Taylor Swift’s 12th album, “The Life of a Showgirl,” has taken many fans by surprise, including me.
As a fan base we are so accustomed to her sad prose, that this album immediately comes off as disgustingly joyful. At first listen I wasn’t so sure about it, but as a die-hard fan since the womb, I know Swift is never wrong. I just needed my brain to catch up with the change of key.
Every time Swift releases a new album, I always do a deep dive into the story behind the songs and what the lyrics mean to her. I think the thing about Swifts’ music is that you have to understand it to enjoy it.
With a cinematic release party in theaters, Swift verbally explained the story behind each song, an hour and 30 minutes of my life well spent. The movie consisted of the music video for track one of the albums, “The Fate of Ophelia,” and included behind the scenes of the directing experience.
She broke the track one curse, [usually her first tracks are the worst of the album] with “The Fate of Ophelia.” A reimagined tragedy of Shakespeare’s Ophelia who goes mad and inevitably drowns, yet in Taylor’s version she is saved. It’s poetic, lyrical and a bop.
Another one of my favorites on the album, “Father Figure,” tells the story of a young ingénue, their mentor and how that relationship can change over time. It’s a story of betrayal, cunningness and who will outsmart the other. It could also be interpreted as being in a relationship with someone that you have to take care of and helping them to become a better person.
In a clip before her fifth track, “Eldest Daughter,” Swift said, “You talk to other eldest daughters of their family and you kind of somehow have a very similar experience with the world,” she said, “and with fear, and with feeling like you have to sort of do it all and these kind of issues with like the constant quest for perfectionism to almost the point that you can get in your own way.”
At first listen, I noticed a lot of cringey and millennial phrases like, “bad bitch,” “savage,” “girlboss,” etc. The song “Eldest Daughter” had most of these lyrics, but after a lot of listens I realized she’s using those specific phrases to show that she is “dying just from trying to seem cool.” Her cringey words are purposeful, representing trying to be cool but always somehow missing the mark.
Track six, “Ruin the Friendship,” is nostalgic and takes you back to high school. Swift sings about a friendship she had in high school where she yearned to be more than just friends but was holding back out of fear.
The bridge of the song symbolizes the passage of time. Here, Swift’s childhood best friend, Abigail, whom she mentioned in previous songs, calls her to tell her that their mutual friend, Jeff Lang, passed away. Towards the end of the song, she narrates flying home for the funeral and wishes that she took those risks when she had the chance.
The lyrics are deceitful. They are deep and yearning but hide behind the glitz and glam of a showgirl who is expected to be there for pure entertainment and fun, when there is a lot more to it than that.
Honestly, I fell in love with the whole album after understanding what she was thinking when writing it.
I think fans missed her idea for the album. It’s totally Shakespearean. The many hyperboles, metaphors and puns along with dramatic irony, wit, wordplay, humor and satire; everything Shakespeare had in his plays, “The Life of a Showgirl,” has too.
Every song has a meaning. I encourage you to dive deeper if you’re having trouble getting into it. This album is just as lyrically genius as her other albums, except this time she’s happy.
Moral of the story, stop being sad, get up and dance!
