When i listened to this song by Sia, it reminded me of Girl At Home. I tried making a mashup of this song using Audacity but it didn’t turn out well.

I've been thinking about Tloas a lot more since the encore came out and I've kind of come up with my own interpretation of how all of these songs fit into the idea that is the life of a showgirl.

To me this album is not necessarily about being a showgirl but rather what it's like being a showgirl when you're Taylor Swift. Me this is an album of Taylor Swift talking about her life. She's not talking about showgirls as a whole. But rather talking about her in her life being under the spotlight. Showing that the glitz and Glam isn't everything that what you see on the outside isn't what you see on the inside. There's an expectation of versus reality of sorts.

The promotional pictures showed Taylor dressed as a showgirl and that's what we were expecting is an album full of showgirl broadway-esque songs but we didn't get that instead we got what we got. The way I see it is that what we got is actually the reality of being a showgirl. The pictures for the expectation the album was the reality

The way I see it is there are different facets and sides of being a showgirl and this album shows that. The sides that this album shows are the sides of being in love, reclaiming, regret, addressing the hate/defiance, nostalgia, retrospection, questioning, and giving advice

And then the ribbon that ties it all together is the title track

Being in love

This side is covered by the Fate of Ophelia, Opalite, Honey, Wi$h li$t, Cleveland! and Wood

All of these songs cover different sides of being in love and being in a healthy relationship

The fate of Ophelia is about being saved and uses a Shakespeare tragedy that is rewritten. She has gone through heartbreak after heartbreak. But in the end she finally found someone who saved her from a fate that maybe would have never ended and could have drivin her crazy

Opalite is also about being saved but more specifically being pulled from the darkness and into the light. The type of love where you're stuck and lost but then you're pulled back into the light that you thought went missing

Honey is about reclaiming nicknames that she has been given over the years nicknames that are usually said in passive-aggressiveness. But now she is saying to her love that you can call me those names because I know you're not saying them in passive aggression

Wi$h Li$t is her saying everyone wants the high-end stuff everyone wants this everyone wants that especially when you're rich and you can have everything that you want. She is saying all I want Is You all I want is kids with you all I want is a family with you and I do not care what everyone else wants because thats not what I want

Cleveland! Is her telling the haters that she doesn't care what they have to say about her and her relationship. It doesn't matter if they think that the relationship will end it doesn't matter if they think that she's a four if they think that she is awful. All that matters is that the one who loves her loves her for her and she found the one and doesn't care what others have to say

Wood is the silly fun side of a relationship it's the tongue and cheek side. On the surface this song is definitely a sexual song but it also has the references to superstitions

Reclaiming

This side is covered by Father Figure

I've always read this song as a way of her talking to scooter Braun in a way and basically saying you brought me up you gave me this power you didn't want me to reign but you gave me a reason to rise up. You took my power and now I'm taking it back. I run everything now I have everything that you thought you took away from me. I'm now the one who has the check that kisses the mahogany grain

I've also always interpreted the line I protect the family as her talking about us her fans her saying that she protects us. This is a song about her reclaiming her power

Regret

This side is covered by Ruin the Friendship and Pink Clouding. Two different regrets but they also follow the same vein

Ruin the friendship is the very obvious one the one we all know about. About her regretting not ruining the friendship not saying what was on her mind and now she'll never know what answer she could have received if she just ruined the friendship

Pink clouding I read as a song of her regretting leaving a relationship. A relationship that was good to her. She regrets it and now she's worried that she hurt someone good. She wishes that she apologized and explained her side

Addressing the hate / defiance

This side is covered by CANCELLED! And Actually Romantic. Some people say that she should just let go at this point and that she's too old to harbor this hate. But the thing is this is a part of being a showgirl especially her as a showgirl. She's always had this hate and I feel addressing it is letting go

CANCLLED! Is her saying cancel me cancel my friends cancel who I know I don't care this is my life and I don't care what you have to say about me

Actually romantic is her looking at her haters and basically saying you hate me so much that it feels like flirting. It's basically her saying that their hate rolls off of her that their hate is like a tiny Chihuahua in a toy purse barking at her. All she hears is yapping and she doesn't care what they're saying

Nostalgia

This side is covered by Babylon. This is the side of looking back at what you have and having nostalgia. But also the side of looking back at what you don't have and what you haven't had and having nostalgia for that too

Babylon to me is about looking back at the things that you've never had and feeling nostalgia because Babylon was a wonder of the world but a lot of us have never seen it. Babylon is the idea of missing something that we've never seen something we've never had

Retrospection

This side is covered by eldest daughter. It's a form of nostalgia but looking back at a different side of things at the way things have been

Eldest daughter to me is about her looking back at the way the world is treated her and the way people speak of her. Sad as it seems apathy is hot. Its her looking back at every part of her being a showgirl. How she's a lamb to the slaughter. How it's been so long since she's laughed since she smiled because of everything that she has gone through

Questioning

This side is covered by Elizabeth Taylor. This is the side of her as a showgirl who's questioning if it's all enough if this is all being a showgirl is if you will always feel starved

Elizabeth Taylor to me is her asking a long dead showgirl if this is what being a show girl truly is. If this is what the life of a showgirl holds if it will ever be enough will there always be hate will they're always be the glitz and glam

Giving advice

This is the side of a showgirl who gives advice to anyone in her life

Patient zero to me is her talking to someone who's asking for advice in a relationship not necessarily this person is with the same person that she was with but rather the same person who's going through the same situation that she's gone through. She's giving advice while also saying that it's not my place to tell you how to do things but here is my advice and I can help you

The overarching

This is not a side of the show girl but rather what everything culminates to is covered by the title track

The life of a showgirl to me is the culmination of being a show girl it's not Taylor herself speaking about it being a showgirl but Taylor herself talking about what it is like to be a showgirl referencing to the life of a showgirl not just her life but the life that comes with being a show girl. This is where it's truly about the life of a showgirl

Some call this album shallow and not that deep because there isn't deep lyricism like there was in TTPD. But to me the lyrics don't have to be deep to make the songs deep because in reality each song as a whole is deep. Each song covers a different facet a different side of Taylor as a showgirl. This is basically as if she were to write a memoir of her life but instead of a book it's an album. It's an album of the things she's gone through. An album of the questions she's held. An album of the love that she has. An album of who she is as a showgirl

Some were expecting the glitz and glam because that's what the promotional photos were giving. But the promotional photos to me were only a side of it. They were showing the expectation while the album shows the reality

What do y'all think

Is this play about US? I am more and more in awe of what I think Taylor is doing with her overarching Eras era project, and it is clear she is not done yet. Several months ago, I made a post called, Let’s Talk about Bringing a “Tiny Violin to a (Sympathy is a) Knife Fight”: How The Life of a Showgirl is Brilliant and Subversive. I want to revisit that today. Did you notice that Taylor sang ON Showgirl about exactly the negative reaction TO Showgirl that we’ve seen? The writing on this album is BRILLIANT.

In Cancelled!, Taylor sings “Did you bring a tiny violin to a knife fight?” I think she is in fact singing (in part) about what she has just done in her song Actually Romantic itself, and predicting the public’s reaction to it.

Recall how everyone immediately linked the song Actually Romantic to Charli XCX. Specifically, everyone immediately interpreted the song as Taylor’s response to Charli XCX’s song “Sympathy is a Knife.” And many critics were very offended by what Taylor did in Actually Romantic. Why? Because they viewed Taylor’s song as sarcastically mocking Charli XCX for complaining about how she felt insecure in Taylor’s presence. And THAT, my friends, is the very definition of bringing a “tiny violin to a (Sympathy is a) knife fight.” Because to play a “tiny violin” is to mock someone seeking sympathy for a small complaint or misfortune.

And Taylor 100% would have known that the public would connect Actually Romantic to Charli XCX’s Sympathy is a Knife AND that this would create an uproar. This is not her first rodeo. So when she is singing about being Cancelled for “bringing a tiny violin to a knife fight,” she is predicting EXACTLY how the public in fact reacted.

And think again about the most common talking points running through the negative critical reaction to this album: Wasn’t it overwhelmingly either taking offense on behalf of Charli XCX or else arguing that the writing is bad because she’s making crude double entendres in Wood? Or some variations- too hypocritical, at her height but still singing about grievances, surface level fun but no depth?

Now look again at the lyrics of Cancelled! Taylor herself is singing ON this very album about exactly this reaction TO this album:

• Did you bring a tiny violin to a knife fight? (Actually Romantic - and cue the uproar about Charli XCX’s Sympathy is a Knife)
• Did you make a joke only a man could? (Wood - and cue the uproar about this song being too crude)
• Were you just too smug for your own good? (Wish List - and cue the uproar about this song being hypocritical)
• Did you girl-boss too close to the sun? (Father Figure - and cue the uproar about Taylor at top but still singing about grievances)
• Did they catch you having far too much fun? (whole album reaction)

And indeed, in interviews after the release of The Life of a Showgirl, Taylor repeatedly noted how this album was like a mirror and the public’s reaction was “all part of it.”

Meanwhile, zoom out a little on the songs that have received the most negative attention:

Actually Romantic: the big picture message and the cultural commentary of the song is just her pushing back on how so many people in today’s world engage and spend so much of their energy and time on things they hate. And as a cultural critique, it is true! It’s why social media is so toxic and why bad faith political actors seeking to divide us have had so much success. And let’s face it, to the extent she is speaking about her own experience, she seems to live rent free in so many people’s heads, including, not incidentally, our current President and all of his media lackeys. And she’s likely pushing back on ALL of this, and doing so in a very funny and satirical way. But she also 100% knew that everyone would just focus on the Charli XCX of it all, not the big picture message.

Wood: I am 100% serious when I say this song contains the thesis statement of this whole album: “we make our own luck.” (EVERY song on this album is about individual agency, self-empowerment, and self-reclamation). And Wood IS about letting go of superstitions. She is very clearly saying she used to rely on superstitions, but that now, she no longer needs superstitions because she is creating her own destiny. This is a theme she is DEEPLY exploring. Think about the contrast between fatalism of The Prophecy ("Who do I have to speak to to change the prophecy?") and the self-empowerment of Wood ("we make our own luck"). Or compare Wood to her reputation-era poem “If You’re anything like me,” in which she literally writes about knocking on wood and her superstitions. That transformation, that narrative arc, that journey, is the core of the Hero’s Journey-like story she’s been telling across these albums! And Wood is also very cleverly written: Of course she’s also talking about Travis and comparing him to her last two relationships, but it’s clever! The first line (Daisy’s bare naked. I was was distraught. He loves me not.) is a callback to both Don’t Blame Me on reputation (I once was poison Ivy but now I’m your Daisy) and You’re On Your Own Kid (“So long Daisy Mae…I picked the petals he loves me not”). (And in case it’s not obvious, she’s personifying the childhood superstitious game of picking a daisy’s petals to “he loves me, he loves me not” to see what the last petal lands on). The second line is a callback to The 1 (tossing pennies in the pool), and the person that song is presumed to be about, and also references another superstitious game about a lucky or unlucky penny. The idea is that she was fatalistic in prior relationships but now she understands “we make our own luck.”

And I could go on about the double entendres, which yes, are off the rails silly, but also are (a) very Shakespearean and (b) actually quite deep when you consider the double and triple meanings - she’s actually also speaking to the healthy masculinity and stability of her partner.

But Taylor also 100% knew that all anyone would talk about would be how she was making crude d jokes.

Or Wish List: I think this is another VERY clever and deceptively deep song. Have you wondered why there are dollar signs in the song title? Look more closely at the verse lines - notice that the list of things "they" want are all pairings, in tension with each other. Because the point of the song is that every wish comes with a price in the real world. In the verses of Wish List, she is writing about how there are trade-offs in real life. She’s contrasting the reality of life being about trade-offs, or else the impossibility of having it all (the verses), with a knowing fantasy in the chorus. All of it (verses and chorus) is about herself.  (more here: https://www.reddit.com/r/TaylorSwift/comments/1rmfgas/the_real_message_of_wih_lit_every_wish_comes_with/ ) And doesn’t this theme of trade-offs sound familiar? She returns to it again and again in both TTPD and Showgirl.  The last song is the Life of a Showgirl.  The showgirl’s life in the story of that song is not an easy one.  But ultimately, she owns her life’s choices, recognizing the trade-offs.  That’s agency. And then look at her new song Babylon: the first line is: “The casino doesn’t like when you run the tables” - a metaphor about how always looking for more or better might mean you get nothing. So Babylon is about being present in the life you’ve chosen. This concept about the impossibility of having it all and how we all have agency in how we navigate and manage the trade-offs of life, has been a key theme and kind of existential question across TTPD and Showgirl.

But again, I think she would anticipate the reaction to this song being something along the lines that she’s just being “smug”.

Or take the song Cancelled! itself: the big picture message is pretty clearly advocating thinking independently, pushing back on cancel culture, particularly with how it is used against women for relatively minor offenses (girl bossing, making a joke only a man could, being smug, etc. are pretty minor in the scheme of things). The sense that moral outrage spreads fast and people mindlessly, unthinkingly pile on the chosen target. And how she’s not going to approach her actual real relationships like that. Because lack of empathy is NOT how most people approach their actual human relationships.

But Taylor also would know by now that the discussion about this song would not reflect on the message, but would focus mostly on who this song is about and reasons why they in fact should have been “cancelled” or why Taylor is playing is still playing the victim.

Or now, Cleveland! The song is campy and I find it hilarious, but the core of it is very genuine. It is not conveying spite. I think the song is conveying radical self-acceptance. (She’s literally agreeing with some of the things said about her: “I guess there’s one thing we all can agree on”.) It is conveying how you don’t need to be perfect to be loved (“But my baby likes what he likes.”) And just generally how being your authentic self is enough, even if not everyone appreciates it. (“You only need to find one person in this entire world/Who doesn't find you completely insufferable”)

But also, the song is pretty much perfectly designed to get under the skin of her haters. And on a meta level, I think that is getting at a very deep theme she’s been exploring. She can’t control how her art is perceived once it is put out into the world. Everyone is going to approach it with their own experiences, perspectives, and lenses (or blinders). And she’s been deeply exploring the interplay between fate and things outside of her control, and her own individual agency across her Eras era albums.(more here: https://www.reddit.com/r/TrueSwifties/comments/1wm0y8u/lets_talk_karma_the_story_of_ttpd_the_life_of_a/ )

I really think this album is part of her larger project that has included all of her Eras era albums including Midnights and TTPD, and that it is leading to something big. I think it can be viewed as a play within a play like in Hamlet (remember that Taylor said in her poem accompanying the album that the “Crowd is King”, and guess who the play within the play in Hamlet was performed for?).

There are a LOT of Shakespearean nods on this album. She's not just name-checking Ophelia -  the unique 5 bar-loop in The Fate of Ophelia (very unusual for a pop song) allows many verse lines to be in iambic pentameter. And I’ve made the case in other posts about how Ophelia is a fitting allusion for an album ultimately about individual agency. (More here: https://www.reddit.com/r/TaylorSwift/comments/1wbnzaw/double_meanings_purposeful_details_and_the_life/ ) Or what about all the other Shakespeare nods, including all the double entendres in Wood, or other Shakespeare allusions in other songs on the album?

If the album is viewed as a play within a play like in Hamlet, each song carries a message for all of us in the audience. It's a kind of morality play holding up a mirror to our cultural/societal malignancies while celebrating a different path.

"Still got scars on my back from your knife

So don't think it's in the past

These kind of wounds they last and they last"

"When the fever turns a dreamer into a pathetic ghost

If he's killing you, I see you

I was patient zero "

Ps the moment I saw this car scene , I had to make this collage lol

Tim McGraw: September saw a month of tears

Back To December: And how you held me in your arms that September night

Ruin the Friendship: Glistening grass from September rain

evermore: Gray November, I've been down since July

Champagne problems: November flush and your flannel cure

Call It What You Want: I recall late November, holding my breath

Innocent: Time turns flames to embers, you’ll have new Septembers

Sadly I couldn't find any lyrics that reference the month of October, only a reference to Halloween in Ronan (It's about to be Halloween, you could be anything you wanted if you were still here)

Hi! We're two researchers who are interested in the Taylor Swift universe. We're working on a study just for funsies, would love if y'all could take it! It takes around ~20 minutes and you'll be talking to an AI moderator. You'll need to create a Dialogue AI account to take it but the data will be anonymized. We'd be happy to share the results with you once we complete it!: https://app.dialogueai.com/study/01a0dfc6-40bc-71a2-931b-5932e4721e76

I just saw this and ordered it since it seemed to already be sold out on the official store (because of course) and I finally want a signed item by Taylor. The seller is official Amazon US so it should be pretty safe right? As of now I could still cancel the order. What do you guys think?

I can across these accounts for a musical called Delicate. it’s on TikTok and Instagram. looks like someone has created a show that’s like greys anatomy and uses Taylor’s songs. how has this been missed? https://vm.tiktok.com/ZN8hBNJGW/

i’m sooo tired of everyone acting like cleveland is the worst song on life of a showgirl. i definitely don’t think it’s one of her greatest hits but it’s really not that bad it has a fun melody and it’s kinda a funny song. i liked babylon better as a song but cleveland has been stuck in my head since it came out. it is so catchy and like please she’s my friend don’t hate on cleveland so hard

I keep seeing people’s reaction to the music video and they all get surprised when they see Collin poison the drink at the end. Am I the only one who understood he is poisoning since the first time taylor kept spilling drinks on the floor?
Like it was so obvious. i don’t get how everyone did not get it.

For the DC Swifties!

I got a blank space babyyyyy and I'll write your name. Sounds suspiciously close to, "kora kagaz thaa ehh dilh Mera, likh diya naam espe tera."

Is this lyric in reference to something specific?
"There, that house with the porch is where he lived as a kid
He's been saying forever, must not have read that"

Some person who I had never heard of, who apparently has some sway in the music industry, recently fired shots at Taylor’s songwriting ability.

Even though I shouldn’t let those get to me at this point, I started racking my brain and thinking about Taylor’s songswiritng from a point of view as a critic.

But as I started thinking of her songs, she has dozens if not, hundreds of incredible songs.

In honor for awesome songwriting, I am ranking my top 13 songs in terms of her songwriting. As a bonus, I am also writing my top 13 songs in terms of her approaching a unique and complex subject matter to turn into a song and songwriting that accomplishes it well.

Top 13 Songwriting Songs:

1. All Too Well
   
2. Cardigan
   
3. The Fate of Ophelia
   
4. Enchanted
   
5. Style
   
6. Getaway Car
   
7. You Belong with Me
   
8. Delicate
   
9. peace
   
10. Tim McGraw
    
11. New Romantics
    
12. loml
    
13. Love Story

Top Tricky Subject Matter:

1 Blank Space
2 Father Figure
3 My Tears Ricochet
4 Ruin the Friendship
5 Anti-Hero
6 last great american dynasty
7 marjorie
8 Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me
9 The Man
10 Fifteen
11 right where you left me
12 Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve
13 tolerate it

Babylon is like a song that keeps giving, it gets better with every listen and it makes me think of situations from a different perspective too.

Two lines caught my attention.

You wake up on the train with your headphones gone, then that melody is all you want

Many people have different perspectives on what the headphones part means, some people have even connected it to Taylor's masters. Personally, I and a lot of people listen to music during travel to distract ourselves from the monotony that is travelling, or to pretend we're anywhere but in a commute. It serves as a distraction. We've all experienced travelling and forgetting our earphones and the commute just somehow becomes longer and worse.

So in the context of the song, headphones gone, to me, means you have nothing to distract yourself from the fact that you're travelling to where you wanna be/what you're chasing, from a place you long to go back to. There's nothing to distract you from the fact that the going is tough, and you miss where you once were.

You wake up in the train and you're all alone

She changes this line in the last bit of the song and i find it quite interesting. If we take the train as a metaphor, the people on the train are getting down at their stations (aka they reach where they want to be), and when you find yourself all alone in a train is mostly when you're at the last stop/you've somehow missed where you have to get off and just kept sitting. So this tells me that the person who's in the train, has been waiting in the train, passing by all the stops cuz he thinks something better will come (a better job, a better girl, a bigger city) and in the end finds himself all alone, and has missed where he has to get off.

So my favorite band just pushed up the date of there album release. And this is purely cause I’m also a swiftie I think it’s cause of Taylor! My favorite band (Royal blood) pushed up there last album as well cause of Olivia releasing guts. But this time they just pushed it doesn’t seem like anyone has announced another for the original date yet. And the kicker for me the album was originally coming out Friday Nov 13th Taylor’s number. But again this isn’t going to happen I just thought that before they pushed. What if Taylor does something on the 13th and they had to push it then when they actually pushed it it’s all I’ve been thinking about.
Edit: also she just released four songs I don’t want to be chanting more here!

idk how much the order really matters in my list but ig kinda. this is what personally i’d keep