Because she knows her fans were sick of Jack and Aaron. She is capable of a good pop album without Max, Lover, with Louis Bell and Joel Little. Jack made some magic with the songs on Lover and Rep, but after that there's not much I liked from him going forward.

Edited August 26, 20251 yr by Mattyboy

Because Taylor tends to respond to the major criticisms of her previous albums. 1989 is more sonically cohesive than Red. Lover is brighter than Reputation. Folklore and Evermore have the songwriting that Taylor's previous pop albums lacked. And now TLOAS will only have 12 tracks, compared to Midnights having 20 and TTPD having 31. Quality over quantity.

Of course, this doesn't mean that she won't work with Jack in the near future. They just needed time apart.

 

Max was convenient because she was touring Europe and didn't have time to travel farther or develop a working relationship with somebody new. Her dumb jock boyfriend seems to stan her Max bangers so she wanted to make more of them. Loudmouth fans and critics dragged her for working with Jack too much and using too many words but not enough beats, so she decided to give them what they claim to want. 

The Swiftologist theory he shared on that debate with Fantano made a lot of sense to me. She knows what she's doing.

First they love poets then they switch, they switch like showgirls!

Edited August 26, 20251 yr by Taylor fanboy

The poet schtick wasn't credible and the remake wasn't believable so go back to the original source…
 

She can still sell high school drama so why not go back to the true and tired formula? 

Cause she realized her last album was panned and everyone treated it like mid-thrash and jack antonoff was the main reason for it
She's smart and knows max martin has a gift for polished-high quality-layered songs. I wonder if she will go more maximalist this time

All her jack antonoff songs were also very melancholic mellow.  We moved from that
 

Edited August 26, 20251 yr by AvadaKedavra

2 hours ago, Cheers said:

Because TTPD won 0 grammys and failed to produce a memorable hit.

And this is not uncommon for Taylor. She said it during the lover documentary. She takes those type of things into account a lot. 

And she knows that after 4 albums with jack and aron people wanted something else

2 hours ago, Cheers said:

Because TTPD won 0 grammys and failed to produce a memorable hit.

The album was recorded before 2025 Grammys.

I'm interested to hear what they can do together in 2025. But I'd love a mixtape from Taylor with her exploring lots of different sounds with new producers and writing collaborators.

 

I think she needs a safe space to do so. And taking the commercial pressure off would probably help.

 

We cant just have Aaron Dessner, Jack Antonoff and Max Martin for the rest of time 

She saw the unpaid reviews of her last album.

 

Spoiler

Jack A.'s production is so boring and tired.

Edited August 26, 20251 yr by Kiel D-01

I can't believe I just saw people on this thread downplaying Max Martin's skills 

4 hours ago, Cheers said:

Because TTPD won 0 grammys and failed to produce a memorable hit.

 

Now I know she loves her awards but I really don't think she was aiming for it with TTPD....it was a data dump of an album that she didn't do any press or campaigning for (and she probably knew people would be annoyed since she won AOTY the prior year).  You could even tell at those Grammys that she was there to have fun and didn't seem particularly hopeful.

I think she hears whatever general critiques might be floating around and takes them into account.  The negative feedback TTPD got seemed to be centered around "too many songs" and "her sound with Jack is getting stale", so she listened and is going the opposite direction.

 

Even without public opinion though, I'm sure she was ready to change it up.  Her staying with her trusted collaborators for TTPD made sense (it was pretty clearly about the lyrics and she needed to get a lot of stuff out of her system), but it makes sense that she do something different now. She's said things here and there over the years about wanting to work with Max/Shellback again, she caught up with him at the Eras tour and they decided to get to work.

They made great music together and honestly after Jack terrorizing us for 6-7 albums in a row, we needed this.

desperation to be the main it girl and hit maker again. it's possible so I dont fault her from trying.

Edited August 26, 20251 yr by Raphy

Jack helped give us 'August' and for that I'll always be grateful to his work with Taylor but I'm so ready for some Max Pop Bangers 

She knows what the fans want and she's giving it to them.

'folklore' - 'The Tortured Poets Department' felt more serious in nature, whereas by the interview it seems 'Showgirl' is just meant to be a fun, upbeat, pure pop album.

 

If you are gonna do that why not get the best pop producer there is to amplify it? Probably aiming for a more '1989'/'reputation' sound instead of a 'Lover' sound.

Because she hasn't released a good album since reputation (sans folklore) 

Because she wants a pop hit? It's literally why everyone runs to Max…. 

She wants a good album. 

11 hours ago, Ryusei said:

 

the full clip of this is peak cinema 

You all come here to say oh she's desperate for hits as if it's a bad thing.

Almost 20 years into her career, she's still had that passion for music, that hunger for success. Now, don't lie. 

You wish your fav (even mine) had that thing in themselves.