Life of a Showgirl: Prologues, pettiness, and poetry

Interactive Transcript

spk_0 You woke up branded with the lines of pillow creases thunderbolted tree roots across your cheek.

spk_0 In turn, last night's mascara stains, the ivory hotel pillowcase,

spk_0 each one leaving their mark on the other, looks like you're even.

spk_0 You say good morning to them when you walk in and they don't correct you,

spk_0 as they spray vodka on the armpits of the dancers' costumes. We learn these tricks along the way.

spk_0 The flesh-tone bandage wrap covered by skin-colored fishnets,

spk_0 because you will cover the wound no matter how deep it is, no one ever knew,

spk_0 and baby, that show-business for you. Coffee, stretch, piano keys,

spk_0 focal warm-ups in a locker room shower, eyelash glue, a photo of him on the mirror,

spk_0 a sweat and vanilla perfume. The cracking of joints and the distant beat of a drum,

spk_0 the curtain call, the monotonous thrill of it all,

spk_0 plan it out so it doesn't look planned. 10 different backup plans,

spk_0 if your red-bottomed heel breaks, you will keep strutting, balancing on the balls of your

spk_0 blistered feet, know your exits, shoulders back, eyes up, hit your marks, your winks, sparks.

spk_0 Tell them a story like it's an intimate dinner party, the looks on their wondrous faces,

spk_0 their expressions like mood rings, isn't it all so majestic? Of course it is. It's a lot of other

spk_0 things too. Remember the city you've been here before in another life on another tour?

spk_0 Remember her? She's got a mortgage now, straight teeth where there'd been metal brackets,

spk_0 standing with her eight-year-old daughter, you mouth. I know you, in the millisecond gap in your

spk_0 choreography, to you she will look exactly the same age as the first time you saw her.

spk_0 She will always be 14 and a half. Remember, lock right back into the footwork,

spk_0 any misstep is a misstep. You must remember everything, but mostly this. The crowd is your king,

spk_0 who is ruled over you for centuries, benevolently, for the most part. Perhaps some day they will

spk_0 despise you again. Perhaps it is not a matter of if, but when. They'll reassess your merits and then

spk_0 take a magnifying glass to the shiny bug. To flate all the heroes they had decided she was,

spk_0 and maybe they'll do it just because. But you live by a strict code. Never believe your own mythology,

spk_0 never type your name into the search bar. Let the wolves howl all they want, the moon should never

spk_0 howl back. You know if you play it's a losing game, so you keep yourself too busy to ever learn

spk_0 what's their name's name. And these are the reasons you are still somewhat sane. He ran to his

spk_0 car from work to catch the flight, missed the first act, but somehow it's better this way. It's

spk_0 just right. Because you get to watch him make his way through the masses, parting the crowd like

spk_0 some neon Moses in a sequency. He is a magnet and a trampoline, the tiny bubbles in champagne.

spk_0 Have hazard but precise. He crash landed next to you, reckless, but never with your heart.

spk_0 If he's in, you are too. You've begun to feel that every song before was just a prayer.

spk_0 A wishlist. He is not what you've been waiting for. He is more. Why you held out, why you left,

spk_0 and nothing excidentally. He has that effect. Tonight all these lives converge here,

spk_0 the mosaics of laughter and cocktails of tears, where fraternal souls sing identical things and

spk_0 it's beautiful, it's rapturous, it is frightening. It's worth everything it has cost you, and even at

spk_0 your darkest or drunkest, you wouldn't say any different, would you? You would choose all of it again,

spk_0 no matter how the story ends, with the ugliest booze or the loveliest bouquet. They say that love is

spk_0 a choice you make every single day. And that is how you love the life of a showgirl.

spk_0 Hi everybody, welcome back to the Be There and Vibed Podcast. I'm Kate Kennedy, your host.

spk_0 So if you've been anywhere near the internet past 48 hours, yeah. Or if you've been anywhere near

spk_0 me ever, you probably know what we're talking about today. Taylor Swift's 12th studio album, The Life of

spk_0 a Showgirl, which dropped on Friday, October 3rd. And if you're wondering where that poem came from,

spk_0 that's the official prologue of Life of a Showgirl. It didn't come across my desk to like,

spk_0 today 48 hours in, and it's a big reason why I'm putting up this episode super late, and this

spk_0 episode isn't pay-walled. This was going to be like the third installment that I was going to put

spk_0 on Patreon, because we already have two reaction videos up there, and like a nophilia, deep dive,

spk_0 pre-album, like hype speculation episode. And this is going to complete it, and I had another one.

spk_0 But I pushed that for next week. I wanted to put this on the main feed, because I was kind of like,

spk_0 honestly, because, and I'll explain this, I had a moment when I realized the prologue and the

spk_0 artistic context of this entire album was withheld in a manner that was pay-walled through different

spk_0 album variants. I was like, okay, we've been through enough. What used to just be like good old

spk_0 wholesome fun of us sharing, and you know, a shared interest, and a body of work that we adore,

spk_0 is now just this weird content farm where everybody's capitalizing, and we can't even get like the

spk_0 basic included package of an album anymore with the album we buy, like whatever. Okay, I'm going

spk_0 to get into that in a second. We'll do the episode about hobbies next week. That's like such a fun

spk_0 episode about people's like identity and community formed through their crafting ventures, and

spk_0 their unusual hobbies. And like it's, it's absolutely like, so I apologize if you were expecting that.

spk_0 But I think that like, yeah, there's a lot of chatter about the life of a showgirl, and I don't

spk_0 feel as viscerally as people, many people seem to on the internet, but I never do. I'm always kind

spk_0 of somewhere in the middle. You know, I like, I love a lot of it. I think some of it's really strong.

spk_0 I think some of it's like more filler, or kind of had Vault Track energy almost. I, who's to say,

spk_0 I won't love it more like any day now. I never really know what trajectory an album is going to take.

spk_0 And if we're using Dick Metaphores now, like this album could very well be a grow or not a show.

spk_0 Or so this is a tight 12 track album that Taylor made with the Swedish hit making wildest dream team.

spk_0 Of Max Martin and Shell back, and they're behind some of them for biggest,

spk_0 actual like bangers, biggest hits from 1989 from reputation.

spk_0 You know, we're talking blank space, shake it off, wildest dreams. Some of my personal favorites,

spk_0 like New Romantics, Wonderland, King of My Heart. I did something bad don't blame me.

spk_0 They first started working together with I believe Red for I knew you were trouble. And she recorded

spk_0 it during the European leg of the era's tour last year. And when she was performing in Sweden and

spk_0 Max was there like with his family, she purposefully put together this Max Martin melody.

spk_0 And it was kind of an effort to like seduce him back into working together because he's like so,

spk_0 so busy. And she knew that he probably felt like the stakes would be incredibly high if they

spk_0 were to work together again. And when Taylor Swift announced this on her boyfriend's podcast,

spk_0 which has a title I'll never look at the same. New words. She essentially described the album as kind

spk_0 of a vibrant, lively departure from the melancholy of the torture poets department. And now we know,

spk_0 you know, she was saved from drowning in the melancholy in life of a show work,

spk_0 life of a show girl. And direct quote, she says, said, this is the record I've been wanting to make

spk_0 for a very long time. I'm so proud of it. And it just comes from like the most infectiously joyful,

spk_0 wild, dramatic place I was in my life. And so that effort, essence has come through on this record.

spk_0 And like, as he said, bangers, and that's in reference to what Travis was saying. And he said,

spk_0 I know there are all 12 bangers. It's a lot more at beat. And it's a lot more like fun,

spk_0 pop excitement. It's a complete 180 from the song on songs on torture poets for sure. It's so much

spk_0 fun. I've been fortunate enough to hear it. And then says again, they're all 12 bangers. So they both

spk_0 use the word bangers to describe the track. Taylor position it is coming from an infectiously joyful

spk_0 place. Record she's been wanting to make for a long time. That's like carefully curated,

spk_0 right and tight, only 12 tracks, no more music, which a lot of us identified as being clear contrast

spk_0 to the firehouse criticism of how many songs and how many lyrics and the kind of like data dump

spk_0 that tortured poets felt like that people like me adore, but you know, music critics and people

spk_0 that I don't know can't pull all night or just like jobs and lives or jobs a little not related to

spk_0 Taylor. So I was like, minus this actually had a release party in theaters, which I went to when

spk_0 I absolutely loved that sold 15 million in advance tickets within its first day on sale.

spk_0 Like it's just so crazy. Commercially, the album's already a jug or not. But critical reception has

spk_0 been really interesting. And I'm excited for that quite frankly. I don't find it as frustrating

spk_0 maybe as other people do because I think complicated feelings are so much more interesting and less

spk_0 boring than loving it or hating it. I am very interested in talking through some of the nuance

spk_0 about the reception of it. And if it's a function of a polarized internet and you know algorithms

spk_0 presenting extremes as consensus or if there actually is some very real dissonance here

spk_0 that some of us feel as fans because of maybe the dissonance that's exhibited on the album

spk_0 itself where we feel a bit pulled in different directions or at least I can only speak for myself.

spk_0 But yeah, my first hot take would be if we're talking post 1989 lead singles from look what you

spk_0 made me do to me to cardigan to willow to anti hero to fortnight.

spk_0 Paid of Ophelia hands down strongest lead single for me personally. My favorite songs are

spk_0 probably father figure and honestly opalite like it's easy breezy listening that like

spk_0 majorly nods to the run ads. And it's interesting doing their reaction videos because when I edit

spk_0 them back it's like there's what's coming out of my mouth and then what's present in my reflex

spk_0 and there's in almost like synchronously Kelly and I will start to like sway almost immediately

spk_0 like to certain songs. I think it's quite telling high level how to great time. It's really fun to

spk_0 listen to and what I'm not thinking about the lyrics. I am swaying. I'm dancing. I am enjoying myself

spk_0 driving to Trader Joe's the first listen through. It was a good time started at 3.5 that I now

spk_0 round up to a floor in the same way like I would rate. I like won't rate a book under four if I

spk_0 enjoyed reading it. Like baseline was a entertain you betcha. She's having fun. I loved the beats. I

spk_0 grasped the main themes as best I could. You know like she's an artist daughter not a bad B.

spk_0 Her fiance has a big D. We had a little bit hamlet. It was a little bit hammy her prom date RIP.

spk_0 Maybe rest but she said in the movie theater thing that it was about an amalgam of people not

spk_0 one individual person. So I'm not super clear on the inspiration for ruin the friendship but

spk_0 listen she hates cancel culture and wants to make a point. She says she's not a bad bitch or a

spk_0 savage but two songs later poses exactly as one. We have fated will feel you and Opelite that I

spk_0 think are immaculate Bob. So Elizabeth Taylor you know Harkens back to RIP and a way that

spk_0 provokes my thoughts and father figure I think is really the anchor of my whole

spk_0 review in that I think it represents the duality of this record. It makes me have a bit of trouble

spk_0 pinning it down where in a very self aware moment Taylor or Swift says in the interview that I saw

spk_0 on theaters that like she acknowledges that in father figure she's not just like the victim and

spk_0 the twist ending of like you know now my dick's bigger you know I became more powerful. She

spk_0 acknowledges that she can play both roles of that person with the protégé wielding their power

spk_0 as a as a weapon able to like mentor someone as easily as they are able to drop everything when

spk_0 forget that they existed she feels the victimhood of being a pawn but now is also able to do that

spk_0 in her own right and I thought that acknowledgement was like so amazingly honest and made the song

spk_0 all the more interesting to me and I just I love father figure and it would be impossible for me to

spk_0 say I didn't like the album based on those four tracks alone while they don't represent a majority

spk_0 stake in the album I think they each like execute on something that she does really well very specifically

spk_0 whether it's concept lyrics you know matching with the melody using a literary reference in a creative

spk_0 new one has a great beat drop one has a now standing key change one makes me feel nostalgic and want to

spk_0 go to a sock hop like I don't know love five mixed after that things go a bit off the rails for me

spk_0 if I'm being honest and I will say there's rarely like a situation where their songs are outright like

spk_0 do not like I will say that feels different about this album because there are two I really don't

spk_0 and that's okay but I also have already since the first couple of listens appreciated

spk_0 some of the later songs way more than I did the first time and then like wish list honey

spk_0 wood canceled I like them melodically the more I listen to them but conceptually I think there's

spk_0 just like a lot to talk about life of a showgirl I actually love and it really came to life for me

spk_0 in theaters would melodically came to life for me in theaters but I still think that some of the

spk_0 word choice and stuff it's it's it's went to the same school as another max martin song

spk_0 it went to the Katy Perry school of got me spread like a buffet bone apatite baby in ways that

spk_0 sometimes surprising invulner reference in a song doesn't like sit right and it's not because

spk_0 you're like prude or you want like you know six-year-olds to be able to listen to it just because it

spk_0 feels like at a place and not the best way to say something and it feels more like an effort to like

spk_0 shock than to get a point across and Taylor Swift rarely goes for that type of like low hanging fruit

spk_0 hung fruit and it's not that you can't talk about sex like other people can but like it was just

spk_0 some lyrical choices that were so distracting to me it blocked my ability to appreciate how good

spk_0 this song actually is because I liked it in theaters why because it was slightly censored again I know

spk_0 that makes me sound like polyanna but it's less because I didn't find the lyrics prudent and more

spk_0 that I found the the word choice so distracting that I felt the lyrics I felt for the first time in

spk_0 like Taylor Swift history that her lyrics undercut how great a melody was and didn't do a greater song

spk_0 justice and its production value because in the theater hearing it loud hearing the knocks hearing

spk_0 that song like musically it sounds like if the siblings from the Jackson 5 and the sisters from

spk_0 Wilson Phillips Brady bunched and made music and it wasn't music like it's a sunshine day but like

spk_0 it was music like wood which would be weird to sing with your stepbrothers but if you didn't think

spk_0 there was obvious sexual tension between Martian and Greg I don't think we watched the same program

spk_0 but the use of dick and father figure artful necessary important the crowd audibly booed when the

spk_0 censored version said my checks picker in the movie theater it's not that you can't enjoy your

spk_0 fiancee's manhood your main squeezes redwood like that's awesome I'm genuinely happy for you people

spk_0 write hypersexual songs all the time they're absolutely nothing wrong with doing that I just don't

spk_0 I guess I don't like D's without B's and that does sound like I was just referring to doctors

spk_0 without borders which is absolutely not I need D's within B's Dicks within boundaries of where I

spk_0 feel like it matches the song and makes sense and also yes the promotion of new heights new heights

spk_0 of manhood that is like I'm allowed one tantrum per album I think it's an absurd lyric feel free

spk_0 to explain away that she's having fun to call it camp to go whatever you want it bothers me it feels

spk_0 cheap it seems it's like it's about as inspired as product placement and it was one of many things

spk_0 that chief in that song that is actually really good and I just I can't please listen to the censored

spk_0 and I think you'll understand what I'm saying because I I can handle corny and I love a song that's

spk_0 just full on horny but you don't need to like tell us as much as you need to show us or use in

spk_0 you window or do something more tongue and cheek like a Sabrina Carpenter the thing about house

spk_0 tour it is it is dirty dirty but it is completely clean I don't even think there's an explicit

spk_0 and a clean version it is it's it's like a heavy handed metaphor that's that also like fairly well

spk_0 crafted and cheeky that isn't like actually dirty at all by by like radio standards and so yeah

spk_0 like that was a lot of the stuff I loved and if I were like a normal civilian I just end there and be

spk_0 like had a great time but like I get why it passes by or kind of like oh my god I rolling at everybody

spk_0 thinking they're take it to be centered because it's a lot and like I think some people just

spk_0 would enjoy things and I support you in that play by the way there is a bit of a polarized

spk_0 reception to this album I think most people are kind of like me and they're like it like best of

spk_0 times where's the crimes you know like some stuff you really love some stuff it's like with the

spk_0 couple cringe moments that like felt a bit surprising and it's not a big deal but for those that

spk_0 feel really strongly I think that a core criticism actually does have to do with like where's the

spk_0 show girl of it all just doesn't feel cohesive without was promoted and beyond that like I do think that

spk_0 and I should have known better the way it was positioned on new heights and we'll get into the songs

spk_0 next I promise but also yeah I would be lying if I said I wasn't jazzed for what I thought I was

spk_0 positioned as kind of her like magnum opus that I was hoping would be a a lyrical Bob Mackie of

spk_0 sorts you know how folklore and evermore feel like they're in the woods I kind of was expecting to

spk_0 feel I don't know I was expecting for it to sound like the glamorous glitzy shimmering of the optics

spk_0 of a show girl with like the emotional truth of the the woman in the bathtub at the end of the night

spk_0 like behind the show is just a girl sure and if this is what she was thinking about behind the curtain

spk_0 that absolutely fits within the theme but I would have loved to hear more about the content of the

spk_0 poems that kind of captures some of the contradictions like the sequence and the exhaustion and the

spk_0 spotlight and it versus the solitude the performance the person like the show girl metaphor the

spk_0 tension between what the audience sees and what you're actually feeling is so ripe for like endless

spk_0 material I think I think one big overarching thing having to do with the response to this album

spk_0 is expectations and I think that since we love 1989 so much and so many songs on rap that were

spk_0 Max Martin shell back and the positioning of like all 12 bangers like the most proud I've ever

spk_0 been of an album I think that like maybe expectations were set up like each track to you know be

spk_0 better than the last type of vibe when realistically going into it yeah Max Martin shell back and

spk_0 Taylor Swift are makers of magic but they're there are there makers of things that stand the test

spk_0 of time and things that completely get lost in the album like think about Blake space and style

spk_0 and wildest dreams like some of her best songs of all time but also we have songs like how you get

spk_0 the girl that have all the trappings of an easily digestible wildly popular pop song but they just

spk_0 don't quite have the sticking power or the resonance with people as some of the other ones on the

spk_0 album do doesn't mean it's a bad song or a bad album it just means that the same people that make

spk_0 blank space and wildest dreams also can make bad blood and stay which is a song a lot of people like

spk_0 but I wouldn't say it's one of her most popular I don't know what I think about the theme versus the

spk_0 content because if it is in its simplest form it's this is what it was going on behind the curtain

spk_0 and that's what she said like let's look behind the curtain then awesome I was thinking more about

spk_0 her as a showgirl but what I should have been thinking about is behind the curtain of a showgirl

spk_0 is just a girl and this is what a gal thinks about in the tub and I'm down I think we all had our

spk_0 expectations and I expected kind of based on what she said on new heights that you know this album

spk_0 was about what was going on behind the scenes of my inner life during the tour which was so exuberant

spk_0 and electric and vibrant and she also said it's a return to melodies that are so infectious that

spk_0 you're almost angry at it and lyrics that are just as vivid but crisp and focused and completely

spk_0 intentional and that's what I mean by a lyrical bob backy like that's maybe a cheesy metaphor but

spk_0 you know something that's like kind of over the top excessive like chaotic from a distance but

spk_0 like so beautiful and astonishing all the same and up close you realize it has that effect not

spk_0 because it's actually a chaotic but because of the precision and control and the placement of

spk_0 every goddamn beat is so intentional that's how they're able to create something that looks like

spk_0 nothing you've ever seen before and I think that like I when she expressed the banger's vibe paired

spk_0 with the commentary about editing in precision and like each song packing a punch and whatever

spk_0 I was just like oh shit like she's never hard-sold anything like this and I in turn was just ready for

spk_0 something that is so unrealistic now that I think about it and quite unfair which is like an

spk_0 entire album of new music that are will ultimately be great as tits you know what I mean but that

spk_0 doesn't happen with albums and I think that like sometimes it's Taylor Swift fans we feel so

spk_0 strongly about the songs we do like that we forget that there are plenty of songs within albums that

spk_0 are like fine too I mean have you like ever heard anyone in your life ride for I can fix him no

spk_0 really I can that is a song I've literally not heard about since the day I listened to it and

spk_0 day came out and I don't think I've ever listened to it since so yeah that's kind of how I was feeling

spk_0 and I think some of us were kind of yeah feeling like there's a disconnect between how it was

spk_0 promoted what it actually was and all the while it was a little bit frustrating and kind of funny

spk_0 that you know in her defense in saying it felt incomplete or it was you know it felt

spk_0 incoherent with the marketing it was you're kind of met with that standard response of like

spk_0 and the crowd was chanting more like it's always more it's never enough like you know we're on

spk_0 grateful type of vibes but after realizing the prologue was like actively withheld from us and

spk_0 we didn't buy five album variants and we were missing something I feel very gaslit by people

spk_0 that made it's because it wasn't we were missing a core part of the artistic context that sets

spk_0 up the album in a really beautiful way I look forward to the prologue almost as much as the

spk_0 songs themselves and I could not find it for the life of me the other night and it was bothering me

spk_0 because it's like the first thing I want to read that you know really ties everything together what

spk_0 is perhaps not the most promising point of entry for the like sincerity of this album

spk_0 is to get the prologue you would have had to buy five copies and like the the stars it then there

spk_0 were stars over letters in each of the poems to get the secret message the secret message was

spk_0 one said one the other spelled two the other spelled three the other spelled four the other spelled

spk_0 five and that I guess dictates the the order the poems were supposed to go in and then that's the

spk_0 prologue and I've tried to like look this up in fact check this because I was like there's there's no way

spk_0 but yeah it if I understand correctly so there's 12 CD variants eight final variants one

spk_0 cassette one digital album two box sets a bunch of acoustic stuff came out over the weekend like let

spk_0 me find an example so like there was one poem and baby that's show business that that was the

spk_0 lakeside beach blues sparkle lovely bouquet golden there was like page two of the

spk_0 pearlog was in sweat and vanilla perfume the orange glitter vinyl page three of the

spk_0 prologue was in the crowd as your king summertime spritz pink shimmer poem four was in shiny bug colors

spk_0 wing wintergreen onyx violet and then I think five was the generic it was five no five was the

spk_0 bubbles in champagne variant colors red lipstick and lace transparent under the bright lights

spk_0 for less than I mean got the guys this is such a joke what is this like I was plaking out an

spk_0 obi color at a nail salon I don't know what like digitally I didn't see anything but for physical

spk_0 copies there was one of those poems and I think it was the same one maybe the one that starts with

spk_0 coffee regardless I cannot find a way that you would have be able to like have all of those as a

spk_0 keep-sake unless you order five all five variants meanwhile they're like only be able for 48 hours

spk_0 there's like manufactured scarcity I mean the whole thing like we all know it's a it's a racket

spk_0 but this just was next level to me that felt wrong and here's the thing this prologue is so good

spk_0 and it's like exactly what I wanted from this album and I I'm slightly frustrated

spk_0 to even call attention to this but it's one thing to want multipliers of individuals buying

spk_0 physical copies to achieve better numbers in your sales figures and to break records or whatever

spk_0 the end goal is and a lot of artists do this and unfortunately it's more of an industry best practice

spk_0 now that feels it cliched even bitch about because because like who knows there might be something

spk_0 deeper there with more people who need to keep their jobs in an industry trying to survive with

spk_0 physical copies then I think it's a bigger conversation than just like Taylor Swift herself is

spk_0 directly greedy and more so like there's a lot of shit her label is doing that doesn't have as

spk_0 much to do with her I think extra like extra colors of the vinyl extra photos included content whatever

spk_0 that that's great for like collectors and fine like if that's what people buy then why would she

spk_0 stop doing it but where I do draw the line is withholding a baseline element of an album package

spk_0 from people who bought it to force them to buy multiples of the same thing to the tune of five

spk_0 I don't know whose decision that was but you know my argument isn't that she can't sell

spk_0 other variants my argument is that one did a prologue become bonus content that was appropriate

spk_0 to withhold unless you spent five X what you're investing into this album and like the kind of shitty

spk_0 nature of the the cost barrier to entry that that creates for a person that wants the complete

spk_0 picture of an album to me this was a moment of the okay there in Lysy issue friends don't try to trick

spk_0 you I think we have officially crossed a line I feel like with holding for this prologue really

spk_0 was a choice in terms of limiting other people's artistic experiences unless they like spent the

spk_0 most money on it because to the point where you finish the album I was like what where's the shiny bug

spk_0 where's the tiny champagne bubbles the album variant names weren't even in the lyrics the main

spk_0 like headline subtitle in Instagram by like and baby that show business for you like that's from

spk_0 the poem it's not in the album and I genuinely find bitching about album variants just really like

spk_0 a cliché thing now that I just don't know what to do about it and but like I actually do think

spk_0 this is worth calling attention to because it's just a light pushing of a boundary that I think

spk_0 is a very slippery slope and like an album comes with liner notes it just does you just it just

spk_0 includes the prologue and I don't making this into a game I just think is insane and okay as far as

spk_0 I understand it in this I tried to fact check this but like one physical album sale counts as one

spk_0 full unit toward the billboard charts but it takes 1500 paid streams or 3,750 free streams

spk_0 to equal that same one unit so if you can get your fan based to buy five physical copies instead of

spk_0 streaming you're getting five guaranteed units versus needing 7500 paid subscribe like paid

spk_0 streams to achieve the same chart impact so physical sales are more reliable and immediate for

spk_0 chart positioning and this is why the variant strategy has become so popularized in recent history

spk_0 and like yeah it's it's it's not deeper than like the waiting favors physical sales not because

spk_0 they're worth more than stream but because they're simpler and it's like one purchase equals one unit

spk_0 whereas streams have to like accumulate to create units I don't know I don't like fully understand

spk_0 but I do know that by the time you know you get your prologue you're about 175 dollars in on

spk_0 vinyls or 70 dollars in on CDs so you know and baby that's show business for you this episode is

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spk_0 Helix sleep not to be annoying but also chilly night the not sponsored on the feature I talk about Helix

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spk_0 like he's been a partner of ours for so long and so many bests have invested one of their mattresses

spk_0 and I just hear endless positive things they're very like substantial mattresses with foam and coils

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spk_0 to HelixSleep. The movie theater was a blast it really helped me like you know feel like this was

spk_0 more of an era and it made me see what other people saw that I was having trouble seeing it first

spk_0 which is that I found a lot of it to be like a little like cynical and to kind of be rehashing

spk_0 old themes and ways that kind of did surprise me but I felt the joy more so with the theater

spk_0 experience and I really appreciated that. I think the fate of Ophelia is her best lead single since

spk_0 1989. It's like staying power like I don't know like I've only known it for two days but like I

spk_0 just I think it's so strong it's so catchy hearing it in theaters twice because you get to like see

spk_0 the video then the making of the video then the video again I it was in my head all night I was

spk_0 singing it it does that brilliant thing she does where she like uses literary references and

spk_0 underspores it with super modern language that on paper looks weird but then when you hear it you

spk_0 understand Max Martin melodic math I think that the fate of Ophelia is a great example of a song

spk_0 that does this quite well where like I don't actually think it means anything like all that time

spk_0 alone in my tower you were honing your powers I think it just like sounds good and a chorus

spk_0 similarly is it the most like profound thing I've ever heard to say your hands your team your vibes

spk_0 no do I love it and think it's absolutely perfect yes like I'm like how does this make no sense

spk_0 and so much sense but I love when Taylor does does it's one of my favorite things she does when

spk_0 in each like a verse or each section there's a matching cadence of a rhyme of an eliteration of

spk_0 a list and in this case it's me myself and I and then the land to see the sky your hands your

spk_0 team your vibes and a crown chain of vine it's a perfect marriage of words that work for the theme

spk_0 and words that are not really sure what they mean the way the melody carries them perfectly makes

spk_0 the words themselves an afterthought but the overarching theme itself is strong enough to exhibit joy

spk_0 in such a palpable way that girls will be jumping and screaming and feeling hopeful because of

spk_0 listening to that song for years to come for all the ways people are like oh this album that's

spk_0 it's not as deep or as sophisticated or the lyrics are you know more simplistic which by and

spk_0 large true but the fate of Ophelia I focused so heavily on that in the patreon episode just to

spk_0 channel my hype for the album somewhere even though I knew we weren't going to get like that complex

spk_0 of a you know hamlet story inside of a pop song it actually kind of turned out to be more

spk_0 referential than I thought it would be because like in the bridge for example that this you might

spk_0 kind of pass over this of course you would like because it just seems like a generic thing you

spk_0 could say or metaphor you could use but when she says tis locked inside my memory and only you

spk_0 possess the key no longer drowning in deceive all because you came for me what's interesting is that

spk_0 tis locked inside my memory and only you possess the key is almost a direct verbatim from hamlet

spk_0 and of course it is from act one scene three what's interesting about that scene is act one scene

spk_0 three is famous for to thine own self be true the very famous line from hamlet but that the context

spk_0 in which this phrase is used is in a conversation with her filious brother laertes where he is warning

spk_0 her to like stay like stay away from hamlet and let me's bad news and she says tis in my memory locked

spk_0 and you yourself shall keep the key of it what's interesting is that in context that is supposed to

spk_0 serve as like a symbol of the patriarchal control that uh ophelia is under because her story is

spk_0 about partially about heartbreak but also we know nothing about the interiority of ophelia we

spk_0 just know she is controlled by her brother her father in hamlet and she really has she's a character

spk_0 marked by absolutely no agency to the point where some people argue that her death was by her own

spk_0 doing and that perhaps is the only agency she was able to exhibit in her entire life but a more

spk_0 romantic interpretation is dying from heartbreak and that's the one used in the fate of ophelia but

spk_0 yeah using this quote in the bridge for act one scene three is interesting not only because it's a

spk_0 combo with ophelia's brother laertes in their reboot can we read is that a thing we can you reboot

spk_0 something from the 15 hundreds and the public domain laertes brother is going to be played by Joe

spk_0 all when this fall in like the theater version of hamlet that's coming out he's also in a movie called

spk_0 hamnet about Shakespeare's son so Joe is playing laertes ophelia's brother so i'm like are they

spk_0 going to have this exchange with like these direct words on screen and like does it mean something

spk_0 and honestly it sounds like Taylor Swift just like had the concept of ophelia in a phone note and

spk_0 like there's nothing the more to it than this song what i maintain like she's been on a couple

spk_0 radio shows talking about hamlet she has a very academic understanding of it and well no i'm not

spk_0 a tortured poet's bladder through that like actually thinks that she sees herself as the ophelia

spk_0 drowning by the hand of the betrayal and deceit of a variety of men on all sides especially around

spk_0 the time when you know there was a betrayal by long term by Joe out of the oven and into the

spk_0 microwave by maddie healy was kind of a publicly embarrassing thing and kind of like hamlet and then

spk_0 the kind of like the yeah father type control of like what she did and she was allowed to be with

spk_0 and worried about how it looked and i don't know like that all like almost kind of does make sense

spk_0 to me is reaching like a breaking point where she did feel like ophelia was drowning there's the

spk_0 torture poets prologue that's like it has very similar energy to the scene where a few it kind of

spk_0 goes mad right before she ultimately drowns and she's like talking in like fragments and in poems and

spk_0 like riddles but speaking truths in the form of like convoluted metaphors that people like think

spk_0 she's gone insane but it's like so the only truth telling that happens and like i see torture

spk_0 poets have that's like same sort of clarity that people kind of wrote off as badness at first

spk_0 and you know i know i'm being silly it's not like she dove into a you know metaphorical body of water

spk_0 every night on the air is tore anything and hey coincidences happen i could have seen this song going

spk_0 the direction of of being about reclaiming her masters and i could have also i could have seen it

spk_0 going in the romantic direction by way of travis but what are we doing we're self-mythologizing we're

spk_0 bending the narrative and ophelia it doesn't sink and drown and die can we also talk about how

spk_0 that song about when she first met joe has the the earlier sink and drown and die but yeah anyways

spk_0 if you're looking for depth there's depth in the fate of ophelia the other thing we discussed

spk_0 on patreon i really don't do mental math anymore for the sake of clowning it's simply not worth

spk_0 the acrobatics it takes for me to be counting like months and days but i did take the time the other

spk_0 day to crunch some numbers as it relates to the things she dropped so obviously the new heights

spk_0 focus that like seemed so obvious and now we know stuff like keep it 100 like those relirics

spk_0 obviously those numbers are something and yeah her use of 47 twice that we haven't quite figured

spk_0 out yet and saying she hopes her parents lived a little 186 years old and not for nothing 186 days from

spk_0 the release of the album October 3rd is april 7th 47 so do it that what you will and is gosh got to

spk_0 move on i'm sorry i'm such i'm such an ophelia head i i i really do love this song and i was really

spk_0 excited to like it and i think i just spent so much time thinking about it that i wanted to give

spk_0 it some real estate here so follow up but honestly what's next opolyte like opolyte i had a

spk_0 physical reaction to opolyte it just feels good in your bones it gave me a roller coaster smile

spk_0 a smile that takes over your face because of the experience your body is having that your your

spk_0 mind doesn't have enough time to patch through because you have such a strong reaction i just

spk_0 i like it it makes you want to sway it makes you want to dance it's very like do up old school it's

spk_0 like i said earlier it sounds like be my baby it has like this vintage romantic sound intermixed with

spk_0 being a bit a little bit like abba i think that there it's a really like slow burning track that like

spk_0 pops in a big way with the chorus that feels kind of like like colors bursting i'm picturing that like

spk_0 color run from the early 2010s 5k boom that looked deeply unfun but in like a a cool way sorry

spk_0 i hate my fk's the the the i don't know how to explain this kind of like how bejules bejules sounds

spk_0 bejeweled this sounds opolyte but i didn't like i don't even really under know what that is but i

spk_0 i think it makes sense the metaphor she's using that like you make your own sunshine opolyte's

spk_0 the man made a version of opolyte i have heard her talk before about how her and her mom's thing is

spk_0 opolyte and they used to go pick out opolyte jewelry when she was bullied in high school and then that's

spk_0 Travis's birthstone when i was first thinking about it i was like why would you pick the fake version

spk_0 like pyre shine bright like a lab-grown diamond it you know that just feels like a weird thing to be

spk_0 specific about but i understand what she was going for and the syllables work really well with

spk_0 a melody and you just don't overthink it like i was saying earlier when when you hear

spk_0 you don't overthink it because it makes sense and i i really like when the sound when the production

spk_0 matches the emotion the sense of shimmering the way it builds that the song sounds like falling in

spk_0 love feels it's it's sparkly it's optimistic it's just enough like vintage nostalgic melancholy

spk_0 and they'll lead up to make the chorus hit all the more hard like a rock a hard rock come in your way

spk_0 and that to me opolyte and the fate of ophelia have the narcotic factor that she sings about and

spk_0 you know who's afraid of little old me put narcotics into all of my songs and i think she even said

spk_0 that on new heights that some of the choruses are like narcotic or so that they're so catchy they

spk_0 make you angry there were songs that may be angry but not the not the catchy ones some tracks like

spk_0 father figure are some of her best work i think like and thematically accomplishes what i think

spk_0 makes her standout as an artist which is like taking a conflict and elevating it through metaphor

spk_0 and layered storytelling where she has some distance and some craft and there's something to unpack

spk_0 and she does it in a really clever and unique way that not only sounds great but that feels

spk_0 but then there's others like actually romantic that i think are more like score settling they

spk_0 feel direct they feel pointed they feel a bit hollow and they feel more interested in being right

spk_0 than they do in exploring the complexity of the feeling sorry i know i'm just like barely touching

spk_0 on things but i've also barely listened you know that much so i can kind of only do this top line

spk_0 it's funny because i've put up two videos just to like alert the best that far one into a

spk_0 patreon route and then the second one got kind of on the wrong side of reels where it was like the

spk_0 pile on this album is garbage and i archived it i was like no no no no no like in context if you follow

spk_0 me and know me and aren't getting this because of like the algorithm pushing it that in context was

spk_0 part of a two hour long video where i liked a lot of it and you also know that Kelly and i

spk_0 was at a comedic lead up to wood so i chose that clip but like i'm such an idiot i was effectively

spk_0 contributing to rage bait that made it look like i thought the album was a travesty and not just

spk_0 that isolated line about travesty and new heights of manhood also opalite the line the line that

spk_0 all i don't know is for certain appears to be like her you know saying he felt like he didn't know

spk_0 i felt so alone you're in it for real and she was on her phone even if that represents like a bunch

spk_0 of different people he dated being like influencers and being too on their phone but like the problem is

spk_0 i don't know what her intentions were and people always use like you know hypothetical intentions

spk_0 to like defend what we just have in front of our eyes then that's what everyone's going to go off of

spk_0 i think that this feels like it's about Kayla Nicole and she doesn't she have like a famous story

spk_0 where like she was kind of like on her phone when he won the super ball or something and she's an

spk_0 influencer on her phone and i don't know. Kelly was saying she really vulnerably talked about she's

spk_0 on that show where they people like our navy seals where jojo sewa carried tom sandoball up a mountain

spk_0 like a baby sloth and yeah she's like very vulnerably talked about struggling with

spk_0 i think like swifty who have been mean to her which is like so fucked up opalite such a great song

spk_0 but i just don't feel like that needs to be there the way my heart would sink it's just like it's

spk_0 hard enough being the acts of you know Taylor Swift her fiancee then husband like i literally

spk_0 can't imagine watching someone's life in pictures like i used to watch you sleep

spk_0 life in pictures and on billboards and in american eagle commercials and in sports supplement

spk_0 commercials and in happy gilmar and in gq and in the proposal footage and in the most watch

spk_0 podcast episode like you used to watch i like i used to watch you sleep would be rough and leave

spk_0 halenacol on is my thought but i will say like i think that i'm hearing a lot of people talking about

spk_0 like the shift in lyrics as if she's regressed to an over simplified version of herself that can't

spk_0 take as deeper i don't know like i think that's pretty unfair and that's why i point out the adelaire

spk_0 of ophelia and the ham him references with the deeper meaning of opalite manufactured stone or

spk_0 like the concept of Elizabeth Taylor i think was well done and father figure like really shows her

spk_0 writing chops but yeah do i also think there's songs that i don't know like i don't know if i

spk_0 should say weaker but they're going for something different and there's no way you can question

spk_0 her like skill or capability i think it's more of a question of like what her goal was and what

spk_0 she was experimenting with and like i don't know after people gave her such a hard time about too many

spk_0 words and too much tortured poetry like is it a surprise that there's a possibility we might have

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spk_0 kind of unreliable because i can't say it was like blown away by karma as a cat karma is my boyfriend

spk_0 like you know but then i got used to it and except for the song for what it was it was a glitter

spk_0 gel pen song that doesn't take itself too seriously and that's why hate giving hot takes about

spk_0 some of the lighter fair here because it'll probably not be that big of a deal eventually though

spk_0 canceled to me didn't land in the or like was a little heavy handed in the same way the man was

spk_0 but like for in a worse way canceled like i don't i don't even think i can take on kind of reminds me

spk_0 of the man in some ways that like i think that like these are concepts that are interesting to

spk_0 interrogate that just like doesn't really go there to transform it into like something that

spk_0 transcends the specific grief and it's like it's a song like written for critics and not listeners and

spk_0 like we're they're devouring everything she does because we like love her work and her brain and

spk_0 it's like this defensive response to this broader cultural discourse that i'm like who is this

spk_0 talking to i don't know they're like i'm interested in examining some of these ideas though like

spk_0 exploring cancel culture like the idea that you know maybe being canceled is meaningless when you

spk_0 have power that could be interesting i don't know i think my favorite type of work she does is like

spk_0 more revelatory that makes us feel something instead of like telling us how to feel doing more

spk_0 telling than showing and just calling what something is like how the man just kept listing off

spk_0 double standards and i feel like cancel does kind of doing something similar and i just don't know

spk_0 like who that song is like four and yeah cancel does time doing something interesting where

spk_0 maybe if per the show girl of it all unintentionally like it wants to address the performative

spk_0 nature of online outrage and kind of does so by by way of perform performative outrage and yeah

spk_0 yeah that's really yeah those were my thoughts on it conceptually melodically good times i like

spk_0 caught like wow it's it's brooding it's exciting it's it's very i did something bad but why does

spk_0 i why does i did something bad not it's almost just like too relevant to like a very real social

spk_0 issue that like i'm not having fun with it in a campy way and maybe i should could do it can

spk_0 you just tell me guys do i need to lighten up i don't know mommy you need help i guess teddy is

spk_0 no it's not going on you need help baby yeah you know i watch videos of ambulances here you got

spk_0 always mother of the year another great mother figure but father figure let's look back to this

spk_0 everything i love about father figure is also explains everything i hate about actually romantic

spk_0 first of all i can't really hear the judge Michael interpolation and so many of the other songs sound

spk_0 like other songs like so much which is interesting given the Olivia Rodrigo of it all and then she

spk_0 talked about how she cares so much about songwriting that's why she reached out to George Michael's

spk_0 family even though i to me it sounds nothing like father figure which is a song i love by the way

spk_0 my favorite line can i be your dad what i love father figure now i'm not remembering what i said

spk_0 somehow it's working that she's like cosplaying this like mob boss which it first seems to be about

spk_0 like scop or chetta and as i said on patreon like there's a quote in rolling stone where she talks

spk_0 about these dudes buying this hyper feminine work and cheers over you know like glasses of whiskey

spk_0 and i'm mahogany den about like buying her life's work and scott else like the big machine

spk_0 to celery is a thing and i think he's a big whiskey drinker and i think like while it can be

spk_0 there's different things that fit in this framework i think that's kind of the origin of

spk_0 father figure and also in that rolling stone interview she says twice like i saw him

spk_0 like he saw me as a daughter and considered me the daughter he never had so like they had

spk_0 like a father daughter dynamic in a sense if we were going to be paternity testing but the way she

spk_0 explained father figure in theaters was that she acknowledges that she can fit in either role

spk_0 depending on the circumstances which i think is really interesting so i think the mob boss is

spk_0 weirdly working for me in ways that the man didn't land like you know trying to kind of

spk_0 have a different sort of skillet and posture but like i don't know this is just a very good song i

spk_0 think and i think there's really strong production i think the metaphor has teeth i think that

spk_0 father figure works because of tailors of the poet even though it has a level of pettiness but

spk_0 it's so artful in the way it communicates it with the layered perspectives and strong production

spk_0 and transforming personal grievance through metaphor of this persona like it elevates it beyond

spk_0 feeling like worse you know settling the score and writing a diss track even though it is a diss track

spk_0 and technically right but an artful diss track and to me father figure is to actually romantic as

spk_0 dear john is to better than revenge is what i've could have should have is to vigilante

spk_0 is blank space to bad blood so there's not really like a surprise to me in terms of the two

spk_0 distracts being so like totally different because i just feel like tailors of those two modes like

spk_0 many of us do when she's hurt the poet and and petty i think what surprised me about actually

spk_0 romantic is just it could be about a broader set of things or concept and Charlie xe x my opinion is

spk_0 that it's pretty designed to be clearly targeted at her from like the opening line

spk_0 but it also feels so disproportionate i don't know because i think sympathies and knife is a really

spk_0 vulnerable song about Charlie's own insecurities in the same room as a person with a great deal of

spk_0 fame and power who's technically her peer and what it like brings out in her maybe i wouldn't be so

spk_0 jarred if if not having just listened to eldest daughter but i think that this felt like the type

spk_0 of cruelty that's like going on in society that we've kind of normalized that i that i just hate

spk_0 and it's like why is everything just a tinge like meaner now and and having that kind of energy on

spk_0 this album i think of something i just wasn't really ready for i think father figure is like case in

spk_0 point of what we like know she's capable of and it's like such an interesting concept in a way

spk_0 to process this resentment that like is so interesting it's not that she can't respond like if

spk_0 somebody did a diss track about me i'd be pissed but i guess my annoying feedback is that i just

spk_0 know that there's so much to explore here in a clapback anthem that could have been really really

spk_0 interesting from the lens of a showgirl who even in the life of a showgirl song like

spk_0 it talks about all the bitches whose photos on the wall who were like waiting for me to die or

spk_0 something that's those aren't the lyrics but like part of being a showgirl is like the the threat

spk_0 of the showgirls around you and the like i don't know tension and camaraderie that exists amongst

spk_0 your peers that you're compared to and if she were to write a song about her experience hearing

spk_0 an artist like go out of the way to write a song about how you bring out insecurities in them

spk_0 i tell me about it this the strange guilt the impossibility of responding the trap of being

spk_0 somebody else's measuring stick that like you once mentored but also seeing you through the lens

spk_0 of a person who betrayed you and that group they make you feel other or less cool like i don't know

spk_0 i'm just so down to explore the complicated dynamics of female relationships and beyond that like

spk_0 peers in the same industry and i think that she just just made a weird choice to mock Charlie

spk_0 for what i thought was vulnerability and sympathies and i if that was not that harsh and she just

spk_0 is making fun of her for being obsessed which is like easy and forgettable and like i feel

spk_0 embarrassed listening to it and i normally would not give Taylor Swift that harsh of an edit for a song

spk_0 but i just think it does pose the question of like okay so where's the line when you get to a point of

spk_0 like platform and power where you're becoming the the father figure but in the first half of the song

spk_0 but my taste can be getting in the way of understanding what the like these songs do for people

spk_0 there's catharsis in hearing someone say the petty thing you're thinking there's power and

spk_0 you know just hearing a woman unapologetically be like mean sometimes when women are socialized to be

spk_0 nice all the time like songs like that cell they tend to do well they become stadium scream singers

spk_0 and i think reinforces something i just personally hate about where we are as a society where

spk_0 that type of pettingness is contagious become pretty like normalized and insanely popular art that

spk_0 exhibits that that same behavior only like brings it out in other people and i had a lot of like

spk_0 anxiety watching the 10 year olds go wild for this song and how it might make them talk to each other

spk_0 and again she's not responsible for you know raising other people's kids she's not responsible for

spk_0 music for 10 year olds that's not what i'm saying but what i am saying is that it's an insanely

spk_0 popular like universally beloved artist and in terms of normalizing you know being casually cruel

spk_0 in the name of a clapback it's not that it's not catchy as hell it's that i just don't prefer it at

spk_0 this juncture in my life we still in track four okay but i guess technically i also did seven right

spk_0 yeah i think i did another one too i'm not gonna go thrirvising going track five i really really

spk_0 love the bridge we lie back a beautiful beautiful time lapse fairs feels kisses and lie lax and things

spk_0 i said were dumb because i thought that i'd never find that beautiful beautiful life that shimmers

spk_0 that innocent light back like when we were young i like makes me want to cry and also i'm not a bad

spk_0 bitch and i think i really relate to it it's interesting she's a term savage not not my favorite term

spk_0 because i think that it's used for different reasons and i think her version of that actually is

spk_0 i recall when everyone was been barting her with snake emojis the like overarching adjective being

spk_0 used for kim cardation in a complimentary way of releasing that footage was that kim was being

spk_0 savage or in that like her savage error blah blah people were saying it's like a meganist dying

spk_0 reference but i actually think that it she more so associates that word with like her cancellation

spk_0 and it being like a compliment to somebody doing something that is like risky and kind of mean but

spk_0 like almost an individual anti justice way as the court of public opinion perceives it but who the hell

spk_0 Kelly made a good point in that she thinks it's nodding to another track five i'm not a bad bitch

spk_0 this isn't savage i'm not a princess this ain't a fairy tale which yeah i'm not and this is i don't

spk_0 know that there could be something there and i think it's the source of my dissonance that like

spk_0 doesn't know if per purposefully they're supposed to be like this version of the real her that like

spk_0 directly obviously contradicts like show girl her i feel like cancelled and actually romantic and like

spk_0 um some parts of honey like are like the exact type of bad bitch like behavior that she's like

spk_0 claiming she wants no part of and i'm just very confused if that's part of like this show girl like

spk_0 is that a contradiction we're exploring is that one that wasn't explored and should have been

spk_0 and i'm struggling to find the emotional truth because it's kind of ironically the very type of

spk_0 trolling and behavior that she's very vulnerable confessing she is not a part of in her in track five

spk_0 i didn't really even get into we're on the friendship which i know it's not that people are really

spk_0 loving that song like kind of when i'm especially when i'm doing a reaction video i have to like

spk_0 put up a wall and shut it down so i don't shut down when i get something takes an emotional turn and

spk_0 like includes death or is like senior good better or epiphany or whatever so i didn't really give it

spk_0 a chance and the way she described it in the theaters was it wasn't about one person it was about

spk_0 an amalgam of things that's the one intro that i was like this isn't making sense to me

spk_0 maybe inspired by someone specific and i've seen memes going around or maybe she wants to throw

spk_0 people out the sense so like people aren't in being invasive with the privacy of that person or

spk_0 whatever but it's a beautiful song that to me sounds very debut adjacent to me i'm like

spk_0 did you record and write this around the time you were doing your debut records but yeah it's

spk_0 it's a beautiful song with an interesting twist and it's something she was clearly thinking about

spk_0 and actually no i i did like part of what she said in theaters because she was talking about

spk_0 well how looking back on her life it bothers her that she operated from a place where everything

spk_0 was so consequential but like if you had kissed that person and ruined the friendship in that one

spk_0 moment like what did it have mattered like no go for it so i thought that was a sweet sentiment and

spk_0 i first listened it didn't feel like a fit but it is a fitting in terms of if that was a thing that

spk_0 happened while she was on the road and the thing she was thinking about and also the way she says

spk_0 things like should it it sounds exactly like this song question suitable and right

spk_0 but tonight and she's asking kind of a question in this song too so i don't know kind of an

spk_0 interesting parallel but it's it's almost like her i hope you dance in a way kind of like how

spk_0 wish list is her no more like life's torn apart and wars would never start it's her grown-up

spk_0 was just a Christmas list but with the term fat ass something i didn't see coming and yeah i

spk_0 already explained wood and how i actually think it is really catchy at the lyrics don't do it

spk_0 justice i don't have a ton to say about the rest except for life of a showgirl not only

spk_0 to Sabrina like really shine and have like a serious verse which we don't always get i don't

spk_0 know like the way she harmonizes with Taylor for like this sped up showtuny bridge with

spk_0 this song almost functioning as it's like passing passing of a torch is really interesting especially

spk_0 contrast to like the last album ending with like Clara Boe or thinking about the nothing new type of

spk_0 themes and how fearful she's always seemed with this and it kind of has this storytelling element

spk_0 of like folklore evermore with this like climatic production that we we get from Max Martin and

spk_0 Shell back and our favorites from 1989 and yeah i'm glad that it ends on an empowering note about not

spk_0 wanting to swap the stage for an ordinary life because sometimes you know not wanting any of it

spk_0 and just wanting the basketball hoop i think is both like poetic and so sweet and also i'm like

spk_0 oh she really hates this doesn't she even though i know that that's like storytelling and not her

spk_0 but like i do think that it's um wishless is almost funny because it's very like romantic and sweet

spk_0 and i think capturing there comes a point where a lot of things like lose their lost your lose their

spk_0 novelty and don't want money just when so many wants my company even though it does feel funny to

spk_0 hear like anytime a wealthy person is talking about how material things don't matter you're like

spk_0 sure sure anyways the life of a showgirl it's so catchy yeah it sounds like to me i heard halo

spk_0 i heard no air Jonas Brothers cool it has a cadence it sounds familiar but lyrics that are feel kind

spk_0 of unusual and took me minute to understand i think it's a really good collaboration and i think

spk_0 it's a catchy song and i really like it i was so tired by the end like i don't think i really

spk_0 reacted much to it but i especially really liked it in theaters especially when i felt the arrow

spk_0 was a bit more cohesive and the reviews for this album are kind of all over the map the praise

spk_0 centers on it being exactly what Taylor precedes it as which is joyful sunny a return to pop

spk_0 bangers after the melancholy of tortured poets plenty of critics or like it's contagious it's a beat

spk_0 it's fun it's a celebration of love and success this is what uncomplicated love and romance looks like

spk_0 but there yeah there's a side of the coin where people think that the romantic contentment

spk_0 which i think this is i don't always find this to be a fair criticism but like there's people

spk_0 that think they're romantic contentment writes less compellingly than heartbreak questioning like

spk_0 Travis as amused that lyrically she's regressed that beneath all the glitter of the glitter gel pen

spk_0 there's like not as much substance as was expected when terms of like i've seen it positioned a lot

spk_0 as being uncomplicated happiness like a relationship that like lacks the kind of tension and complexity

spk_0 where you're constantly having to like overthink it and write about it this is her at her most

spk_0 unbothered gleeful she's understood she's herself so and so forth i believe that that i believe

spk_0 that she is herself and she's very happy in her personal life yeah but i actually don't think

spk_0 that's what comes across in this music i actually think this is a woman rehashing a lot of similar

spk_0 theme she's exhibited throughout her songwriting where we position success or we position happiness

spk_0 in spite of other things and not regardless of them the joys absolutely there on this album but

spk_0 yeah i think Taylor Swift often talks like shares her joy and similarly tashi talks about her success

spk_0 in how it's comparative and how it's like defensive i find her happiness to be highly relational

spk_0 like it's happiness with the subtext of like i'm happy despite this thing i'm unbothered unlike

spk_0 this person i'm i unlike everybody else who wants these things i want that thing you want to cancel

spk_0 everybody i like my friends cancelled this guy is opalite compared to the onyx knights we were

spk_0 both in i'm now the father figure in my dicks bigger because i became more powerful and successful

spk_0 than you i'm not a bad bitch this isn't savage unlike everybody else's they say i'm bad news

spk_0 i just say thanks you're only as hot as your last hit baby like we're still kind of orbiting

spk_0 around the major theme of Taylor's Taylor Swift's work which is her response to her perceived

spk_0 adversaries whether it's the overt distract of actually romantic scott or chetta or other like

spk_0 industry power player types exploiting and taking advantage of their protege and father figure

spk_0 eldest daughter is directly talking about like trolls and memes and hot takes and you know she's not

spk_0 like them cancelled about the internet court of public opinion even like wish list even wish list

spk_0 be part of it being like leave us the fuck alone is interesting and i believe that it's emotionally

spk_0 but even like a love song like honey is rooted in all these people called me this said my skirt looked

spk_0 bad it was condescending it was patronizing but unlike all of them this is why you say it to me this

spk_0 is an album that positions her happiness not as a function of contentment regardless of her circumstances

spk_0 but it's very much happiness in spite of circumstances that we've hushed out a lot on her various

spk_0 albums i just sometimes i'm like we're constantly kind of like living in this castle of all the

spk_0 bricks they threw at you and i'm just like waiting for some f you new construction

spk_0 you know i don't know you guys i just i don't even know why i feel this way and i've not spent

spk_0 enough time with the material and i'm very tired so please forgive me if this is the worst review ever

spk_0 i find there to be a lot of dissonance and the kind of posturing is like certain versions of

spk_0 herself and i don't know if that's the point or if it was an oversight if it's a feature or if

spk_0 if it's a flaw and i don't know like i feel a little crazy that like i hear so many people being

spk_0 like this is unbothered tailor when i'm like i actually think this is the most like bothered album

spk_0 we've had in a long time to me the clarity she spoke with in in tortured poets like

spk_0 communicates like a level of of freedom in like saying what she wants and speaking from like an

spk_0 emotional truth that's like so raw and this is just this feels like i don't know if it's like

spk_0 half true to like her form and like half needing to be commercially viable and is more pandering

spk_0 to like a tic-tac sound bite type of vibe that people need to succeed in this town

spk_0 as for lyrics i don't have like a laundry list of things that i'm like

spk_0 needing to talk through but i put the first place for my brain scratch of the era the old vs ote

spk_0 besote very prestigious award my current brain scratch of the era is

spk_0 but but the vicious bitch i can't know if you're drowning that was really bad

spk_0 anyways friendly reminder fave ophelia bop best single i've heard in years

spk_0 opalite love song for the ages obsessed father figure some of her best work oh i didn't even

spk_0 talk about Elizabeth Taylor i think Elizabeth Taylor is like so strong and fun and so rep coded and like

spk_0 just i've not skipped it i think el just daughter has potential because of the bridge but just

spk_0 falls a little short for me and messaging and it is what is tripping me up for the remainder of the

spk_0 album i can see myself just jamming along to like wishlist and honey like cuz i like the melody

spk_0 and i again think wood is has potential to be a huge song and i really like the censored

spk_0 censored version and it made me realize just like how unreal the melody isn't how fun it is

spk_0 i'm thrilled that she's in the most infectiously joyful wild dramatic place ever in her life

spk_0 and i hope this album captured exactly what she wanted and i hope that over time i come to

spk_0 understand it better just like i did tortured poets i hope it came across that there's a lot that

spk_0 i really do like but that i you know it's all right to feel mixed and and perhaps what i'm

spk_0 getting is something that's very human and which is stuff that's emotionally true but ideologically

spk_0 mixed because we're awful of contradictions and multitudes right but the thing i don't agree with

spk_0 that a lot of people are saying like is that you know because she's happy it can't be deep or whatever

spk_0 we can have depth without darkness we can have poetry without like ornamental language and

spk_0 you know obfuscation which there's a word i don't even like using why like choose a different word

spk_0 i'm running out of time i'm stressed but some of the best lines to me like in the album are

spk_0 incredibly straightforward and get the job done and they're still really strong yeah i just think

spk_0 the candor of talking about the basketball who when i told you i didn't want to get married that was a

spk_0 lie best friend who is hot like this is this is quintessential tailor that i love and i also like

spk_0 think that yeah kisses the mahogany grain like stuff like that it's just like oh yeah that's the

spk_0 stuff you know something i didn't feel like was productive to talk about that i hope for down the

spk_0 line that i don't think she has enough distance from to put in this album was i really do hope we

spk_0 get a long live ares tour edition because we were also like personally invested in that and like it

spk_0 was it moved economies it was legendary it was like i think i had a moment of like absolutely

spk_0 inappropriate frustration when i was like why did this song that's so mean get a slot and the

spk_0 12th right and tight album about this like like like thing that was like bigger than all of us and

spk_0 and that was like so meaningful to like that healed a nation healed the world makes it a better

spk_0 place i'm like how are we not talking about the ares tour but i i don't think there's enough

spk_0 distance from it and i don't know and i decided that wasn't a fair enough assessment for me to get

spk_0 into but yeah i i do genuinely think she's happy in this relationship and i think that like

spk_0 fated bofie and oboe light like really do a beautiful job of that and i think that like expectations

spk_0 also like we're a big part of this with the showgirl of it all with the bangers of it all with the

spk_0 an album i'm just as proud of as the ares tour of it all i don't know if the oversell is a function

spk_0 of it of a lack of confidence or if i'm just completely missing something i mean well i'm kind of

spk_0 laughing at myself because i'm like if i honestly post this episode i'm brave only because i just

spk_0 i don't have like a hundred percent glowing things to say and i think that's like that's a problem

spk_0 i worry about us this with these i saw somebody commenting on a video that someone was like a dumb

spk_0 miserable bitch she like said it wasn't her favorite album i think there's a bigger conversation

spk_0 here that's like maybe interesting about how at least as a creator i can say without a doubt that

spk_0 sometimes i feel more nervous talking about Taylor Swift than i do politics and how in terms of how

spk_0 it personally offends people and in terms of how vicious people are in response that i feels more

spk_0 worth it to protect my piece most days and just not even get into it and that's why a lot of

spk_0 it's pay world because i just want people like engaging in good faith and it has me thinking a lot

spk_0 about fandom as identity and well there's no bigger champion of fan girls than this gal i never

spk_0 want to write off anybody's plate as frivolous or your enthusiasm as excessive obviously there's a

spk_0 spectrum but we've been discredited ever since we effectively made the Beatles only to have them

spk_0 co-opted by men who then gave birth to sons that all told us to name five songs when we said we

spk_0 liked the Beatles fandom as an expression of like enthusiasm and personal taste is different than like

spk_0 taste being enmeshed with identity in a way where criticism of what you like becomes an existential

spk_0 threat and sometimes i wonder if like millennial is gen z gen alpha beyond like we we do lack a lot of

spk_0 the identity structures that previous generations had like we're less religious we moved away from

spk_0 home how you know have less access to like the same people and friends were all scattered everywhere

spk_0 like less unions less community involvement like we're more isolated we're transplant if there's

spk_0 like a kind of collapse or less engagement with identity structures and an increased involvement with

spk_0 with social media share of cultural consumption is kind of like the glue that holds a lot of us

spk_0 together and like the shows we watch the music we love and the memes we understand like we

spk_0 approach them with the level of fervor as if you would think it as a function of our faith

spk_0 and i think that response is human and i explored why i think that that's not as weird as maybe

spk_0 that it's treated as in Taylor Swift symbolic self-portraiture archetypes of tragedy and learism

spk_0 since the beginning of time not modern history people have looked to storytellers and profits and

spk_0 gods to to process these universal experiences in ways us mere mortals can't and want to look to

spk_0 people to help us make sense of our existential condition but seeing how people are reacting

spk_0 to this album yet does have me asking some questions about where we are in terms of uh cultural

spk_0 consumption as identity you know i don't know if people do absorb like cultural criticism as

spk_0 commentary on their character i just always want you to know that like i think you're smart and i

spk_0 think you have good taste and i would never think that because you like a song that i don't or you

spk_0 don't like a song that i do or a lyric or vice versa like that that i'm saying anything like

spk_0 profoundly offensive about who you are as a person because when it comes to that i don't think

spk_0 that that this exchange is that deep i think the way we internalize art can be i think actually like

spk_0 the a deep reform of intimacy when it comes to talking about art is in the analytics surrounding

spk_0 our disagreements like that's where it gets interesting but with one swank heavy at it might

spk_0 compromise our friendship if you walked away from this album in your favorite line lyric like you

spk_0 were like this as a bar every eldest daughter was the first lay him to this lotter so we all dressed

spk_0 up as wolves and we looked fire like sorry what anyway you guys i really suck at doing early takes

spk_0 i was very struck by the prologue of dollar and he spent a lot of time on that didn't i now i'm

spk_0 running out of time it's like Sunday night i have to like turn this in oh jeez okay you guys are the

spk_0 best for being here for caring but it doesn't really matter like how i feel about an album at a

spk_0 given point in time i love all that this is i'm grateful to live in the era of errors i'm grateful

spk_0 to get to experience the fun and joy and anticipation of release weeks with you i i love having a

spk_0 shared interest with the universe with you guys that and we have a shared language and i feel like

spk_0 it cool like we have this multiverse like i always wanted to be a part of with like marvel or dc

spk_0 i can't get into the movies i can't um and i think it's fun to like be a part of something and

spk_0 and the thing about falling an artist like over the long term like the creative risks even the ones

spk_0 that don't land become part of the story the ones that you react to viscerally that you eventually

spk_0 love they they become part of the lore all the wrong reactions i've had throughout the past five

spk_0 years are like kind of funny memories to me now and i like if you told me when i was doing my

spk_0 torture poets reaction video that not only would i the host of the party get mostly rejected by people

spk_0 in terms of wanting to add a peter to the track list at my own party that i would think it on stage

spk_0 and demand that they sing the bridge of peter with me allowed uh that was a song that i was like

spk_0 such a skip go back to neverland why are you on this album this is so many songs but like the way

spk_0 that it's just it's it's magical it's senseless one of my favorite bridges of all time and it's just

spk_0 yeah it's just so interesting how these things aerate and it's it's part of the fun like the

spk_0 messy albums matter the like over corrections matter like this might be a grower of it might just be

spk_0 what it is like a fun kind of flawed album with like commercial appeal with four absolutely perfect

spk_0 songs that's one of the best runs she's had in years and a bunch of stuff from still like kind of

spk_0 working out but either way i'm here for it and look maybe in six months i'll think actually romantic

spk_0 as like campginess maybe they'll work it out on the remix and it'll be really an exciting moment

spk_0 for girlhood i think it's important to remember that this is ultimately very fun and it's really

spk_0 i don't know special to get excited about something and times when it's very hard to like

spk_0 be in touch with that lighter side of yourself you know and i think that like getting to watch

spk_0 somebody experiment and you know sometimes fails sometimes soar sometimes we calibrate a

spk_0 mistakes agent to camp and like sometimes they're cringe forever and that's just part of the ride

spk_0 and we're watching an artist like workout their craft in real time and uh we're not going to

spk_0 always be consuming the greatest tits package or an aerosaur i'm not just here for a good time

spk_0 i'm here for a long time i'm grateful you're here for it and thank you for hearing me out and uh

spk_0 love you so much how are you guys able to go uh nervous okay love you thanks for listening

spk_0 as always let me know your thoughts and i'll let you know mine i'll be there in five i swear

spk_0 you

Life of a Showgirl: Prologues, pettiness, and poetry

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