Did the NFL Replace Taylor Swift With AI?

An Open Letter To Taylor Swift (or whoever wrote this album)

ZUMA PHOTOS

Dear Taylor,

My bookworm daughter read me the lyrics to “CANCELLED!” yesterday. She looked up from her phone with this face I’ve never seen before.

“How did Taylor Swift lose the ability to write?” she asked.

Here’s what I told her: No one loses the ability to write.

But Taylor. I need to ask you something.

Did this actually happen the way it sounds? Did you really record this album in three-day breaks between stadium shows? Flying to Sweden, recording, flying back to perform again?

Because the timeline is crazy as hell, babe. folklore happened in 2020 when you had time. evermore came 140 days later. Still fast, but you weren’t on the road.

The Life of a Showgirl was announced in August, dropped in October. But you recorded it even faster than that. Between European tour dates during the biggest tour in history.

And then I’m reading:

“Did you girlboss too close to the sun?”

“Every eldest daughter / Was the first lamb to the slaughter / So we all dressed up as wolves and we looked fire.”

“legitly”

“they want that spring break that was fuckin’ lit”

“New Heights of manhood”

You wrote “All Too Well.” You wrote “my tears ricochet.”

So I’m spiraling into conspiracy territory here and I need you to tell me I’m wrong.

It sounds like AI wrote these lyrics.

Did the NFL steal Taylor Swift, replace her with AI Taylor, bank millions more this season BECAUSE OF TAYLOR SWIFT, then she dumps an album faster than she’s EVER done before? And it sounds like a showgirl wrote it?

No offense to showgirls. Y’all rule. I’m comparing you to Taylor Swift’s most recent work that she stands heavily behind so WHOA HORSE.

But seriously. The NFL made how much money off you this season? The Chiefs games you attended became the most-watched games. Travis Kelce’s jersey sales exploded. The league leveraged your relationship for ratings gold.

And then suddenly there’s an album recorded in fragments between tour stops. With lyrics that don’t sound like the person who wrote folklore. The person who knows how to make words do things that break people open.

“Did you girlboss too close to the sun?” doesn’t sound like you, Taylor. It sounds like someone fed your entire discography into a machine and asked it to write “Taylor Swift does internet culture commentary.”

The math isn’t mathing.

You made your debut album in four months when you were a teenager. You took your time with folklore and evermore even though they came fast because inspiration was flowing. Those albums sound like someone who had space to think.

This sounds like someone racing against a clock that shouldn’t exist.

I’m not saying this IS AI. I’m saying it sounds enough like it that my conspiracy brain is lighting up like a dashboard warning light.

Because here’s what I know: You care about craft. You care about specificity. You care about making every word count. That’s been your brand since you were 16.

And “legitly” made it onto the closer of your twelfth studio album.

So either something happened in the creative process that prevented you from being you, or something else is going on that we don’t know about yet.

My daughter asked me how someone loses the ability to write, and I told her they don’t. But they can lose the conditions they need to write well. They can lose the time. They can lose the space. They can lose the ability to say “not yet, this isn’t ready.”

Or maybe they get replaced by an algorithm while the NFL counts their money.

I’m mostly kidding about that last part.

Mostly.

But Taylor, if this really is you, if you really recorded this between tour stops and thought these lyrics represented your best work, then we need to talk about what “best work” means when you’re moving at a speed that doesn’t allow for second drafts.

:( ILYSM.

Slow down. You’re allowed to wait. You’re allowed to make music when it’s ready instead of when the schedule demands it. Right? RIGHT?

Because this album doesn’t sound like you had that choice.

And if you didn’t have that choice, I want to know why.

If this is AI, well. That’s a different conversation entirely.

With love and concern (and tinfoil hat energy) ,

A writer who needs answers

P.S. — If this is AI, at least tell me the NFL is paying you well for the use of your likeness. And if it’s not AI, we really need to talk about “New Heights of manhood.“​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​