Did Taylor Swift Sample The Jonas Brothers On Showgirl? Here's The Drama

There’s a lot to dissect about the title track on Taylor Swift’s new album The Life of a Showgirl. The Sabrina Carpenter feature seems to officially usher in the new supreme Taydaughter, and the lyrics about a dancer named Kitty are a sweet nod to Swift’s mom. But its the chord progression that’s really got fans divided. The song has received a lot of comparisons to the Jonas Brothers’ 2019 single “Cool,” drudging up some drama from Swift’s past about sampling and royalties. So, is “The Life of a Showgirl” really a sample, and interpolation, or not? Here’s the deal.

One The Life of a Showgirl released, fans immediately picked up on the similarities between the title track and “Cool,” with TikToks layering the two songs going viral. It is easy to hear why the songs are being compared — both choruses use the same syncopation and musical keys that build in the same way with the same tempo.

On top of that, Swift’s fans know that she has a storied history with the Jonas Brothers. She was close with the band in 2008, even credited her double date with Selena Gomez and Nick Jonas as what sparked her long-lasting friendship with Gomez. Swift famously dated Joe Jonas in 2008, before an even more infamous breakup over the phone.

So, was Swift tapping into one of her ex’s songs when creating “The Life of a Showgirl?” While it may sound like that to the casual listeners, music experts seem to disagree about the song’s similarities to “Cool.”

“I would describe them as objectively dissimilar,” forensic musicologist Dr. Joe Bennett told Rolling Stone when asked about the choruses. “It’s easily possible that two separate songwriting teams could have arrived at these melodic choices independently of each other. Most of the notes are based on the first three pitches of the major scale – literally, do-re-mi. Melodic coincidences happen.”

And although he didn’t mention Swift or the Jonas Brothers by name, Charlie Puth also seemed to shut down interpolation claims in a very aptly timed TikTok video. He explained why most soundalike songs aren’t really interpolations in a video posted a few days after The Life of a Showgirl’s release, defining a “four-note threshold” that differentiates “Life of a Showgirl” and “Cool.”

It sounds like that Tortured Poets Department shoutout has really drawn Puth into all the Swiftie discourse.