Taylor Swift’s new album “The Life of a Showgirl” has attracted an extraordinary amount of hate for a project that gained critical acclaim and broke streaming records at Apple Music, Amazon Music and Spotify all in its first day.
The new pop-forward project with producers Max Martin and Shellback, who worked with the Grammy winner on “1989” and “Reputation,” was subject to mockery and ridicule over the weekend for lyrics that many thought didn’t love up to the renowned songwriter’s previous releases.
“There’s no way the woman who wrote ‘folklore’ wrote this,’ one TikTok user said, referencing Swift’s song “Eldest Daughter.” The video received 1.4 million likes.
“Mind you she’s pushing 40 writing these lyrics,” said another.
the life of a showgirl has some of the most abysmal writing i have heard from this lady. i haven’t been so unimpressed by an album in so long. how did we even get here
— bre (@aantlerqueen) October 3, 2025
every year a taylor swift album comes out and she goes roses are red grass is green i love travis and my haters are mean and her fans go Omgggggg the lyricism
— zade (@zadtwt) October 2, 2025
Taylor swift these past few days pic.twitter.com/aA4wcvgULf
— Nicolas is a cowboy (@niggaolas) October 6, 2025
But hating on Swift, arguably the world’s biggest pop star, is all part of the gig by now. The singer-songwriter is no stranger to catching heat and heightened scrutiny whenever she releases new music — and she nonetheless emerges at the top of all the charts.
Which she just did again. Not even 12 hours after “The Life of a Showgirl” dropped at midnight Eastern Time on Friday, her 12th studio album boasted the most single-day streams in 2025 on both Spotify and Apple Music. Amazon Music also said the album was the platform’s most-streamed album of all time for a single day.
Not to mention the “Release Party of a Showgirl,” Swift’s feature film launch party, grossed $33 million domestically and $46 million worldwide over the weekend, putting her at the top of the box office, too. “The Life of a Showgirl” sold 2.7 million copies in traditional sales on its first day.
Despite the influx of commercial success for “The Life of a Showgirl,” many fans appear to be disappointed, flooding social media platforms with criticism that the 35-year-old’s lyrics are superficial, her production not up to the banger-level she promised and several songs missing the deep message fans have come to expect.
taylor swift is an unethical billionaire, and her inconsistent white feminism does not save her from being criticized for the incredibly out of touch commentary she made on this album, in the current political state of the world, with the context of her maga friend group. pic.twitter.com/GU9zBR9Mic
— irie (@moonscovey) October 4, 2025
But such blowback is not new for Swift — so much so that the artist has made her haters a primary subject in her songwriting – see “Actually Romantic” and “Canceled” off the latest album, “Mean,” “Blank Space,” “Karma” and “Shake It Off.”
Throughout her career, the songstress made a reputation for genre-bending and keeping fans on their toes. Starting her career in country music, Swift made the switch to pop with her Grammy-winning album “1989,” jolting her country music base but welcoming a new crop of fans. At the time of its release, critics found the album surface level compared to the storytelling she achieved with “Fearless,” “Speak Now” and “Red.”
Following the success of “1989,” Swift continued to be ridiculed for feuds with Kanye West and Kim Kardashian and her brand of white feminism and girl power. #TaylorSwiftIsOverParty was even trending at the time. Her 2017 album “Reputation” targeted these criticisms head on and divided fans further, killing off the “old Taylor.” The pop star’s return to upbeat, synthetic pop for “Lover” was also met with a lukewarm responses from fans.
But after The Eras Tour, Swifties and critics alike changed their tune. The success of “Folklore” and “Evermore” as well as her “Taylor’s Version” re-releases helped reframe Swift as both artist and businesswoman. Her record-breaking stadium tour — the highest-grossing in history and the first to make her a billionaire from music alone — cemented her as a pop icon. Even her later albums, “Midnights” and “The Tortured Poets Department,” drew some lyrical criticism, but the frenzy around the tour largely drowned it out.
Though “The Life of a Showgirl” sold millions of copies nationwide, critics from Pitchfork and The Guardian rated the album poorly. Pitchfork said her work has “never been less compelling,” and The Guardian rated “Showgirl” two out of five stars, calling it “dull razzle-dazzle from a star who seems frazzled.” But The New York Times and Rolling Stone praised the album for its catchiness and unexpected sonic turns.
Self-proclaimed music critics flocked to TikTok and X to give their unsolicited takes on the album just hours after listening with many asking how the same Swift that made the lyrical, poetic 31-track anthology “The Tortured Poets Department” could deliver a 2-minute double entendre-filled song like “Wood.”
@vsyclla Idk I like music to be timeless 🥲 I like father figure though. #tloasg #taylorswift #thelifeofashowgirl #swifttok #taylorswiftcancelled ♬ original sound – nadia 🦋🌀 ᖭི༏ᖫྀ
@lightfrommars How could you not be embarrassed bruh 😭 and the beat makes it even WORSE LIKE???? #taylorswift #lifeofshowgirl #cringe ♬ original sound – Music Society 🎶
@tessdhiggins help i can’t be the only person who didn’t know about the charli xcx beef #taylorswift #thelifeofashowgirl #swifttok ♬ The Life of a Showgirl – Taylor Swift
@sotfogsotfog Taylor Swift’s new album The Life of Showgirl exposed a lot of her internal world imo. Please tell me this isn’t obvious to only just me #taylorswift #thelifeofashowgirl #arianagrande #mileycyrus ♬ original sound – sotfogsotfog
For Swift though, she answered these criticisms in the music. With her track “Actually Romantic,” she said that all of the effort her naysayers put into trying to take her down actually fuels her and makes her feel loved. The pop star also told her audience on the titular track from the album that they will never know the life of a showgirl, and they won’t want to.
But for the pop star’s part, it seems like she is letting the hate roll off her back until the next musical message to her haters comes around. For now, the artist is just raking in the dough from her 11 editions of CDs, eight editions of vinyls, acoustic variants and “Release Party of a Showgirl” ticket sales from 7,300 theaters worldwide.
Being in the studio and creating these songs was an unforgettable experience, but luckily I don’t ever have to forget it because I was recording while we were writing – and now it’s a way to look back on the process and give you guys a glimpse into how we wrote these songs, and… pic.twitter.com/VSYQTFX3Gl
— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) October 6, 2025
