<\/p>\n
I can imagine a future where a portion of my paycheck is withheld, \u00e0 la state and federal taxes, and siphoned directly to Taylor Swift. This seems like a logical progression because Swift keeps inventing new ways for me to give her money, and for some reason I keep handing it over. Her latest revenue stream is The Official Release Party of a Showgirl<\/em>, a visual accompaniment to her new album, The Life of a Showgirl<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n Though The Official Release Party of a Showgirl<\/em> is playing exclusively in movie theaters this weekend and clocks in at 89 minutes long, it\u2019s not quite a movie. (However, for anyone wondering, I checked and it is on Letterboxd<\/a>.) Its main draw is that, until Sunday night, it will be the only place fans can see the music video for the album\u2019s first single, The Fate of Ophelia<\/em>. That song is 3 minutes and 46 seconds song, leaving about 85 more minutes to fill and not a whole lot of material with which to do it.<\/p>\n As cranky as I feel about Swift compelling her fans to pay for the privilege of watching what is essentially an infomercial for her album\u2014an achievement worthy of Tom Sawyer, that\u2014I can concede that providing ways for people to celebrate The Life of a Showgirl<\/em> communally isn\u2019t a terrible idea. After the massive success of the Eras tour and the movie version that followed<\/a>, Swift proved that people will show up for just about anything she does.<\/p>\n There didn\u2019t happen to be much community going on in the screening I went to Friday afternoon, though given solid ticket sales<\/a>, I think that was just a fluke. On one side of me sat a group decked out in the Eras uniform of sequins, tulle, and heart-shaped sunglasses. Or maybe it was just the toddler uniform\u2014all but one of them were between 2 and 5 years old. I chatted with the lone frazzled adult for a bit before the Party<\/em> started, and she, a self-described longtime Swiftie, had only positive things to say about the new album, in contrast to much of the sentiment I\u2019d been encountering. Then she asked me if I went to the Eras tour. I missed it, but it\u2019s a mark of Swift\u2019s power that I sometimes feel like I\u2019m the only person on Earth who didn\u2019t shell out hundreds or thousands of dollars for that special pilgrimage.<\/p>\n When the lights went down, Swift appeared on screen to welcome us and introduce the music video we came to see. Someone in the audience let out a half-hearted \u201cyay,\u201d and a sumptuous, old-school theater lobby appeared before us. In the video, Swift wore least five different costumes across elaborate sets, embodying different types of showgirls in different eras. One of them was the titular Ophelia, like in the Millais painting<\/a>, so I guess we\u2019re interpreting showgirl<\/em> pretty broadly. After the video came some behind-the-scenes footage\u2014a blurry video-conference where Swift detailed her concept, as well as Swift inserting a loaf of her much-discussed bread into one of the scenes, which she called a proud day for her as a baker.<\/p>\n Before long, the name of the album\u2019s second song, \u201cElizabeth Taylor,\u201d flashed on screen, and Swift sat in a director\u2019s chair, providing some commentary on the creation of the song. There were no more high-budget music videos to watch, so it was to be lyric videos from here on out, interspersed with more explanations and making-of clips featuring Swift in director mode. Lyric videos, an invention of the 2010s<\/a>, are what artists release when they don\u2019t have the time or budget to make a real video but still want to reap the YouTube views. Swift\u2019s Showgirl<\/em> lyric videos are some of the slickest examples of the form I\u2019ve ever seen, featuring lavish visuals from the Ophelia<\/em> video and a kaleidoscope effect I feared would give me a seizure, but they are still, at their core, lyric videos. They\u2019re designed to be listened to, not watched, so the act of sitting in a movie theater taking in 11 of them is fundamentally ridiculous. And this is coming from someone who can read\u2014when the tykes in the party next to me got out of their seats and started running around at a certain point, I could hardly blame them.<\/p>\n