I swear this song reminds me of something...
Is "Father Figure" The Only 'The Life of a Showgirl' Sample? Here's What We Know!
Haley Sprankle is B+C's Content Editor, leading coverage across pop culture, beauty, style, home, and beyond. You can find her previous work at WIRED, Wirecutter, and VH1. Outside of work, she's probably drinking a dirty martini, walking her french bulldogs, or quoting School of Rock somewhere.
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UPDATE: This post has been updated to include more accurate information about Taylor Swift's credited interpolations verses the fan theories about which songs inspired her work.
If you're listening to The Life of a Showgirl and keep thinking, "This song sounds like another song," you're not alone. Swifties everywhere recognized little melodies and patterns throughout the album that felt familiar, but couldn't quite put their finger on what song they were hearing in each Taylor Swift track.
Well, I'm here to tell you two things:
- You're not crazy! Taylor very purposefully sampled at least one other song on The Life of a Showgirl.
- That sample is actually called an "interpolation" in the music industry — AKA when you take an existing piece of music and transform it into a new song.
And Taylor, being the respectful, responsible artist that she is, made sure to credit any intentional interpolation on The Life of a Showgirl. However, there are plenty of other songs that fans think her work sounds similar to. Here's what everyone's saying!
Scroll to see all the songs (and credited interpolations) may have inspired Taylor Swift on The Life of a Showgirl...
"Father Figure" — "Father Figure" by George Michael
This is the only actually credited interpolation on the album — especially because George Michael's estate put out a public statement on Instagram about it. Plus, it's no secret that everyone was obsessed with this song ever since that dance scene in Babygirl.
"Eldest Daughter" — "White Horse" by Taylor Swift
This may surprise you since it's an example of her own work, but if there's one thing we know about Taylor is that she knows the value of honoring previous work through references and homages and everything in-between. I mean this is the woman that literally started re-recording her albums when she couldn't buy her masters back and called herself "your english teacher" — her ouvre is everything to her, weaved into the fabric of her being. I'm not surprised fans think these are related songs!
"Ruin The Friendship" — "It Ain't Over Til It's Over" by Lenny Kravitz
Taylor may be our father figure, but fans think she was influenced by her friend's (Zoë Kravitz) dad on a track! This Lenny Kravitz song is absolutely iconic on it's own, but to connect it with a song about a situationship that ended in the saddest way possible? Yeah, I guess it really isn't over until it's...over...BRB while I sob.
"Actually Romantic" — "Where Is My Mind" by The Pixies & "Teenage Dirtbag" by Wheetus
Everyone seems to know what song "Actually Romantic" may be in response to (which is honestly very brat of her, TBH) — but have you been able to figure out which song(s) it sounds like? Fans have, and they're two of the best songs out there: "Where Is My Mind" by The Pixies and "Teenage Dirtbag" by Wheetus. We already know our girl likes punk and emo music, so it's completely unshocking that these songs may have been in the back of her mind while writing this song.
"Wood" — "I Want You Back" by The Jackson 5
I would be shocked if there was anyone in the world who didn't know "I Want You Back" by The Jackson 5. It's an absolute banger, and for Taylor to use a song that sounds like it to represent her relationship with Travis Kelce really shows how classic and iconic those two are together. (I'm not crying, you are!)
"CANCELLED!" — "Yellow Flicker Beat" by Lorde
Lorde is a part of Taylor's O.G. squad from the 2010s days of yore, so I'm not shocked she would potentially be influenced by an artist she's loved and respected for so long. And how cool is it that both of these songwriters have tracks for the Hunger Games franchise? I could definitely see where these line up!
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