It’s been called everything from dumb to charmless to unethical — the hate around Taylor Swift’s latest album feels extreme. Is her star fading, or is this just a speed bump in an artiste’s journey?
Tayjor Swift’s 12th album The Life of a Showgirl came out last week. PIC/GETTY IMAGES
And I have like five copies of this sh** coming in the mail,” reads a viral tweet about Taylor Swift’s latest album, The Life of a Showgirl, which dropped on October 3. An artiste receiving criticism over their music and lyrics is common. But the lukewarm response from major Swift fans, who call themselves Swifties and refer to her as ‘Mother’ (particularly Gen Z), has been shocking. Is the album really that bad? “I don’t mind it, I think. This is the first album I am listening to completely after Lover,” says Namrata Tripathi, co-founder of Hoomans, a t-shirt brand.
“The music is catchy, and her voice still has the nostalgia of Dear John and White Horse. So, it still takes me back to Standard 9, which I was surprised to feel as an emotion when I heard this album,” says Tripathi, admitting that while the music is fun, some lyrics are “very difficult to listen to”. Especially like the song, Eldest Daughter, because, “they are bad, like a 12-year-old wrote it.”
Artiste manager and Swiftie Natasha Mahtani met Swift at a US meet and greet in 2017
Another fan, Tenaz Cardoz, 32, who doesn’t consider herself a Swiftie, but has danced to her numbers even on her wedding day, says that she understands where the criticism is coming from. “She’s known for her lyrics, but a lot of it doesn’t feel new. The songs sound like something else, something you have heard before… But I guess, music does have only certain notes to play with. So something will always sound like something else, right?”
Other fans like Richa Sharma, 29, teacher and founder of Aurem, which organises experiences, planned a listening party with friends, complete with a game of bingo and more. “It is a great album because now I can see that she herself has become like an adult,” says Sharma, adding, “Some of her songs are like a celebration, whereas it still has these hints of different literary moments. The reader in me is happy to see Hamlet or Ophelia being referenced. There are witty lyrics as well, such as on Father Figure or Wish List.”
Taylor Swift
But what about Swift’s music has her fans hooked? Cardoz says that she may not be someone who buys all her music, but she enjoys the community Taylor Swift has created. “I went for the Eras movie, it was fun being in the same room with people who knew all the songs,” she says.
Natash Mahtani, founder of Origin, an artiste management agency and a self-admitted Swiftie, says that it’s all about the connection Swift builds with fans. In 2017, Mahtani was invited to one of Swift’s secret sessions in Nashville. “When I met her, before I even said my name, she was like, ‘Hi Natasha. How are you? How are your exams?’ She knew everything about every person there — 60-65 people. She obviously must have studied it, but it’s stuff like that, that really makes her who she is.”
Which is why this time around, the criticism from die-hard fans is shocking. Perhaps for fans, everything feels too manufactured. Nirmika Singh, creative entrepreneur and former editor of Rolling Stone Magazine, India, says, “I heard from a couple of people, who took the liberty to be more critical of her art, that she’s so self-obsessed. That the world that she’s created feels absolutely disconnected and tone-deaf from the world that exists. There is a complete disconnect in putting it out or expressing your art, and also putting out the expressions of amplifying it. Everything was over-manufactured, you know, buying out those 574 AMC screens in the US… that’s just insane.”
Fans at an album listening party organised by Richa Sharma (in pink blazer in front row)
But the backlash is not limited to Swift’s music or lyrics. Independent artiste Niki Choudhary says, “The promo videos have AI fingerprints all over them. Glitches, disappearing objects, the kind of visual hiccups that make you go, ‘wait, did a bot do this?’ For someone with Taylor’s budget, you would think she could hire top designers to make everything flawless. What makes it even more layered is the irony that Taylor’s been one of the loudest voices against AI misuse and deepfakes... I think it says a lot about where we are as an industry right now,” she finally adds, “I think we’re out here analysing pixels while she’s out here rewriting pop marketing.”
Swift has been a controversial figure for a long time. Her Eras Tour’s overall environmental impact and carbon emissions from her private jet were under scrutiny in 2024. And, for some years now, her album-selling strategies have been criticised as well. The artiste is known to release a constant stream of limited edition vinyl (in the latest album’s case, CDs too) that have unique artwork, are of a different colour, or have added songs, poems that one can collect to reveal a message, and even exclusive polaroids. One fan on X writes, “I can’t with her greed anymore….(sic)... She’s milking the fans for more money because apparently being a billionaire isn’t enough.”
Tenaz Cardoz and Niki Choudhary
Is it fair for an artiste of her net worth — which has jumped over $2 billion after this album’s release — to expect fans to be buying every version of her music? Sharma defends this, saying, “She doesn’t expect us to do any of that, she does release it because she is that kind of creative person.”
An artiste herself, what does Choudhary think of this multi-version strategy? “It’s a proven system to boost first-week sales and maintain chart dominance. Fans love supporting her, but there is a nerdy part of me that can’t help but think: this is basically an economics experiment in fan loyalty. Throw in AI glitches, multiple versions and fan-driven sales, and it’s like watching behavioural psychology and music marketing collide in real time,” she says. Choudhary also notes that while critics love to frame this as manipulation, the strategy works.
Singh says that these decisions may not always be Swift’s alone. “When it comes to charts, metrics, and publishing, and these frequent releases, I don’t think the onus is on the artiste. It’s actually the company, so one has to go back and see how many times the Universal Music Group [with whom Swift has exclusively signed] have done this. And, why wouldn’t they do it for Taylor? So I would see this from a very pure business lens.”
But the criticism isn’t trivial, and fans say that it’s unlikely that Swift won’t take it seriously after some time. Chaudhary says, “It’s a reminder that fans expect honesty and emotion, even in a hyper-engineered, AI-assisted world. Tech can amplify and multiple editions can gamify sales, but the real magic? That messy, imperfect human pulse behind the music, that’s what fans connect to. So yes, it’s a masterclass in modern music marketing, but also a subtle nudge that authenticity still matters.”
Is it safe to say that Taylor Swift “the artiste” is now becoming Taylor Swift “an enterprise’? Mahtani says, “She’s one of the only billionaire artistes whose main source of revenue is her music [unlike Rihanna and others who own make-up labels among other things]. Whether people want to admit it or not she’s creating a legacy.”
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