Taylor Swift got her fairytale ending, but for many fans, the love affair is over.
asserted
affair → get → fans
Last Sunday, the 36-year-old, newlywedded pop icon made history at the MTV VMAs as the most-awarded artist in the show’s history, but Swifties could only muster so much enthusiasm for the milestone.
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Swifties → newlywedde → milestone
“Verses evoke ‘Baby Shark’ with blocky melodies that overly emphasize each rhyming syllable,” wrote Spencer Kornhaber in the Atlantic.
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Kornhaber → evoke → Atlantic
“Her lyrics, usually laden with double and triple meanings, invite little extended analysis.”
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lyrics → invite → analysis
“Taylor Swift needs an intervention,” commentator Link Lauren declared on TikTok.
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Lauren → need → TikTok
“These songs were so bad they would not make the cut for a playlist at Forever 21.
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they → make → Forever
The mall would not play these songs.”
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mall → play → songs
“Cleveland!” — an ode to Swift’s new husband Travis Kelce with lyrics like “The taste of me is acquired, but it’s his favorite dish” — was declared especially cringeworthy.
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it → acquire → me
“She cares more about how the world sees them together than how she sees him,” wrote Poppie Platt in the Telegraph.
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Platt → care → Telegraph
“This is miles away from the sensitive songwriter who, while dating English actor Joe Alwyn between 2016 and 2023, wrote some of 21st century pop’s most intensely romantic love songs.”
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who → date → songs
The new tracks, coupled with the fact that Swift has yet to release wedding photos from her July 3 wedding, have longtime fans questioning their loyalty — and if her best music is behind her.
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music → couple → her
What does happily ever after mean for a musician who built an empire chronicling bad breakups, girlish crushes and revenge fantasies?
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who → mean → breakups
“All the music sounds like AI.
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music → sound → AI
There’s no heart or soul in it,” said a 30-year-old public relations executive in New York City, who asked to remain anonymous and has listened to the singer religiously since she was 12.
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she → ’ → singer
“I feel like she’s gotten lazy with her music, because all the songs sound very familiar.
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songs → feel → music
When it came out last fall, “The Life of a Showgirl” sold more than 4 million copies in its first week.
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Life → come → week
In addition to her record 33 VMAs, she’s got 14 Grammys to her name.
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she → get → name
Yet, while there are some fans who will like anything Swift does, the p.r. exec says they deserve better.
“
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they → be → better
[We] have to hold people accountable to good music.
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people → have → music
Like, she has the best producer in the world and she has an incredible team around her, so why is she missing the mark?
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she → have → mark
Has she gotten lazy, or is it a commercial thing, like she just wants to pump it out?”
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she → get → it
Kristiane Westray, a 38-year-old writer who lives in Brighton, England, says that Swift’s business savvy has gone too far and detracted from her artistry.
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savvy → live → artistry
“There were like 30 different variants of ‘Midnights,’ and the same for ‘The Life of a Showgirl,’ and it’s obviously being done to drive sales,” she said.
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she → be → sales
In its release week, “Showgirl” came in 27 physical editions — 16 CDs, eight vinyl records, two deluxe CDs bundled with clothing and a cassette — plus 11 digital versions.
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Showgirl → come → clothing
Westray was born in 1988, about a year before Swift, so in her 20s she related deeply to Swift’s songs about heartbreak, dreams and friendship.
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she → bear → heartbreak
Everything changed when she went to the Eras tour at Wembley Stadium in London.
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she → change → London
The tour ran from 2023 to 2024 and became the first in history to gross more than $2 billion.
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tour → run → billion
Westray said she looked around the stadium and felt there was something too mass-market about what she was seeing.
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she → say → what
“I was like, ‘This just doesn’t feel authentic.’
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This → feel → ?
I mean, she’s literally a billionaire now.
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she → mean → ?
Our lives are so different, so what have I got to relate to?”
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I → get → what
She also questioned if Swift has made good use of her sizeable platform, compared to slightly edgier rivals like Olivia Rodrigo and Charli XCX.
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Swift → question → Rodrigo
Rodrigo recently launched Daisy Chain Fields, an all-women, nonprofit music festival in Irvine, Calif., that donated proceeds to worthy causes.
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that → launch → causes
Charli XCX is famed for bringing lesser known female artists onstage at her shows.
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XCX → fame → shows
“What has Taylor done?” Westray asked.
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Westray → do → What
“I know that she donates to charities, but the amount she donates is so small compared to her income, it’s like me donating 50 cents.
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me → know → cents
I want her to really do something good for the world.”
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her → want → world
Instead, Swift shut down New York City streets on a holiday weekend for her July 3 wedding to Kelce, a sports arena spectacle that included a laundry list of celebrity guests — Tom Cruise, Ed Sheeran, Hugh Grant, Dakota Johnson, Zoë Kravitz and many more — along with a castle theme and raffled off luxury items.
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that → shut → items
With so much fanfare, people expected pictures, and they’ve gotten nothing.
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they → expect → nothing
“Taylor Swift is subjecting fans to a humiliation ritual,” said one TikTok video.
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video → subject → ritual
…and 18 more, not listed.
The Aporia
