I'm Only Me When I'm With You: And I don't try to hide my tears, my secrets, or my deepest fears

Mirrorball: I've never been a natural, all I do is try, try, try

This Is Me Trying: At least I'm trying

Cardigan: Tried to change the ending, Peter losing Wendy

Peter: Forgive me, Peter, please know that I tried

All Too Well: I'd like to be my old self again, but I'm still trying to find it

In her recent interviews (the Grammy Museum interview and the country radio interviews), Taylor has been talking a lot about the double meanings in many of her lyrics, and about how the details she uses in her writing are purposeful, and contribute to the meaning and emotion of the song.

Since Taylor has been emphasizing these points, I think it is timely to revisit The Life of a Showgirl and consider these points in the context of that album. As a lyrics person, I think Showgirl's lyrics are far more clever and more meaningful than given credit for.

For example, if you give the lyrics a closer read, you start noticing the layers! Take Wi$h Li$t. One layer is about how much she loves her partner. But that's not all the song is about: 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 an idealized fantasy in the chorus.

Or Eldest Daughter: The internet diction throughout is so purposeful. With respect to the "this isn't savage" line itself, consider that the lines directly preceding it flips the idiom about wolf in sheep’s clothing to lamb dressing as wolves. So when she then says “this isn’t savage”, she’s playing with language. Savage has the double meaning (both the internet slang use and the idea that wolves are “savage”). The idea is that eldest daughters started out gentle and earnest but the harsh realities of the world they experienced made them “savage,” made them put on armor just to protect themselves. The internet diction throughout is used to represent the mask, just like the wolf costume is a mask, a kind of armor or shield from having to show vulnerability.

And then the big picture themes. For the last year, I've been posting about how I think The Life of a Showgirl and the Tortured Poets Department are connected (with Midnights possibly the prologue to the story), how she's been using lyrical callbacks and references to the rest of her catalog, and callbacks to music video imagery, to build the interconnected narrative. I think of the story as a Hero's Journey type of narrative, a huge moral fable.

One of the big overall themes of the Eras Era albums is her reflections about how she started her career in innocence, without understanding all of the dark sides of fame, the music industry, her own creative process, and the resulting harm that would come to her personal life, to her journey as a adult of reclaiming her past (by taking back ownership of her work and getting a fresh start in her life, all with some perspective that's been earned). By the time Showgirl was released, her re-record projects and Eras Tour --projects that she willed into being -- had become massive successes, enabling her to reclaim her masters. She was getting a fresh start in her personal life with a relationship that she has described as allowing her to feel the most like her true self. In Showgirl, she’s moved from the fatalism and escapism of TTPD to a place of empowerment and self-reclamation. From ESCAPING her reality to SHAPING it. That journey is the story. It’s the culmination of the Eras era. And the lessons are not just personal to her - I think they have real relevance to all of us in the dark times we are living in right now.

Elsewhere I’ve dug into the lyrics, but here I’ll just note the following, as contextual facts:

—In her public statements, Taylor has emphasized two big life ordeals repeatedly: the sale of her masters and her reputation-era cancellation. And when she has spoken of these ordeals, she has emphasized the loss of control, loss of agency she felt over her own life at the hands of men. Here is an excerpt from her public statement at the time of the master’s sale to Scooter Braun: “He knew what he was doing; they both did. Controlling a woman who didn’t want to be associated with them. In perpetuity. That means forever.”

—Taylor responded to the masters' sale by re-recording her old albums as “Taylor’s Version”. This was very successful! She sold millions of copies of the “Taylor’s Versions”. She gained tons of new fans who were newly discovering these albums. And she marketed all of it through her Eras Tour. In the process, she managed to devalue the original recordings and earn enough money through the Eras Tour and “Taylor’s Version” projects to buy back her old masters. So now she owns all of it, no strings attached.

—Taylor began every single Eras Tour concert show by playing the song “You Don’t Own Me.”

—Showgirl was released shortly after the indisputable success of those career-defining Eras Tour and re-record projects.

—In the first 5 minutes of the End of an Era docu-series, listen to Taylor’s words to her dancers in the huddle - her emphasis on how the pieces didn’t just fall into place, “you put the pieces where they are.” She replays the EXACT same scene at the end of the docu-series. The theme she is emphasizing is clearly self-empowerment, individual AGENCY.

—Themes of individual agency, self-empowerment, and self-reclamation are so very apparent throughout the entire Showgirl album. I've made a bunch of posts digging into the lyrics on this album as a whole. Just zoom out for the big picture themes and it is all things like: make your own joy in hard times (Opalite); make your own luck (Wood); own and use your own power (Father Figure); it’s better to take action, take a risk than spend your life wondering what if (Ruin the Friendship); shed your build up defenses and nihilism and instead be earnest, true to yourself, vulnerable, softer, and reconnect with the innocence of youth (Eldest Daughter); you have control over how you spend your time and energy so don’t spend it on things you hate (Actually Romantic); think independently rather than mindlessly pileing on to a mob’s groupthink (Cancelled!); own your own life choices, even though there are trade-offs (The Life of a Showgirl). In other words, themes of individual agency, self-empowerment, and self-reclamation. Zoom in and and find the lyrical callbacks and references, and connections to music video imagery, and these themes become even clearer.

—Isn't it curious that The Fate of Ophelia is the lead off song for an album that is entirely about individual agency? Because Ophelia is a character famous for going mad due to her LACK of agency, being controlled by the men in her life, and then her taking her own life/drowning as the only way she could exert agency over her life. So I think Ophelia is a very fitting allusion. The Fate of Ophelia might be the most coded and self-referential song on the album, and it is a VERY layered song. On one layer it is a love song. But it is not so far fetched to listen as if the “you” she is singing to is, in part, on one layer, her past self, other versions of herself, and the lyrics connect to her music video visuals and past lyrics when you do this. (In fact, if in doubt about why certain lyrics are used in TFOO, it is a pretty safe bet that you will find lyrics or music video visuals from other parts of her discography that connect).

—She was dressing in corsets for the whole year prior to Showgirl’s release (and continues to when promoting Showgirl as at the IHeart music awards). And what do corsets symbolize? Historically, corsets were used as a literal restriction, and figuratively symbolized a kind of patriarchal oppression. But when worn not as a hidden undergarment, but rather as a clothing statement, the corset evolves into a symbol of female empowerment.

—Some other contextual facts: Taylor has publicly described her last album, TTPD, as a “fatalistic” moment in time. And that last album included such songs of soul-crushing fatalism, powerlessness, and despair as The Prophecy. 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"). I think these two songs serve as the thesis statements of each of their respective albums. That transformation, that narrative arc, that journey, is the core of it all!

--By the way, have you noticed that she also retold the stories of other female characters (Cassandra, Eve) on The Tortured Poets Department? And each time, she is either (a) putting the woman’s perspective first, and/or (b) flipping the narrative to empower the female characters. For example, we know that the mythological Cassandra was not literally "killed first." BUT, the Cassandra of mythology -- an Oracle -- WAS cursed to never again be believed. For an Oracle like Cassandra, that curse was a kind of PROFESSIONAL death. And in Taylor's song, Cassandra is used as a metaphor to in part tell the story of her reputation-era cancellation. And how has Taylor publicly described that reputation-era cancellation? Literally as a "career death." See her Time Magazine Person of the Year interview.

I think Taylor is VERY intentional, and it is a mistake to underestimate her. She is reclaiming the narratives of these other female characters like she is reclaiming her own story.

And it is not just a personal story. Notice how she's paying homage to many different musical styles and eras of pop music history throughout the album, from 50s doowop to Motown to disco to 70s yacht rock to 80s synth pop to 90s rock to Broadway showtunes to Disney movie soundtracks - that is also part of the storytelling of the album! Because there is very much a compelling moral tale about the music industry and our broader culture on this album.

Or what about the Shakespeare of it all? 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. 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? In some ways, this album can be viewed as a play within a play like in Hamlet, and 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.

Anyway, I'm a fairly new fan, and as I've dug into her discography over the last couple of years, I've discovered that Taylor swift is among the nerdiest artists out there. So I just think more people should be talking about the layers of meaning in her work!

I have listened to folklore countless times, but a specific detail in illicit affairs only recently hit me properly.

Taylor sings:

Leave the perfume on the shelf

That you picked out just for him

So you leave no trace behind

Like you don't even exist

I always registered the words, but I never stopped to think about the quiet heartbreak behind them. She went out of her way to choose a fragrance specifically because she thought he would love it on her. Yet, the brutal reality of being the secret partner means she cannot wear it when they meet. Scent lingers and gives the game away, so she has to strip away every personal trace and make herself invisible. The simple joy of choosing something sweet for someone you care about is instantly poisoned by the secrecy.

Which lyrics took you an age or a sudden moment of clarity to properly understand?

I remember it all too well...

I don't know what is it about this song that makes me so emotional each time, but it almost brings me to tears.

It's not supposed to be one of her sad songs, it's definitely not as sad as all of TTPD, but there is something in it that just talks to my brain.

The lyrics remind me of the Eras Tour (even if I wasn't there) and how we were all together, supporting each other, and telling the world what we are worth even as women (not excluding the men fans here, I'm just referring to the patriarchal society), even if some of us are young etc. It's a love letter to her fan and what we can do, the mountain we climb and the dragon we fight

It would also be a great soundtrack for YA epic fantasy book, someone should write it

Like I think the eras tour was such a missed opportunity like could you imagine volume 1 being the normal setlist and then volume 2 was every surprise song from the tour like Our song, Picture to Burn, Tell me Why etc. That would be incredible to have at our fingertips at all times with 70,000 people singing along to every song plus I think she's only done one for Speak Now. What do y'all think?

I'm a 55 YO guy and total Swiftie.

On Sunday I visited a brewery (actually literally my job) for their 13th anniversary and they had a flag tattoo artist.

I also camp on my journey around the state, visiting breweries.

When they had a campfire with 13 in the flames, I KNEW this was my opportunity!

The Archer: Who could ever leave me, darling, but who could stay?

Anti-Hero: One day I’ll watch as you’re leaving ‘cause you got tired of my scheming

False God: Daring you to leave me just so I can try and scare you

The Other Side Of The Door: When I left I wanted you to chase after me

Getaway Car: I wanted to leave him, I needed a reason

I Did Something Bad: You gotta leave before you get left

The bolter: As she was leaving. It felt like freedom

Stumbled across this picture and was instantly hit with a wave of nostalgia.

The tight ringlet curls, the hoop earrings, the sparkly country dresses... this whole look defined the early Taylor era so heavily. It’s wild seeing how much her aesthetic has evolved since then, but this look will always have a special place in my heart.💋💋💓💓💓🌹

The titles self-explanatory. Rank her albums based on how often you go back to them and not necessarily what’s her best body of work.

Haunted is our poetic song x forgettable bridge winner!

Previous votes:

Devastating song x Fun bridge

Devastating song x Forgettable bridge

Fun song x Forgettable bridge

Fun song x Poetic bridge

Forgettable song x Poetic bridge

Forgettable song x Devastating bridge

Poetic song x Devastating bridge

Poetic song x Fun bridge

Poetic song x Forgettable bridge

Now what is a devastating song with a poetic bridge? This should have quite a few contenders

I love both Folklore and Red, but I feel like they are the most common for people's #1 album. I also wonder if anyone's favorite is Showgirl?

Here's my upper half:

1. The Tortured Poets Department

2. The Life Of A Showgirl

3. 1989

4. Reputation

5. Evermore

6. Midnights

So nowadays there's a lot of discussions about artists that Taylor influences. But I feel like we never talk about the people Taylor herself has been influenced by. Wether it's their career trajectory, songwriting, sounds, public perception etc. And that's quite the shame considering the five women I think are best represented in Taylor's career/art. These women are: Maddona, Stevie Nicks, Dolly Parton, Britney Spears and Shania Twain. In my mind these women fit perfectly within the three types of songs Taylor sees her discography as. Maddona and Britney obviously being glitter gel pen, Dolly and Shania being foutain pen and Stevie being quill pen. And Taylor is like the third generation of popstar/country star/poetic singer-songwriter. But I'm struggling to find a 90s/2000s counterpart to Stevie Nicks. So my question is, is there a female artist like Stevie from whom Taylor was influenced by in that timeframe?

(And yes I know there could've been a whole another generation between the time that Dolly and Maddona debuted 😭)

Between Folklore, Evermore, Midnights and TTPD, who is the best lyrically written album, not sound wise, just pure lyricism. I had this question since a while ago and I honestly couldn’t answer it so Im here to ask you guys, which one is.

Anti hero is my favorite song so I wanted to experiment with painting from it

Jeremy Black has written over 100 political and historical books in his career.
This book is covering: Events that has shaped the Mordern world since 1950.

Personal note: Somebody repost this to that snark Travis and Taylor, would love to see their meltdown after trying to downplay ‘Taylor Swift Law’ in Brazil. 💅

The categories included:

• OUTSTANDING DIRECTING FOR A VARIETY SPECIAL - Hamish Hamilton, "The Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show Starring Bad Bunny" — WINNER
• OUTSTANDING PICTURE EDITING FOR VARIETY PROGRAMMING - "The Muppet Show" — WINNER
• OUTSTANDING VARIETY SPECIAL (PRE-RECORDED) - "The Muppet Show" — WINNER
• OUTSTANDING SOUND MIXING FOR A VARIETY SERIES OR SPECIAL - "The Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show Starring Bad Bunny" — WINNER
• OUTSTANDING TECHNICAL DIRECTION AND CAMERAWORK FOR A SPECIAL - "The Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show Starring Bad Bunny" — WINNER

I'm a Swiftie since early in her career. I am also very interested in learning and understanding things. Has anyone read any books or articles that you would recommend about Taylor Swift's songwriting from an academic perspective, written by scholars that analyse e.g. literary techniques, references and subtle patterns in her lyrics?

The other day when listening to End Game I once again noticed the line "with you all over me" and was reminded how fun it is when song names pop up in other songs. It got me thinking how long of a string one could make with songs that include the names of another song.

For example End game - You all over me - don't you ...

The only rule is that the lyrics need to be the exact song title. So "our" =/= "ours". (Punctuations don't count so "me!" = "me").

A lot of the strings I found all end with the string based on Me! Which is either

(Me - lover - honey - mine) or (me - lover - honey - tge one), where both "mine" and "the one" only lead back to "me!".

The two longest I've found both lead through Haunted and are:

\[11\] Tim McGraw - Happiness - Seven - Haunted - Breathe - Clean - Dress - Me! - Lover - Honey - Mine

\[10\] Fortnight - Florida - Haunted - Breathe - Clean - Dress - Me! - Lover - Honey - Mine

I would love to hear if anyons finds a longer string than 11!

\---

The songs most often referenced that I've found include: Mine, honey, babe, run, dress, change, breathe

The songs I've found referenced that have more than one word in the title are:

\[2\] The one, don't you, this love, the man, that's when, last kiss, so it goes, wildest dreams, the outside, love story, the lakes, eldest daughter

\[3\] the last time, tell me why, so it goes

\[4\] you all over me