What is going on here?
“The Life of a Showgirl” album by Taylor Swift — released at midnight — is number 1 on amazon and iTunes.
But on iTunes and Spotify there’s no action. On the former, no individual tracks have revealed themselves. On the latter, one song — “Ophelia” — is registering.
How can all these things exist at the same time?
More interesting: the “Showgirl” tracks take up the top 20 of Apple streaming. Nothing on Apple’s iTunes, where albums are made or broken by individual tracks catching fire.
As of 4:23pm, Swift has nothing on the iTunes top 100.
And then there’s Rolling Stone. The long venerated rock and roll bible has given over its entire home page to “Showgirl” as if it were “Sgt. Pepper.” They are all in, bestowing a ridiculous five star review.
The fans don’t seem to like the album. Twitter X is full of comments saying the album is “mid” Swift, nothing new, and a disappointment.
On Metacritic, the rating is at 62%, not exactly a run away hit.
And let’s not forget my previous story about the title track sounding awfully similar to the Jonas Brothers’ 2019 song, “Cool.”
Stay tuned…
Rolling Stone (Taylor's Version)
To celebrate #TSTheLifeofaShowgirl, we launched our first-ever homepage takeover. For 24 hours, Rolling Stone transforms its digital presence into an immersive experience complete with reviews, lists, takes, and more.https://t.co/TaxO73ksla pic.twitter.com/GCD19Ze9a5
— Rolling Stone (@RollingStone) October 3, 2025
