Explained: Why the Taylor Swift backlash is already in full swing

It’s barely been a week since the release of her latest record, but there’s some piping hot backlash brewing and being served up on Taylor Swift’s plate. 

Her 12th album, ‘The Life of a Showgirl’, is proving divisive, with even some die-hard fans feeling underwhelmed by the new 12 tracks.  

We here at Euronews Culture weren’t wowed by Swift’s newest effort. While more concise than last year’s ‘The Tortured Poets Department’, the lyrics are some of the songwriter’s weakest, and the whole thing feels like a letdown – especially when taking into consideration some muted choruses, the parasocial-embracing self-mythologising, and the almighty nosedive the album takes after its opening trio of songs.  

But each to their own, with some Swifties still calling it the best thing she’s ever released.

However, even those who are on board with the new material are finding the album rollout tiresome in the extreme. And we can’t blame them.  

While Swift had assured her fans on the New Heights podcast that the album would stand alone, with no bonus tracks, in order to not repeat the sense of exhaustion felt when her stealth double album was released last year, it seems that there were some loopholes within that promise.

The number of different variants of 'The Life of a Showgirl' has gotten fans calling out a mercilessly capitalistic approach, with the announcements of multiple limited-edition album covers; four different unplugged renditions of some of the album’s songs announced a mere 24 hours after the album drop on Friday; and different exclusive content included within each variant.

It’s all too much for even the most dedicated collectors.

Many have taken to social media to call out Taylor’s “greediness”.

One viral tweet reads: “I feel comfortable saying this is one of the most fucking disgusting and anti-art practices any artist could make and it’s terrible that the one doing it is one of the most popular artists in the world. The utter greediness is just shameful. This shouldn’t be acceptable.” 

Another fan wrote: “I can’t with her greed anymore. Back in the day she used to include acoustic version and voice memos on the deluxe album just ONE album not FOUR separate albums?? she’s milking the fans for more money because apparently being a billionaire isn’t enough.”  

Another asked Taylor: “Girl, we’re in a recession. Can’t you just be nice to your fans for once? Haven’t you got enough of their money yet? Be serious.”

This isn’t the first time Swift has released a seemingly constant stream of new editions, making some fans feel they must either wait for the latest version, buy each new iteration, or worse, call out the shameless attempt to inflate sales and just not bother. 

As a marketing strategy to ensure chart dominance, it’s crafty.

As a wakeup call that feels less about artistry and more about calculated stock drops, it’s a pill that can be hard to swallow.

"I like Taylor Swift but people don’t need 12 variant album covers. I know nobody is making you buy them, but some little girl is forcing her parents to. If any other artist did this y’all would be attacking them..." a fan wrote under the announcement of the new variants. “Imagine releasing 4 versions of the same songs and calling it ‘artistic’ capitalism has never sounded so acoustic," another commented.

As if the never-ending rollout wasn’t enough to rub up fans the wrong way, many were left unimpressed by the AI-generated videos used to drum up excitement during release weekend.  

Indeed, Swift launched a treasure-hunt promotion, encouraging fans to track down 12 orange doors hidden across 12 cities. Each door led to a QR code which, when scanned, unlocked video clips.

TikToker @goojiepooj shared examples of the clips, saying: "Look at the shape of this window up here and see how it does not match the light coming in (…) The shape of the light on the floor is totally inconsistent with the shape of the window." 

This was the final straw for some, with one writing: "Being a billionaire and not paying an actual artist is crazy work like what are you saving your money for?"

One jilted Swiftie wrote: “she ‘fights’ for causes when she is the victim. she always did this and this is just one more example. she was anti ai because someone made a video of her. she is a feminist when people are misogynistic towards her. and then she calls women bitches in her music with ai videos.” 

This tweet – which references Swift speaking out against AI images of her endorsing Donald Trump last year - has gone viral, and at the time of writing, has been liked more than 168,000 times. 

Still, no matter how big the backlash, Swift can rely on a dedicated fanbase that will give anything she does a pass.

"There are much bigger things in the world going on right now and this doesn’t even come close to making the list,” one fan clapped back. “People need to learn what’s important and what’s not and this isn’t important."

Once again, it seems that Taylor Swift is too big to fail at this point. Or, as she sings on the title track of ‘The Life of a Showgirl’: “I'm immortal now, baby dolls."

Immortal, maybe. But not above criticism from fans who value authenticity and traditional music drops above a crushing sense of merch pummeling.

Then again, she did warn listeners in 2017 when she sang: “I swear I don’t love the drama, it loves me.”