https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/music/features/taylor-swift-opalite-video-easter-eggs-songwriting-b2916039.html
oh wow that is brutal but valid. Watching the mv made me feel like she is copying others while making it as dull as possible. Even with celeb cameos i wasn‘t thrilled in it at all. And the dissing of her exes gets boring
Swift is often an exceptional storyteller and a brilliant pop star, which is why the hollow creativity of her ‘Opalite’ music video is so fr
Swift’s penchant for self-referentiality and meta-narratives makes her music seem impenetrable to casual listeners, and the artist herself overly insular. With the exception of a loose narrative about the lengths people will go to in their search for “the one”, the video for “Opalite” has very little to say.
Instead, it feels like another vehicle for Swiftian world-building – less an expression of artistic intent and more like a self-mythologising sales technique that Swift draws on her own life to create her art.
The issue is that she now appears unable to see that life in the context of anything other than herself.
Perhaps the most frustrating thing about this is that she’s proven on numerous occasions that she is more than capable of constructing narratives of great depth: from the masterful “Cardigan”, “August” and “Betty” trilogy from 2020’s Folklore, in which she fleshed out a tale of infidelity, regret and longing, to “Clara Bow” and “The Last Great American Dynasty”
Along the way, though, this inquisitive and observational eye has turned exclusively inward. Take Showgirl’s lead single "The Fate of Ophelia". The Swift of Folklore would have done her due diligence in accurately representing the nuances and complexities of Shakespeare’s doomed heroine.
The Swift of Showgirl, however, fails to look beyond her personal and professional identity – and the marketing power attached – in order to do that character justice.
The tragic story of Ophelia becomes a mere costume Swift dons to further mythologise (and commodify) her romance with American football star Travis Kelce.
Such navel-gazing affected the entirety of Showgirl, a record that has nevertheless become one of the biggest records of Swift’s career.
While Swift was never a trend-chaser, frequently eschewing Top 40 fads in favour of thoughtful songwriting and smart production, her insularity is now isolating her. She no longer feels part of a wider cultural conversation involving other musicians, literature, history, film or visual art.
What does casting a host of famous faces you appeared with on a chat show say about anything?
Swift’s sole point of reference has become herself. Alone at the pinnacle of pop supremacy and consumed by her evidence board of easter eggs, she has lost her once-tenacious grip on the pen she used to expertly wield.
The result is not only a lack of quality music, but, worst of all, a glut of boring art. Someone of Swift’s talents can do better. As it stands, she seems to have forgotten that there’s more to being a showgirl than simply existing in the spotlight.
