taylor can't see herself for who she is, and 'Wi$h Li$t' just shows that she is so lost in her own world and riches that she can't even relate to the average human being anymore - what she claims is what people want is actually her own greed, and she manages to describe herself and turn herself even more evil - she is not the victim, nor has she ever been the victim.