🔗 Share this article

Similar to how the sun rises from the east and goes down westward, devotees of the music superstar will answer the call for fresh material. Well before the financially stimulating, paradigm-shifting international takeover of the Eras concert series, Swift had nurtured a particularly deep and individual connection with her audience, including within the admiring sphere of mainstream music. This connection, upheld by hidden clues, years long parasocial narratives and perhaps her own metaverse, can be genuine and unique and sustaining, a constant support through difficult times – I’ve been there. Yet several years into her peak popularity, Swift’s regular supplying of the audience begins to appear rather than an act of mutual devotion and increasingly manipulative, the numerous special editions and exclusive records and special store editions comparable to a luxury fee on her staunchest supporters.

The Most Recent Product

The latest of these is the Life of a Showgirl movie – or, more accurately, an album release film for her latest record The Life of a Showgirl, releasing this week. Promoted as the Album Launch Celebration of a Showgirl, it includes of track commentaries, production insights and one visual piece (repeated once), unceremoniously packaged into one 90-minute sitting. This is the kind of material any other artist would share digitally, but which Swift, following her proven theater revenue records with her previous tour film, has decided to put on the big screen from 3-5 October. Forecasting substantial earnings in the US, it is expected to become the top-earning movie this week – which is a shame, given that it hardly counts as a supplementary piece accompanying the music, much less something remarkable in her broad collection of material.

Cinematic Experience

As a movie event, The Official Release Party for Showgirl at least mirrors the music it accompanies – rote, tinnily light, featuring uninspired production and rough-cut appearance of someone facing time constraints. Further evidence of what critic Spencer Kornhaber described as Swift’s burnout era. In an unpolished opening recorded facing the lens, Swift, modestly self-conscious and downplaying typically, describes the film as an informal trip of the origins of the tracks” representing a thrilling, exciting period”.

But save for a production documentary on the Ophelia video spliced into brief parts, the film mainly consists of visuals that display the lyrics for each track over a snippet from the related production in cycles. This works for secondary entertainment in a social setting, but an issue as the central offering for a record that is better experienced casually, its mild musical style and notably awkward words designed for easy listening without deep analysis. It might require intoxication; except for one holler for the remarkably unaware the track Cancelled, the audience was quiet at my sober afternoon showing.

Song Commentary

The artist provides every song with a short explanation of her thought process – generally appreciated, skeptics too would argue it’s uninteresting – yet they largely are vague descriptions, declared passion and covering her bases (yes, she got permission from the copyright holders to interpolate that particular track). Swift has always played coy concerning lyrics whose targets are glaringly obvious, but the ambiguity in this case feels especially pointless. She does not reference of the inspiration behind the record, the football star, even while unusually open about their happy relationship in recent media appearances this week. The widely talked about and poorly judged critical reference in that particular track gets described as an affectionate note to a critic. (Curiously, a biting “attention is affection and you've provided plenty, exacerbates the issue.) The suggestive, wordplay-filled Wood, featuring a metaphorical tree, is described as “a song about superstitions” including a sanitized, implied expression toward the audience.

Relatability and Narration

The artist still manages at appearing approachable from the highest perch in the music world; her conversational and interesting guide, even if sometimes misleading about her work. (It isn't the hit-filled record marketed in other media.) This is most evident in work mode; the standout scenes, by far, happen as she allows focus to her creative partners – Mandy Moore, the movement designer, and the cinematographer, and others – and to the taut metronome of a music video shoot. These peeks behind the curtain – a scene from a virtual meeting, humor among the team, perfecting a scene – remain as compelling as they are brief and suggestive. They glimpse both the collective and the system supporting her brand, the true substance of performer existence.

Final Thoughts

Possibly including deeper material, that is both planned and insightful, was an order too tall for Swift’s punishing schedule of decreasing benefits. And perhaps diehard fans of this record – I know there are some – will find something in this minimal offering of exclusive items valuable. However, leading cinema earnings with so little does not constitute an artistic triumph. It results in another lucrative product in her commercial domain.

• Taylor Swift: The Official Release Party of a Showgirl is currently showing