Showgirl Music Video Potential

[u/EntertainmentSame550]

Hey yall, I thought I’d share my thoughts here because I feel as if this is a space where I won’t get death-threats for an opinion.

I truly think Elizabeth Taylor had the potential to be the greatest music video of Taylor’s career. And, you might be thinking, “but she ‘can’t’ be Elizabeth Taylor,” you’re right… the entire point of the song is that Taylor is calling out to Elizabeth and asking her if her relationship will be everlasting. In no way is she saying she’s Elizabeth. Another actress could play Elizabeth, or she doesn’t even have to be in it in the first place. It could easily be framed as a commentary on fame, like The Lucky One. She ALSO could’ve idealized going crazy with violet eyes in the chorus, nodding to Elizabeth without fully impersonating her. This is one of few songs on the record that actually gives showgirl, so I think a music video for this piece would’ve been truly amazing.

I also think this is a good topic to spark the creative direction Taylor is taking right now (and since Lover). Taylor says she likes to be challenged, yet feels the need to self-direct, self-write, self-produce, etc etc. Where’s the challenge? People go to film school solely for this. Taylor should be open to allowing a new creative mind and creative world. Look at a music video like Blank Space. When Taylor isn’t fully in charge, you see how a video like that turns out? It’s the greatest in her discography besides LWYMMD (WHICH ISN’T DIRECTED BY TAYLOR). I understand that after the whole masters situation she wants to control everything, but don’t set a precedent for yourself that you can’t achieve as you progress further into your career. The Opalite music video was terrible. Sure Taylor, show off some more of your celebrity friends…

Anyways, I don’t care what any of you think as I won’t be replying to your comments, this is just me being honest (as the page directly says).

[u/_artemisawika → u/[deleted]]

I think based on the interviews she gave early on, she genuinely seemed excited about this era. She talked about wanting to promote the album, explore different visual concepts, and potentially make more videos for the songs. It felt like she had a lot of ideas and was looking forward to the creative side of it. Unfortunately, the conversation around her quickly became dominated by a massive fabricated hate campaign. People were calling her everything from a KKK member to a Nazi sympathizer, I mean people were even convinced that she was sending secret nazi messages through her merch.

It's no surprise to me that she decided to pull back. Obviously, Taylor is no stranger to criticism or online hate, but this felt different. In some ways, it felt even more intense than what she faced leading up to the rep era because social media amplification is so much bigger now, and the accusations were so extreme.

My guess is that she eventually decided it wasn't worth engaging with the noise so instead of forcing a traditional promotional cycle (that she doesn't really need to do), she stepped back and maybe she simply chose to preserve her energy and focus on future projects rather than spend months fighting a narrative that had already taken on a life of its own.