Finally, everyone can say bad things about Taylor Swift

By Choire Sicha, CNN

(CNN) — Even the most die-hard Taylor Swift fan is being tested right now. The fandom is facing all kinds of harsh realities and online scorn, from Swift’s absolutely mercenary levels of multiple and expensive versions of physical media to a meh song that seems to be about her boyfriend, Travis Kelce, being a sexual powerhouse. And then there’s the reviews.

Fans are also forced to confront the new album might not be great. Not all of her albums have been received rapturously upon release — 2024’s “The Tortured Poets Department” received cruel to lukewarm reviews at its outset. This time people are saying it loudly.

“The Life of a Showgirl” is a 5.9, says Pitchfork, adding “her music’s never been less compelling.” “While Swift’s life is extraordinary, it’s also cloistered by wealth and celebrity; perhaps the range of feelings she’s allowed to experience has become circumscribed,” says the New Yorker. Sure, it’s some of her best work — “and some of her cringiest,” notes Business Insider. “Classically designed pop tracks, with standard verse-chorus arrangements and rarely exceeding four minutes in run time,” deadpanned Billboard. The album is a “more enjoyable listen if you don’t take Taylor Swift — the artist, the persona, the person — so seriously,” cautions Teen Vogue. “Is this really the same artist that gave us Folklore and Evermore?” one-starred The Standard.

People seem to dislike the material for all kinds of reasons. Probably some of them just don’t want her to be happy! But: A song, hilariously called “CANCELLED!” that is kind of about how hard it is to be famous, is a tough pill to swallow. There is, underlying all this, also some concern among her fans that she is engaged to a man who says he “can’t really read that well.” He haunts the album, like when we see her flailing with trying to do sexy material, which comes off especially flat in the era of Sabrina Carpenter — not to pit women artists against each other! Although, also it looks like Swift is doing that just fine herself with Charli XCX?

Over the weekend, parents escorted their tweens to the second aspect of Taylor Swift’s doubled-barreled album hype, allegedly a movie, called “Taylor Swift: The Official Release Party of a Showgirl.” While the film is estimated to have taken in at least $33 million, “film” is a big word for what this is, with the vast majority of the running time being lyric videos over repeating images, low-rent YouTube-style. It begins with behind-the-scenes footage of the video for the lead single, “The Fate of Ophelia.” Then it plays that video. Then there’s a lot of minutes left.

This movie-like product serves a sanitized version of Swift’s work, changing the more penis-oriented and other adult-ish lyrics into a safer version for kiddos and their chaperones. (Swift often releases “clean” versions of her albums for younger listeners.)

A “lazy big screen cash-in,” is what the Guardian called it. In the post-“Frozen” landscape, here in the age of the beloved and excellent “Kpop Demon Hunters,” parents now, and should, have higher standards for kid-friendly musical entertainment.

Taylor Swift is an enormous commercial powerhouse. Her fandom is stupendously large, kind and loyal. Last week, for the album’s release, perfectly normal workplaces were adorned with super-cute charm bracelet-making stations, with fans adding some much-needed rehab vibes to the return-to-office movement.

But as cute-seeming as they might be, people with critical things to say online have usually stayed hidden from fandoms like hers. A hater is a dangerous thing to be when fandoms are involved. Rihanna’s Navy, now lost at sea due to her complete inability to release new music, was among the most fearsome. You never wanted to run afoul of the Beyhive (not that you would ever have any reason to); the Arianators were severe, but they, like Ariana Grande herself, found lately greater levels of self-care and enlightenment.

Of all the fandoms, the Swifties have persevered and prospered. They also are generally not too quick to overreact viciously but among the first to be Quietly Very Disappointed In You For Your Opinion. (Although, a fan notes today, “They’ve doxxed reporters, invented ludicrous conspiracies, had public meltdowns in the presence of her music, and contorted themselves into knots to defend her objectively bad behavior.” Sure!) Mostly no one wants to be mean to them, especially because they’re a sweet combination of resilient and defensive.

But her fans have been pushed — notably the situation two years ago, when she took up with Matty Healy, who was despised by the fans themselves.

Swift’s lead single, “The Fate of Ophelia,” is getting dragged as much as its getting streamed. Swift isn’t helping. Swift’s commentary in the film includes saying “I love Shakespeare!” Indeed, “a song inspired by the classic and tragic Shakespeare character from Hamlet fame,” as JoBlo put it, becomes, in Taylor’s boppy version, that she kinda just needed a man: “You dug me out of my grave and saved my heart.”

She does seem like the type of artist to have the last laugh. Maybe 425 years from now, it’ll be Swift’s work that rings out down through the centuries, and her albums will age just as well as Swift herself describes Shakespeare now: “It holds up! It’s actually not overhyped!”

The-CNN-Wire
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