Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran and Beyoncé are looking more like the mega-rich than the relatable pop stars you loved

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If you are one of the many people mourning how life is not all you hoped it would be — between this K-shaped economy , our entrenched political divisions and our expensive wars — go ahead and add what’s happening with Taylor Swift to the list of unsettled feelings about our major institutions.

The pop superstar has released “The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore” which adds four new songs to the original best-selling but critically maligned project. Much like the original album, there are mixed feelings regarding the additional tracks — “Patient Zero,” “Cleveland!,” “Pink Clouding” and “Babylon.”

Swift has always had her haters that we know are gonna hate, hate, hate, but increasingly the call has been coming from inside the house. Now, even self-proclaimed fans are expressing feelings that things are different now.

The Telegraph’s Poppie Platt gave the new project a two-star review , with the headline “I’m a Swiftie and even I think these new songs are terrible.”

Platt notes that it’s been 11 months since the original album dropped and three since the release of the single “I Knew It, I Knew You” from the film “Toy Story 5” and writes: “So Swift has done what Swift does best: write a few more songs for a ‘deluxe’ version and ‘surprise release’ it, ready to win those same fans back. What she doesn’t seem to have realized is that the music must be good to do so – and the songs on ‘The Life of a Showgirl: Encore Edition’ are just as derivative and flat as those that populated the original.”

Lest you think it’s only critics being critical, wade through the usual social media array of Swifties hunting Easter eggs and lyric dissection and you’ll find plenty evidence of discontent.

Content creator Zachary Hourihane, who goes by “ theswiftologist” on social media, posted a video with the caption “The Encore was a bad idea,” adding to the cacophony.

“It’s just such an interesting way to extend an album that people already kind of didn’t like on the whole,” Hourihane laments. “People have been doubting the songwriting ability of one of the greatest songwriters of our generation because of this album. To choose to extend this instead of leaving it where it was and move it on would require that you really commit something to it that wasn’t there to begin with … . I kinda don’t think that this accomplished that mission.”

Over on X, where everyone lives for a good complaint, one person posted “the encore is actually bad like I’m not even tryna hate I actually really don’t wanna hate but Taylor swift needs new inspiration, we need a pop rock album or some other sound other than this recycled trash.”

Greek singer-songwriter Vaelis shared and cosigned a review posted on AOTY.org by user “babyforgiveme” that suggested the vibes are way off: “It’s becoming really hard to ignore that there has been a decrease in the quality of her music lately.”

Taylor Swift’s “The Life of a Showgirl” has uncharacteristically faced mixed reviews since its release last week. CNN's Lisa France has the details.

When “The Life of a Showgirl” was first released, some fans complained that the songwriting lacked the emotional punch of Swift’s past songs. Think pieces abounded as to whether the then-engaged star had found her soulmate but lost her mojo.

The announcement that she was releasing this encore gave hope that fans might have the chance to begin again with the new Mrs. Travis Kelce. But maybe let’s call it more of an incomplete pass than a fumble or a touchdown.

Swift and this new-ish album are just the latest example of how celebs look more disconnected than ever even from their most devout fan base.

See the hubbub after her contemporary Beyoncé recently listed a limited edition “Bey Keeper Collection Box” for sale on her site for $948.01.

The empty box was “designed to house and display your Beyoncé vinyl collection” and was “handcrafted from solid pine wood, finished with beeswax oil, lined in deep green velvet, and fitted with a faux gator-skin leather carrying strap with gold hardware.”

Some fans complained that the price point ignored the current state of the economy where many are struggling to fill their gas tank and put food on the table.

Then there is Swift’s BFF Ed Sheeran, whose tour was rocked by his opener, rapper Macklemore, attracting the ire of billionaire businessman Robert Kraft after Macklemore shared his pro-Palestinian feelings from the stage. The result? Kraft banned the concert from his stadium — a concert that was then, after all that, canceled due to this weekend’s bad weather .

Sheeran, like Swift, has enjoyed being relatable and deeply beloved by the fans. This time, he left lots of them feeling disappointed when he declined to say something substantial about Israel or Gaza. Even his eventual on-stage apology for not taking a stance couldn’t satisfy.

A desire to please everyone now serves more than likely to anger most of us. That seems even more likely among younger fans who are used to passionately sharing their positions on everything from bringing iced coffee to job interviews to war around the world.

The genius of all three of these stars has been that they have been able to feel relatable despite the fact that as uber-wealthy celebs their lives are very different.

The average Swiftie is able to envision their favorite singer sitting on her bedroom floor, surrounded by her cats and strumming on her guitar as she composed the songs that make them love her evermore. The connection is so strong that they can forget to zoom out and realize that said room could be in any of the several expensive homes she owns around the world.

Unfortunately for her, it was Swift giving her fans what they have longed for that helped to put cracks in this foundation.

Her love story with NFL player Travis Kelce reached a fever pitch when the pair held their wedding celebrations at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

Her renting out one of the most iconic venues in the US for multiple days was a reminder that for all her emotion and humanity, Swift’s lifestyle is not even close to that of her average fan.

Of course they knew that from the private jet. But seeing is very different from knowing. The world has changed. Even the rich and famous among us are going to have to try and figure it out anew.

Kevin Mazur/TAS24/Getty Images/文件

如果你是众多为生活不如意而感到惋惜的人之一——无论是 K 型经济、根深蒂固的政治分裂还是代价高昂的战争——那么不妨把泰勒·斯威夫特的遭遇也加入到你对我们主要机构感到不安的情绪清单中。

这位流行巨星发行了《歌舞女郎的生活：安可版》，在原版畅销但饱受诟病的专辑基础上新增了四首歌曲。与原版专辑一样，人们对新增的四首歌曲——《零号病人》、《克利夫兰！》、《粉红云雾》和《巴比伦》——褒贬不一。

斯威夫特一直都有黑粉，我们都知道他们会一直黑她、黑她、黑她，但越来越多的批评声来自她自己。现在，就连一些自称是她粉丝的人也表示，情况已经有所不同了。

《每日电讯报》的波比·普拉特给这个新项目打了两星，标题是“我是个霉粉，但即使是我也觉得这些新歌很糟糕”。

普拉特指出，距离原版专辑发行已经过去了11个月，距离电影《玩具总动员5》的主题曲《I Knew It, I Knew You》发行也已经过去了3个月。他写道：“所以，斯威夫特又做了她最擅长的事：为‘豪华版’创作了几首新歌，然后‘惊喜发布’，准备赢回那些粉丝。但她似乎没有意识到，要想做到这一点，音乐本身必须足够优秀——而《舞女人生：安可版》里的歌曲和原版一样，都是平庸乏味、缺乏新意的作品。”

别以为只有批评家才会批评，去社交媒体上看看那些寻找彩蛋和分析歌词的“霉粉”们，你会发现很多不满的证据。

社交媒体用户“theswiftologist”的创作者 Zachary Hourihane 发布了一段视频，标题为“安可是个糟糕的主意”，这更加剧了人们的议论。

“用这种方式来延长一张大家本来就不太喜欢的专辑，真是太奇怪了，”霍里汉感叹道。“因为这张专辑，人们开始质疑我们这一代最伟大的词曲作者之一的创作能力。与其选择延长而不是就此止步，继续前进，那就意味着你必须投入一些原本并不存在的东西……我觉得他们并没有做到这一点。”

在 X 论坛上，大家都喜欢吐槽，有人发帖说：“安可曲真的太难听了，我甚至都不想黑她，真的不想黑她，但泰勒·斯威夫特需要新的灵感，我们需要一张流行摇滚专辑或者其他什么风格，而不是这种翻来覆去的垃圾。”

希腊创作型歌手Vaelis转发并赞同了用户“babyforgiveme”在AOTY.org上发表的一篇评论，该评论指出她的音乐风格已经大不如前：“最近她的音乐质量下降，这一点越来越难以忽视了。”

泰勒·斯威夫特的专辑《舞女人生》自上周发行以来，评价褒贬不一，这与她以往的风格截然不同。CNN记者丽莎·弗朗斯将带来详细报道。

《舞女人生》发行之初，一些歌迷抱怨说，这张专辑的歌曲缺乏斯威夫特以往作品的情感冲击力。各种评论文章层出不穷，猜测这位当时已订婚的明星是否找到了灵魂伴侣，却也因此失去了创作灵感。

她宣布发行这首返场单曲的消息，让歌迷们燃起了希望，或许他们有机会重新认识这位新晋的特拉维斯·凯尔西夫人。但或许我们应该称之为一次不成功的传球，而不是彻底的失败或达阵。

斯威夫特和这张新专辑只是最新的一个例子，说明即使是最忠实的粉丝群体，明星们之间的联系也比以往任何时候都更加疏远。

看看她的同代人碧昂丝最近在她的网站上以 948.01 美元的价格出售限量版“Bey Keeper Collection Box”后引起的轰动吧。

这个空盒子“旨在存放和展示您的碧昂丝黑胶唱片收藏”，并且“由实心松木手工制作，涂有蜂蜡油，内衬深绿色天鹅绒，并配有仿鳄鱼皮皮革提手和金色五金配件”。

一些粉丝抱怨说，这个价格忽略了当前的经济状况，许多人都在为加油和吃饭而苦苦挣扎。

还有泰勒·斯威夫特的好友艾德·希兰，他的巡演因为开场嘉宾、说唱歌手麦克莫尔而陷入混乱。麦克莫尔在台上表达了支持巴勒斯坦的立场，这激怒了亿万富翁罗伯特·克拉夫特。结果呢？克拉夫特禁止希兰在他的体育场举办演唱会——而这场演唱会最终还是因为本周末的恶劣天气而被取消了。

和泰勒·斯威夫特一样，希兰也一直很受粉丝喜爱，因为他平易近人。但这一次，他却拒绝就以色列或加沙问题发表任何实质性言论，令许多粉丝感到失望。即使他最终在舞台上为自己没有表明立场而道歉，也未能平息众怒。

如今，试图取悦所有人的做法很可能会激怒我们大多数人。对于习惯于热情地表达自己对各种事情的看法的年轻粉丝来说，这种情况似乎更加普遍，他们从在求职面试中带冰咖啡到世界各地的战争，无所不谈。

这三位明星的过人之处在于，尽管他们作为超级富有的名人，生活方式截然不同，但他们仍然能够让观众感到亲切。

普通的霉粉都能想象出自己最爱的歌手坐在卧室地板上，被猫咪环绕，一边弹着吉他一边创作那些让他们更加爱她的歌曲。这种感觉如此强烈，以至于他们常常忘记跳出画面，意识到这间房间可能只是她在世界各地众多豪宅中的任何一间。

对她来说不幸的是，正是斯威夫特满足了粉丝们的渴望，才导致这段关系的基础出现裂痕。

她与 NFL 球员特拉维斯·凯尔西的爱情故事在纽约麦迪逊广场花园举行婚礼庆典时达到了高潮。

她包下美国最具标志性的场馆之一长达数日，这提醒人们，尽管斯威夫特充满情感和人性，但她的生活方式与普通粉丝的生活方式相去甚远。

当然，他们从私人飞机上就能看出这一点。但眼见为实，心知肚明。世界已经改变。即使是我们当中那些富人和名人，也必须重新适应这一切。