Taylor Swift's new album is again breaking sales records, although even the fans hated the record itself

The singer is criticized for weak lyrics and MAGA propaganda. Why then has her new work become a hit again?

The Life of a Showgirl, Taylor Swift's twelfth original studio album, was released on October 3, 2025. In it, the singer returns to a bright and theatrical pop sound after the dark era of The Tortured Poets Department. The album contains 12 tracks, including a duet with Sabrina Carpenter, as well as a re-imagining of many classic hits - including, for example, George Michael's 1987 "Father Figure". On the day of release, the album set a sales record, but the album received mixed reviews from critics: it was praised for its light, bright sound and bold melodies, but criticized for its weak lyrics. Journalist Ksenia Mironova, at the request of Meduza, tells how after the release of the album the singer was accused of right-wing propaganda and why Swift remains a good marketer.

Successful album, two-year tour. The film became the highest-grossing concert film in history. Another - this time a double - album . Re-recordings of old albums with the addition of vault tracks . Directing videos , returning rights to your music. Any other performer would have taken a break after such a busy program over the past few years, but not Taylor Swift.

And although her new album “The Life of a Showgirl” received many negative reviews, in terms of sales it started more successfully than others in the singer’s career; and his first song, “The Fate of Ophelia,” became the most streamed song in the first 24 hours of release in Spotify history.

The main complaint about the album is the weak lyrics. After the literary “Folklore” and “Evermore”, the calibrated “Midnights” and the reference-filled “The Tortured Poets Department”, the audience was surprised by the simplicity and kitschness of the lyrics of “The Life of a Showgirl”. There is an evil joke online that “the lyrics are so simple that Travis can understand them.” “If Taylor Swift wrote these lyrics, that’s very bad. If they were written by ChatGPT, that’s very, very bad. But if Travis wrote this... I’m even a little proud of him,” thistweet received more than 170 thousand likes.

Quotes from the album

Here are a few excerpts from the songs that are criticized most often.

From the song "Eldest Daughter"

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From the song "Wood"

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From the song “Actually romantic”

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Indeed, on this record much more attention is paid to music and sound than to lyrics - something Swift fans have long lost the habit of, but which, in turn, has already been appreciated by musicians . There is a simple explanation for this: for the first time in a long time, the singer refused to collaborate with producer Jack Antonoff . “The life of a Showgirl” was written by Swedish writing duo Max Martin and Shellback, who once produced Swift’s hits “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together,” “Shake It Off,” and “Blank Space.”

A Grammy winner and the author of many world super hits , Max Martin is focused primarily on melody - English is not his native language, so the author approaches the language exclusively phonetically (he called the hits of ABBA his standard). This is also reflected in “The Life of a Showgirl” - in it Martin not only shows his own inventiveness, but also often resorts to musical references. First, to pop songs from the 1970s and 1980s . Secondly, to the work of Swift herself: each song of the new album can be imagined in one of the previous ones: “Canceled” can be combined with “I Did Something Bad” from the album “Reputation” so smoothly that an unprepared listener simply will not detect the transition; “Opalite” is easy to imagine on Lover, and “Ruin ​​the Friendship” is on Red.

Another complaint about “The Life of a Showgirl” is political. Before the US presidential election, Swift publicly supported Kamala Harris, and Donald Trump wrote that he “HATES” the singer. Now not only haters, but also some fans believe that because of her relationship with Travis Kelsey, the singer “got better.”

In particular, Swift has recently been spotted more than once in the company of an open supporter of Donald Trump , Brittany Mahomes , the wife of Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce's American football teammate. But even in the lyrics of some new songs, critics see MAGA propaganda: for example, calls for increasing the birth rate , which allegedly sound in the song “Wish List” . In it, the lyrical heroine wants to give birth to her partner so many children that “the whole neighborhood would be like him.” “The life of a TradWife” - people sarcastically comment on Swift’s new songs on TikTok.

Some listeners felt that the song “CANCELLED!” dedicated specifically to the performer’s “MAGA friends.” There are, however, many reasons to doubt this. "CANCELLED!" only in general terms concerns cancel culture as such, and before the album’s release, fans even assumed that the song would be dedicated to actress Blake Lively, who was mired in a scandal surrounding the filming of the film “It Ends with Us.” After the release, listeners began to say that this track was about Sabrina Carpenter, who was “canceled” for her last album, “Man’s Best Friend,” where she allegedly devalued the struggle of women for their rights.

But you should understand that the track “CANCELLED!” is also a clever marketing ploy. Now, the Google query “Taylor Swift Canceled” will first of all come up not with materials about scandals associated with the singer, but with her own track. It's important to remember that Swift is first and foremost a marketing genius. And we’re not even talking about endless countdowns before the release of the singer’s new records, but about conscious work with the Internet audience.

While someone says that her lyrics were written by a “creepy millennial,” they are the ones who skillfully hook the zoomers on TikTok - so much so that even representatives of various fandoms react violently to the release of the album: literary , musical , TV series . On a tangent, it even touches Formula 1 fans - for example, in the song “Eldest Daughter” Swift uses the meme phrase “smooth operators”, associated with the famous racer Carlos Sainz.

Swift sows little clues and Easter eggs for different fandoms and companies as seeds that are sure to bear fruit: for the marketing teams of large companies, winks in Swift tracks are also PR. Moreover, it’s mutually beneficial: right on the day the album is released, they use her new track, getting a lot of views due to this, and Swift thus promotes her record among a new audience.

And although the singer herself claims that on the Internet she is only interested in anonymous “forums about how to bake bread,” it is clear from the album that Swift is a connoisseur of memes and uses them playfully. As in the track “CANCELLED!” with the line “Did you girl boss too close to the sun?” , which went viral on TikTok a few years ago.

Swift has been criticized for years, and each time for a new reason. The debut album - "Taylor Swift" - was called "school" and formulaic. "Fearless" was accused of being overly sentimental. "Speak Now" was said to have too many lyrics about exes and too little self-irony. "Red" was criticized for its genre confusion. “1989” was criticized for its commercial approach. “Reputation” was considered too vindictive, and about “Lover” they said that it had too many passable tracks. The intimate “Folklore” and “Evermore” were called the best works, but at the same time monotonous.

When the previous album, “The Tortured Poets Department,” was released, everyone hated the singer’s former partner, actor Joe Alwyn. TikTok and Twitter compared their earnings (not in Alwyn's favor) and suggested that Swift added him to the album's output just for the sake of royalties. Now, after the release of “The Life of a Showgirl,” listeners are criticizing Taylor for her primitive lyrics, which are allegedly to blame for Travis Kelsey. Democrats hate Swift for her silence (she won't speak out on Palestine, for example) and her wealth ("There are no ethical billionaires"). Conservatives are for supporting Harris, moving away from country music and the image of a “proper American girl.”

But Taylor Swift's next album continues to break records. What is this if not the life of the superstar for whom the record is named? A popular theory is that the album's title track, "The Life of a Showgirl," is partly about Britney Spears , Swift's childhood fan. “I took her pearls of wisdom and hung them around my neck,” Taylor sings of continuity and the experiences she's personally learned over twenty years in the industry. The theme continues in "CANCELLED!" and “Elizabeth Taylor” - today you are on top and loved, tomorrow you are “canceled.” It turns out that they will criticize anyway - all you have to do is enjoy the moment.

Ksenia Mironova