Parents may want to press pause before blaring Taylor Swift’s new album around young listeners.
Eight out of the twelve songs on “The Life of a Showgirl” are labeled explicit, marking the most Swift has sworn on one album in her career.
Songs marked explicit mean their lyrics include swear words or other vulgarities. Generally, even if the original version of a song is explicit, artists will create a “clean” version without profanities so that it can be played on the radio.
Swift, whose fans span children and adults alike, excluded swear words on most of her early albums. She first cursed on “Reputation” in 2017, with later albums like “Folklore” and “Evermore” including more explicit songs.
However, Swift’s explicitness pales in comparison to the amount of profanity across the music industry, research shows. According to a 2020 study in the International Journal of Scientific & Technology Research, the number of profanities in songs on the Billboard Top 100 charts rose from less than 200 per year in 2009 to more than 700 per year in 2018.
With Swift’s newest album containing some more adult language, here’s what parents and caregivers need to know.
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Does Taylor Swift swear on ‘The Life of a Showgirl’?
Eight tracks on “The Life of a Showgirl” contain swear words. Here’s which ones they are:
The following songs from “The Life of a Showgirl” do not contain swear words and are therefore not marked explicit:
Some ‘Life of a Showgirl’ songs have sexual innuendos, too
Aside from swear words, some songs on “The Life of a Showgirl” contain sexual innuendos that are present even in the “clean” version.
On “Wood,” the clean version replaces the lyric “his love was the key that opened my thighs” to “his love was the key that opened my skies.”
However, the clean track still mentions being “bare naked” and “dancing in the dark.”
And on “Actually Romantic,” the clean version swaps “making me wet” for “making me sweat,” but it still mentions “talking dirty.”
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How to find the explicit and clean versions of ‘The Life of a Showgirl’
Although the main versions of some songs contain swear words, Swift released a version of “The Life of a Showgirl” with no cursing.
The difference between an explicit and clean version of a song is that the former contains expletives or vulgarities, while the latter does not. To identify the difference, explicit songs are marked with an “E” next to the track name.
Fans buy Taylor Swift’s new album, “The Life of a Showgirl,” at Target on October 2, 2025 in New York City.
Clean versions of the album are available on streaming platforms like Spotify and Apple Music.
For Spotify users: On Spotify, users can filter all explicit content across the platform by toggling on or off the “explicit content” option in account settings. To find specific clean songs on Spotify mobile, search a song title to find any versions without explicit tags. On desktop, scroll down to the bottom of the album listing and find more releases of the same album at the bottom right.
For Apple Music users: Users can similarly find the clean version on Apple Music by scrolling to the bottom of the album page and finding “other versions.” To implement explicit content settings, turn on or off parental controls in device settings.
Taylor Swift’s website has previous physical CD albums for sale with clean or non-explicit options, but as of Oct. 3 does not list similar options for “The Life of a Showgirl.”
Melina Khan is a national trending reporter for USA TODAY. She can be reached at [email protected].
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Is Taylor Swift’s new album appropriate for kids? A parents’ guide.
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