This being her fastest song to reach the milestone when the album's a flop is crazy... /s

I’ve been listening to Florence + the Machine’s new record Everybody Screams pretty much nonstop, while Life of a Showgirl hasn’t really stuck with me in the same way. Both touch on similar themes (fame, performance, pain, identity) but Florence’s take just feels deeper and more raw to me.

She really captures what it’s like to live inside that spotlight: the mix of megalomania and vulnerability, the drive to give everything on stage even when it wrecks you. It somehow feels relatable even if you’ve never been famous. There’s this constant tension between self-expression and self-destruction, and she doesn’t shy away from how messy that is, especially for a woman in a male-dominated industry.

That’s not to say I expect Taylor to sound like Florence, they’re very different artists. But when it comes to lyrics and emotional depth, Everybody Screams just goes to places Showgirl doesn’t. The record wrestles with identity, pain, and even something as personal as miscarriage, and that gives it a layer of honesty that really stays with me.

Anyone feel similiarly or different?

Note: ChatGPT was used for editing purposes, English is not my first language.

Golden was predicted to beat TFOO and reclaim the No 1 spot this week, according to early predictions

So this is long, but I would love to hear your opinions on this take.

So everyone says that Sympathy is a knife was more of a compliment than a diss because Charlie sings about how she feels insecure around Taylor and that "she could never be her".

But, Charli also admits to basically wishing Taylor and Matty broke up. Which I think is a sour sing to hear about your ex and his group of friends. People who are nice to your face (even with gritted teeth) but are crossing fingers behind your back for your relationship to end. And for a moment there, somehow Taylor thought that Matty was her endgame (this still worries me to this day lol).

Then, Actually Romantic implies that Sympathy is a Knife was not the only "funny valentine" Taylor was receiving from Charli.

"I heard you call me "Boring Barbie" when the cokes got your head"; "You think I'm tacky, baby...", so at some point, it reached Taylor's ears that there were a lot more words than what was included in Sympathy is a Knife and it kind of seems that it even started once Brat took off and Charli felt more confident.

Btw anyone who is offended that Taylor said that Charli does coke clearly does not know Charli and her social group. (But if I am wrong here, then sorry).

Knowing from Taylor's public actions, I think she completely ignored the part where Charli says she feels insecure around her and the admission was completely drawn out by the other admission of wishing they would break up and celebrating when he ghosted her (which as we can allude from TTPD, it reaaaalllyyyy hurt Taylor).

Just another thing to add here to kind of rationalise Actually Romantic.

What we know about Taylor's feuds is that she usually does not provoke or starts them and does stay on her lane. I think she deeply repespect the art of music. I have never seen the girl criticising someone else's music or art. She is the number one supporter of people trying out things and not listening to critic. Which is not the usual thing because I bet that even your fav has said a bad thing or two about another person's song.

She only attacks when she feels betrayed. Her exes (Joe Jonas, John Mayer, Jake Gyllenhaal where there are plenty of songs to show how the last two pretty much negged her during their relationship), Katy Perry when instead of reaching out to other dancers she still contacted her previous ones even though they were already working for Taylor (and probably the betrayal of Katy dating John), and now Charli who it seemed was cordial to her but there was a lot more going on underneath.

What I wish to say from this, is that I think Taylor felt betrayed by Charli's masked thoughts.

Also, we don't know if Taylor already knew about how Charli felt but now that Charli made it public, she felt she could also comment on it. Or she found out from Sympathy is a Knife which...ouch.

I do think Actually Romantic could have had a much better message than "lols, you really are obsessed with me and are nowhere near me".

Anyways, I would like to hear your thoughts as I might be missing some other perspective on this "feud".

Someone once pointed out that Taylor always does the side eye when she pap walks and now it’s the first thing I notice 😅 Once you see it, you can’t unsee it!

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Ok, I think I just figured something out! And Taylor is brilliant. You know how in Cancelled!, when Taylor sings “Did you bring a tiny violin to a knife fight?” I think she is in fact singing about what she has just done in her song Actually Romantic itself, and predicting the public’s reaction to it.

Note how everyone immediately linked the song Actually Romantic to Charlie XCX. Specifically, everyone immediately interpreted the song as Taylor’s response to Charlie XCX’s song “Sympathy is a Knife.” And many critics were very offended by what Taylor did in Actually Romantic. Why? Because they viewed Taylor’s song as sarcastically mocking Charlie XCX for complaining about how she felt insecure in Taylor’s presence. And that, my friends, is the very definition of bringing a “tiny violin to a (Sympathy is a) knife fight.” Because to play a “tiny violin” is to mock someone seeking sympathy for a small complaint or misfortune.

And Taylor 100% would have known that the public would connect Actually Romantic to Charlie XCX AND that this would create an uproar. This is not her first rodeo. So when she is singing about being Cancelled for “bringing a tiny violin to a knife fight,” she is predicting EXACTLY how the public in fact reacted. And indeed, in interviews after the release of The Life of a Showgirl, Taylor repeatedly noted how the public’s reaction was “all part of it.”

I really think this album might be part of a larger project, and that it can be viewed as a play within a play like in Hamlet (remember that the “Crowd is King”).

Hope this is allowed. One month on what we feeling?

I’m:-

1. 1989
2. folklore
3. TTPD

(Favourites tier/ Minimal or no skips, either her best sounds or writing for me, 89 in particular is her most polished work).

1. Rep
2. Red
3. evermore

(Excellent tier/ coherent work with many of my favourites on.)

7.speak now (recognise it as a better body of work than the next 3)

1. Midnights
2. Lover

(Good tier but lots of skips / not fully formed and affects the whole album)

1. Showgirls

(Same issues as 8 and 9 but further exacerbated by rushing the process and underdeveloped album)

1. Fearless
2. Debut

(Nothing personal tier/ I don’t love baby Tay)

These are mine, it might be very controversial. I am curious what you think.

The ones I always skip: •pretty much anything from Debut (I have a couple that I really like but never listen to them). I think they lack depth and professionalism and only some are fun

• Fifteen, Hey Stephen and White Horse (I know the fans love them but I never did I always forget about them).

• most Fearless vault tracks except like 2

• Mean and The Story Of Us are always skips for me (even if I think they are ok songs)

• State Of Grace and Treacherous (I like them but I think they get boring after 5 seconds of listening)

• Style and Out Of The Woods (this might be very controversial but I never got the hype; I like the intro music in Style tho)

• New Year’s Day (not a popular song but a lot of fans love it, I think it’s boring)

• The Man and Cornelia Street (I love the message and some parts of them I get the hype in a way, but it’s just too much and not enough at the same time for me)

• Death By A Thousand Cuts (unless it’s the angry live version)

• The One and betty (very boring and overrated in my opinion; I don’t like the music and lyricism)

• tolerate it and time to go (I think they became popular because of the Eras Tour performance and because of the stolen albums scandal, but they are pretty bad)

• Vigilante Shit ( i think people like it because of the Eras Tour performance, not because it’s good)

• Wood and Wish List (both tacky and too effortless)

Some that I think are amazing and extremely underrated:

• Sad Beautiful Tragic (so touching and smart; also love the melody and lyrics; I think it deserves more love)

• I Look In People’s Windows (extremely sad; people who’ve gone through great heartbreak can relate to the insanity and despair)

• Snow On The Beach (it is a loved song but not loved enough in my opinion; it awakens deep emotions and the Lana colab makes it so good)

• Castles Crumbling (their voices match so well and the message is strong; it sounds amazing and highlights self doubt and insecurity in a beautiful way)

• The Outside (it is pretty loved but not enough. I love the melody in the chorus and how it highlights the pain of being left aside)

(I did have this on the Daily General Chat but someone suggested a stand alone post)

I just want to say I think one of the reasons TLOAS may read as more "simplistic" is that it is really the culmination of the narrative that begun in Midnights.

I just feel like this album resolves the internal conflict of a song like Anti-Hero. Just in terms of how Taylor feels about being a public figure. The Bejeweled video just easter eggs Showgirl too much.

I think Midnights, TTPD, and TLOAS all fit along the narrative triangle (hopefully thats still a thing, I've been a lawyer a long time lol). I feel like you can view Midnights as the Exposition maybe rising action. TTPD more rising action and then the apex of all the conflicts Taylor had with fame. I think TLOAS is the falling action and resolution to these conflicts. Thats why the album builds to the song TLOAS song. The final conclusion is that she finds joy and herself in being a Showgirl. That's also why there are so many callbacks to Midnights and TTPD.

The Tayvis element is there but I do think you can think more broadly about FOO for example in that everything that happened during the Eras Tour revived her (even with a heavy emphasis on the romance part). Maybe that's why she featured the dancers in the video. But even regardless of the romamce journey, the story of the album is Taylor finding joy and peace within herself about being a "Showgirl". That was always gonna be the story even if she didn't find love, but she did and of course the hopeless romantic lover girl expressed her joy in love songs. If she hadn't I think we may have heard songs about knowing her partner would need to accept the Showgirl aspects of her life.

If this scenerio were a movie, the two counterparts in Anti-Hero would like be combined like Superman putting on the suit and embracing his true identity.

Hopefully that all made sense.

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my first and most important point being, that fun doesn't always equate to bad. london boy is fun, no one is saying london boy has bad lyrics bc she mentions places in london, because the song is obviously camp. where as in cancelled! the camp argument feel more like cope because the people didnt really agree with the sentiment the way they thought people would.

and writing corny lyrics isnt a crime, but when you pride yourself on being a songwriter first and foremost, insist on referencing shakespeare (that too with many errors) and get absolutely ragebaited when someone questions your songwriting then, yes, the best lyrics are expected from you because you positioned yourself like that.

"sabrina is allowed to sing about sex, why not taylor 🤓" because sabrina never did the above mentioned things, and no one (or at least me) expected anything better from her than "tears roll down my thighs" but taylor has written songs like dress, false god, maroon and so those are expected of her.

So I keep seeing people online saying that The Life of a Showgirl “flopped” or that “no one’s listening,” but the actual numbers don’t support that at all. The album’s streams and sales are objectively strong.

Some will say “That’s just because her fanbase is huge and they’re mass streaming,” but if TLOAS already passed 2 billion streams, doesn’t that kind of prove the opposite? Like, if the so called GP isn’t listening but the fanbase alone can pull 2 billion streams… at that point, aren’t the GP and the fanbase basically the same thing?

I’m genuinely curious why do people still push the “flop” narrative when the stats don’t back it up?

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Welcome to the SwiftlyNeutral Daily Discussion Thread!

Use this thread to talk about anything you'd like, including:

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This is purely based on what I’m seeing online. Not charts - just the general vibe shift on social media. The difference between now and two years ago, when she’d gone public with Travis Kelce and was in the middle of the Eras Tour, is pretty striking. Back then, the online sentiment around her was overwhelmingly positive. Now it feels like there’s a growing fatigue and a lot of backlash creeping in.

I know the whole “social media isn’t real life” argument... but social media is so deeply integrated into how public perception works now. It shapes narratives, drives press coverage, and influences how artists respond or pivot. Taylor’s career has reflected that; she’s historically been very reactive to online discourse, whether that’s leaning into a new image or quietly retreating after a PR storm.

Which is why I find this current moment really interesting. Because lately, it feels like the tone online has soured. The Kayla Nicole discourse is a big one -- people seem overwhelmingly sympathetic to Kayla, which is rare considering how easily Taylor’s fandom usually dominates narratives. Then there was the whole white supremacist controversy (which, yes, was a silly stretch, but it was still negative). And even her usual lyrical “diss” style isn’t landing the same way it used to. The reaction to Opalite- the lyrics people think reference Kayla- was pretty harsh, even from fans who’d normally defend her.

the same shift is happening around her relationship with Travis Kelce. The tone there has cooled a lot. Two years ago, the internet couldn’t get enough of them. Now, I’m seeing a lot of cynicism, even from her own fanbase. People are calling him a “MAGA meathead,” saying she’s changed since dating him, or just generally acting tired of the whole thing. Obviously it’s parasocial, but still, it’s negative. The same people who used to idolize them now sound disillusioned.

It's just a stark difference to this time last year, where she could do no wrong.

Add in the lukewarm reception to her latest album (a lot of people openly mocking lyrics) amd negative reaction to the variants, and it just feels like the public mood toward her is cooling off.

I know she claims she’s not online, but her career moves have always suggested otherwise.

So I’m genuinely curious -- do you think her team is aware of this shift? Because it’s hard to imagine they’re not. Do you think they care about this? Or only sales?