Taylor Swift releases 12th album 'Showgirl'

With the meticulously planned release of Taylor Swift’s 12th album this Friday, the country singer-turned-pop star demonstrates again that she is as business savvy as she is musically adept.

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From hints dropped during her last tour in 2024 to movie screenings this coming weekend to accompany the new album's release, "Taylor Swift has perfected marketing as narrative art," said Robin Landa, a professor who studies advertising and branding at Kean University.

"She doesn't simply release an album - she orchestrates a cultural phenomenon."

The massively hyped "The Life of a Showgirl" album was inspired by Swift's experiences during her record-breaking "Eras" concert tour, which coincided with the singer's romance with her now-fiance Travis Kelce, a three-time Super Bowl champion football star.

The 12-track record "comes from the most infectiously joyful, wild, dramatic place I was in in my life - and so that effervescence has come through," Swift herself promises.

That appears to signal a return to pop after her darker 11th album, "The Tortured Poets Department," last year.