Now, before you come for me, let me preface this by saying I was a huge Swiftie when I was in high school. I was obsessed with Taylor Swift and her music. I begged my parents for Eras Tour tickets multiple times a day (even though they were like thousands of dollars). There was one point where the only songs I had downloaded were part of Taylor’s discography. However, I cannot listen to her music anymore without cringing.
I stopped being a huge Swiftie after the release of The Tortured Poets Department. When I first listened to the album in 2024, I hated it. I personally didn’t enjoy any of the songs on that album and thought to myself, “What happened to the same lyricist that wrote folklore and evermore?” At the time, I thought that was her worst album. Eventually, I gave TTPD another listen when The Life of a Showgirl and I changed my mind. The Tortured Poets Department was no longer my least favorite Taylor Swift Album: The Life of a Showgirl was.
I listened to The Life of a Showgirl when it came out last year…and wow. In my opinion, some of the songs were just some of Taylor’s worst writing. For example, when she wrote “Every eldest daughter was the first lamb to the slaughter so we all dressed up as wolves and we looked fire” in her song “Eldest Daughter,” I physically cringed. As an eldest daughter, I actually stopped listening to the song at that point. Some songs, such as “Opalite” and “The Life of a Showgirl,” were pretty enjoyable to listen to (mostly because of the beat). After listening to the album in full, even though I still listened to her, I found it hard to continue listening to Taylor’s music overall.
When The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore came out, I didn’t even bother listening to the new tracks. I had heard clips on TikTok of “Cleveland!” and laughed out loud. Like one of my fellow writers, I was astounded at the few bit of the song that I had heard. In my opinion, The Life of a Showgirl—both the initial release and the repackage—is her worst writing yet. To be fully honest, this album is one of the many reasons I stopped being a Swiftie. I cannot listen to her music anymore without thinking of this album and it has honestly ruined her discography for me.
To give credit where credit is due though, I do really like a lot of her old music. I think most of her pre-TTPD albums have great songs on them and are really enjoyable to listen to. Her favorite album of mine was folklore. The writing on this album was good; it felt poetic, if you will. All of her pre-TTPD albums have well-written songs and are genuinely enjoyable to listen to. To be honest, The Tortured Poets Department isn’t that terrible; it’s just not my cup of tea.
Besides her recent decline in lyrical writing, I’m also not terribly fond of Taylor Swift’s silence about what’s currently going on in the United States. Although Vanity Fair reports that Taylor Swift might’ve silenced Trump’s usage of her music on social media, they also report that neither her nor others from her team have confirmed their direct involvement with this. Despite endorsing Kamala Harris in the 2024 election and others in the Democratic Party, she has been silent on many issues such as ICE raids and the Trump Administration’s actions in general. While yes, she does deserve privacy after being in the public eye for as long as she has, I don’t understand why she’s been so quiet about what’s been going on in the United States considering her past of being politically outspoken, especially since she has been active with releasing a few different versions of The Life of a Showgirl and different versions of “Patient Zero.”
Writing this article made me sad because Taylor Swift is so nostalgic for me. I grew up listening to Red and 1989 on repeat. Taylor’s music was also a huge part of my high school experience; I loved talking to my friends about her new albums and the Taylor’s Version releases. However, her music just doesn’t have the same vibe anymore and it’s just not as enjoyable to listen to.
As much as I don’t like Taylor Swift, I will never judge someone for being a Swifite. As a former fan myself, I can admit she does have a lot of really good music and is a great writer. She’s got a lot of different songs for different moods; I’ve cried and danced to her music. However, I feel like many people haven’t gotten that vibe from her recently and I do feel for Swifties in that regard. Because of her track record of releasing banger after banger, I think fans have high expectations for her albums and have unfortunately ended up being disappointed in her recent music. I think she needs to take a break from music and stay out of the public eye for a while altogether so she can rediscover her voice instead of dropping remix after remix.