WENLEI MA: Taylor Swift is a master at milking her fans for all they’ve got

Taylor Swift said it herself: “You need to calm down.”

No one in the history of the world has ever taken that on board when they’re in the middle of something, whether it’s a manic episode, a perfectly reasoned argument or anywhere in between.

Sure, it’s counterintuitive advice, but Swift may want to just pause and have a little breather.

Another day and another tranche of Swiftiness. Today, it’s all the number one spots her 12th studio album, The Life of a Showgirl, has taken in the week and a half since release.

More than that, it’s the news that she will debut a six-episode docuseries on Disney+ in December, chronicling the behind-the-scenes and cultural impact of her multi-billion dollar Eras tour.

There will also be a second release of the Eras concert movie, now with The Tortured Poets Department setlist added. This version was filmed in Vancouver, and was the very last date on her 18-month global extravaganza.

Because apparently what the world needs more of is Taylor Swift? It’s really not.

Perhaps the words Swift and overexposed should never be in the same sentence, because her most ardent fans, and they are legion, have an insatiable appetite for every sliver of nothing related to their pop queen.

Details of her sourdough starter? Yes! That she once wore the colour orange two years ago must be her telegraphing the aesthetic palette of The Life of a Showgirl? Well, obviously, we guess?

Like, what was the fuss over the number 12? Is that really an easter egg? So, she announced her 12th album on the 12th of August at 12.12, and it has 12 tracks. OK, but is there deeper meaning behind the number 12? Why does it actually matter?

No matter how frivolous or inconsequential, they want to know everything.

Swift is a mastermind at keeping her fans engaged and frothing, but how much can you milk it?

Is a $US1.6 billion fortune, according to Forbes, not enough? Did you have to exploit your fans’ unquestioning devotion to make them pay to watch some DVD extras?

There are religious cults that have asked for less.

Taylor Swift: Release Party of a Showgirl was some of the most cynical marketing nonsense ever to come out of the entertainment industry, and, uh, that’s saying a lot when it comes to show business.

Billed as a “launch event”, the 89-minute “movie” consisted of a video clip, played twice, some behind-the-scenes musings about her songs and some lyric videos that wouldn’t pass muster at a sticky karaoke joint with overpriced soju.

This is stuff you should be throwing on YouTube for free, not an opportunity to amass another $US25 million (the global box office for the three-day limited run was over $US50 million and Swift bypasses traditional studios for distribution, so keeps 52 per cent of ticket sales).

Of course, whoever rocked up to those cinema sessions had free will, though you have to feel bad for the parents of kids forced to supervise (and pay) for the honour. And, sometimes it’s hard to argue against anything that got more bums on theatre seats, but what dross.

On the one hand, you have to respect the hustle and Swift’s business acumen, and there’s no arguing that she has an impressive work ethic.

On the other, there’s a limit to how much you demand of your fans before its starts to be very distasteful.

All those vinyl versions of the same record but in different colours? It’s one thing when it’s, for example, being released by a smaller Australian band such King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, and altogether different when you’re the biggest recording artist in the world with, what was the figure again, oh yeah, $US1.6 billion.

Re-releasing them to coincide with your rivals’ new efforts, thereby keeping them out of the number one spot on the charts? Tacky.

Giving your first (very stage-managed and unchallenging) longform media interview in yonks to your fiancé, and therefore driving millions of new listeners to his sports podcast? Genius cross-promotion or just gross?

That supposed diss track, “Actually Romantic”, against Charli XCX, sledging a fellow artist by misreading her song about her own insecurities? Says more about Swift than Charli.

The Atlantic’s Spencer Kornhaber has termed this moment Swift’s burnout era, reflecting the divided reaction to The Life of a Showgirl, an album with mostly mediocre songs recorded while she was in the middle of the Eras tour.

Perhaps she thought she was responding to demand from a segment of the fandom, or perhaps she really doesn’t know how to chill out. But what we’re seeing is an artist constantly chasing external validation – and riches.

Now, everyone has to be subjected to another version of the Eras concert tour plus the six episodes of the docuseries about an event that that is both too soon (it’s still seared into our collective memory) and so long ago (we’ve also moved on).

Give people more time and distance from it.

Next week is the release of Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere, a biopic that captures the Boss’s emotional journey and depression while writing his seminal album Nebraska in 1982.

If Swift is constantly on the hamster wheel to ensure she is always the most culturally dominant force at any given moment, how will anyone make a movie about her in four decades’ time?

You know who hasn’t released a new album in almost a decade, and is still the epitome of cool? Rihanna. Take note.

Swift doesn’t need the money and she shouldn’t need more adoration. She’s not the only one burnt out, we are too.

Taylor Swift, girl, you need to just stop.