Taylor Swift - The Life of a Showgirl (October 3, 2025) • Page 83

my bonus track journey with TTPD starts and stops with the Anthology vinyl. 31 tracks was already more than enough, but if i throw it on the turntable, i'll spin the 4 acoustic tracks on side H for the hell of it. unless they're directly presented to me via something i've purchased, i'm not seeking out alt versions

 

My mom sent me this yesterday morning idk if she’s done anything since

 

So did she do the physical with the scattered bonus alt versions for 24 hrs, and then after that was up, before they could ship out, put digital versions up? And still have the bonus tracks split between four versions?

Do I have that right?

 

Yes but the digital versions of the physical CD variants have two extra tracks on top of the CD two extra tracks

 

Genuinely don't know how she did this.



Taylor Surely Heading for 3.5m+ Bow—Is 4m a Possibility?

 

Rabid fan base and endless variants

 

Yes, but all true last time, and the time before that, and fewer songs this time means fewer SEA units.

I'm wondering if this year's largely barren pop music landscape played into her hands.

 

By nurturing a cult-like following for decades which at this point spans generations, while carefully crafting a need among the fanbase to own everything their idol sells them. Necessity be damned.

This cult, I mean fanbase, feels as though it’s their duty to purchase endless amounts of the same product so their idol can be on top of the mountaintop, and therefore they feel they are on the mountaintop with her. But they are not on the mountaintop with her. They just have less wealth, while the billionaire has accumulated more thanks to their endless devotion.

Taylor has created the perfect parasocial relationship. It’s gross.

 

this has definitely grown on me with several more listens. still ranks near the bottom of her discography for me, but it's not as insufferable as i thought it initially was. did end up picking up a copy on vinyl (the orange glitter variant), and i can't tell if it's glitter or nofill, but the first verse of Ophelia is incredibly noisy, no matter how much i clean it. other songs sound great, so maybe there's just a ton of glitter that was pushed to the outside of the disc and into those first few grooves during pressing.

 

Again, all of this was true a year and a half ago. What happened since that gave this a 1-1.5 million leg up over the last album? That’s what I’m asking, to be clear.

 

marketing as a supposed return to form with Max/Shellback, i guess?

 

There was no Taylor-related competition this cycle compared to TTPD. In early 2024, The Eras Tour was in full swing, 1989 (TV) was still relatively new, and three more of her other albums (Lover, Folklore, Midnights) were still charting regularly in the top 20 of the Billboard charts. It was harder to compete against herself in a market that she was already overwhelmingly dominating with so many products.

This cycle is selling nothing but The Life of a Showgirl.

 

Thanks for confirming this. I was afraid of that. I got a Golden Bouquet and the Orange Glitter, with plans on returning the orange glitter as this doesn't warrant two copies for me.

 

That actually makes a ton of sense and is something I hadn't considered. Plus her emphasis that this would just be the 12 songs and not be a surprise double album might have made some fans more comfortable pulling the trigger ahead of time.

 

i think it's a bit of a crapshoot, as i've seen some have problems and others end up fine with that variant. only way to know for sure is to play it.

 

Couple that with the Travis engagement, which has the fanbase going rabid, along with the other differences since spring 2024, and it created the perfect storm to drop an album into.

The upbeat narrative alone around the first album Taylor created while being in a relationship with the love of her life vs her fourth or fifth album dating Joe Alwyn almost certainly would generate a new level of excitement for those invested in her personal life, which is essentially her entire fanbase.

Not going to pretend I saw this coming ahead of time, but in retrospect I can see how it happened.

 

The vinyl packaging and pressing (glittery purple) is super nice I will say

 

voice memos were cool back in 1989 but its 2025. open the camera app, prop the phone up on the table, and upload the 10 minute bonus content on the taylor youtube channel

 

I'm sure you came to that interpretation on your own by listening to the song, and not by reading random tweets online right?

 

The Internet is convinced it’s about Brittany Mahomes, but it’s so vague, I don’t see any reason to get riled up about it. It’s just a bad nondescript song about how her friends are edgy, like a more cringy “Vigilante Shit.”

 

I guess once Candace Owens said that Blake lively girl bossed too close to the sun so I'm guessing cancelled is referencing Blake but also her other "cancelled" friends like Mahomes

 

Also her parasocial thing has always concerned me but I once worked with an individual who genuinely believed they were married to a specific celebrity and genuinely thought that celebrity fathered her children and thought their daughter was another celebrity and it took the parasocial thing from just weird to alarming. Like obviously that individual is unwell and that isn't the celebrity's fault, but it just made me think of how taylor used to invite people to her literal house and how insane is that was. Obviously they were heavily vetted but it's just not any type of boundary I'd ever want to cross because I can't imagine how many stalkers she deals with that we never hear about unless they get caught trying to break into her house or she files for a restraining order.

 

I guess that user promptly deleted their posts lol

 

I wish that song (and everything else I hated on this album) were as charming as “Vigilante Shit” was to me when it came out.

She really, uh, vigilante shat too close to the sun here.

 

Songs like vigilante shit have always been corny to me. But it wouldn't be a Taylor album if she didn't include a few cornball songs