Taylor Swift: The Album Launch Event of a Showgirl Review – Low-Effort Movie Theater Money Grab

Similar to how morning dawns eastward and goes down in the west, fans of the music superstar will answer the call for latest releases. Long before the revenue-generating, game-changing worldwide success of the Eras concert series, Swift had developed a uniquely intense and individual relationship with her audience, including within the reverential world of mainstream music. That relationship, maintained via secret references, long-running one-sided storylines and possibly her personal universe, can be genuine and unique and nutritive, a steady raft through life’s storms – I have experienced it. Yet several years into her peak popularity, Swift’s cyclical feeding of the audience begins to appear less like a shared commitment and more nakedly exploitative, the numerous special editions and special vinyls and exclusive retail releases like a billionaire’s tax on her most loyal.

The Most Recent Product

The most recent example is the Life of a Showgirl movie – or, more accurately, a premiere movie for her recent release The Performer's Journey, available shortly. Officially billed as the Official Release Party of a Showgirl, it consists of song explainers, behind-the-scenes snippets and one visual piece (shown two times), casually compiled into a full cinematic session. This is the kind of material any other artist would put on YouTube, but which Swift, having already asserted cinematic success with her previous tour film, chooses to release in cinemas from 3-5 October. With a projected $30m opening domestically, it will almost certainly be the most profitable release of the weekend – which is a shame, considering it barely qualifies as an enhancement to the album, not to mention something remarkable in her broad collection of material.

Film Presentation

As a movie event, The Official Release Party of a Showgirl at least mirrors the record it promotes – rote, superficially cheerful, featuring uninspired production and unpolished feel suggesting a creator facing time constraints. Additional proof of what critic Spencer Kornhaber described as Swift’s exhaustion phase. During a simple introduction filmed direct to camera, Swift, endearingly clumsy and modest typically, bills the cinematic event as a kind of exploration of the creative influences” representing a dynamic, stimulating phase”.

But save for a making-of segment on the visual piece spliced into 5-minute sections, the content is mostly clips that show song words along with a segment from the corresponding filming in cycles. That’s fine for background viewing during an event, but an issue as the central offering for a record that is best absorbed from a distance, its tepid soft-rock and notably awkward words designed for easy listening in one unread flush. Maybe alcohol helps; except for an isolated cheer for the surprisingly oblivious the track Cancelled, there was silence during my alcohol-free family viewing.

Track Explanations

The artist provides each track with a quick insight of her creative approach – always welcome, even critics can claim it’s uninteresting – however, they mostly consist of vague descriptions, professed enthusiasm and ensuring legal safety (for instance, obtaining rights from the George Michael estate to interpolate the song Father Figure). The artist often avoids specifics about songs that plainly reference individuals, but the ambiguity in this case feels especially pointless. There is no mention of the album’s muse, her partner, despite being unusually open about their domestic bliss in recent media appearances this week. The much-discussed and badly executed negative comment in that particular track is presented as an affectionate note to a critic. (Curiously, a biting “attention is affection and you’ve given me a whole lot of it”, increases the discomfort.) The suggestive, wordplay-filled that track, featuring a metaphorical tree, is promoted as “a song about superstitions” with one child-proof, implied expression to the camera.

Connection and Storytelling

The artist still manages at appearing approachable from the highest perch in pop music; her conversational and interesting guide, if an unreliable one regarding her creations. (This doesn't match the album of bangers as promoted in other media.) That especially shines during professional moments; the most enjoyable parts, by far, happen as she allows focus to the team involved – Mandy Moore, the movement designer, and Rodrigo Prieto, among others – and to the disciplined pace of filming process. These insider views – a moment of remote work, humor among the team, perfecting a scene – prove as interesting as they are short and teasing. They glimpse both the collective and the system behind Taylor Swift industries, the true substance of performer existence.

Conclusion and Impact

Possibly including deeper material, that is both planned and insightful, was an order too tall for Swift’s punishing schedule of lowering rewards. Maybe loyal enthusiasts of the release – acknowledging their presence – will find something in this basic package of special extras meaningful. However, leading cinema earnings with minimal effort doesn’t make for a pop victory. It becomes an additional revenue source in her commercial domain.

• The artist: The Premiere Event of a Showgirl is currently showing