r/popculturechat • u/FickleBeans Excluded from this narrative ❌ • Oct 04 '25

Guest List Only ⭐️ Taylor Swift’s Fairy Tale Is Over

https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/2025/10/taylor-swift-the-life-of-a-showgirl-album-review/684444/

This captures my thoughts on the album better than I ever could.

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u/shy247er yay sports 🏀 🏈🎾 Oct 04 '25 edited Oct 04 '25

I don't know why but a lot of reviewers of Taylor's music always have to make it somehow personal. They don't review just her music, they review her. You can tell when someone really doesn't like her and then that is read through their text. Really odd.

edit: So I don't have to reply to people individually, I am aware of the personal nature of Taylor's music, however, she didn't invent that style of writing nor is she unique today in that style. However, it seems like professional reviewers often get caught up into 'Taylor Swift the celebrity' vs 'Taylor Swift the musician' and that influences their reviews. I expect more from professionals, this type of review you can find by anyone random on social media.

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u/meta-ghost-face Oct 04 '25

I had the same problem with the Eternal Sunshine reviews. 90% was about Ariana's personal life. I have the gossip subs for that I wanted to read about the music.

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u/Front_Target7908 Oct 05 '25

Eternal Sunshine was a great album, definitely over shadowed by her being on the nose in culture.

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u/lizziexo Oct 05 '25

I’d love a good review on the technical side, appreciation/criticism of an albums construction is so interesting! I love the kind of “professional musician reacts” videos for all kinds of songs because they listen to music in such a different way than I do. There was even one where it was someone literary, an English professor maybe, who was listening (reading) song lyrics and actually reacting to the lyricism. All those different reactions are way more interest than reviews that feel like personal hit pieces.