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lanternburning19 · 4 years

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My (Romantic) Interpretation of Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince

First, we should introduce the characters of the story.

Miss Americana: Taylor. From the very beginning of her career, Taylor was dubbed America's Sweetheart and was branded to be a role model. She avoided talking about sex, showing off her body, and was not shown drinking or partying. She loved (and still loves) being a role model. She is kind, polite, charismatic and has an air of dignity about her. She also is not shy about her love for her country. Her 4th of July parties were highly publicized and has been a big advocate for exercising the right to vote ever since 2008. She is Miss Americana.

But then 2016 happened. And her reputation did a 180. She went from the friendly girl next door to the calculative mean girl. People were routing for her career to die. She went from America's Sweetheart to America's Most Hated.

The Heartbreak Prince: Joe. Rumors say that Joe used to be a huge playboy and never had a serious relationship until Taylor. This is echoed in Taylor's lyrics.

"Maybe you ran with the wolves and refused to settle down"

"Do the girls back home touch you like I do?"

"I don't want to be just another ex-love you don't want to see"

It's interesting to me that Joe gets the royal title of "Prince" but Taylor is just "Miss". This alludes to Joe being British and being under a representative monarchy government, where America is not.

Now into the story:

You know I adore you

The song starts out with a declaration of Taylor's love. This ties in with the theme of the Lover album.

Crazier for you

Than I was at sixteen

Lost in a film scene

I believe this is referring to when Taylor first started her career. She was 16 when her first single dropped. While she wasn't in the acting business, she was still in the world of celebrity. Realizing her dreams with her first single and album doing well, she must've felt as if she was walking a cloud, or "lost in a film scene".

Waving homecoming queens

Marching band playing

These lines do two things at once for me. First, they remind me of the You Belong With Me music video in which Taylor plays a high schooler in marching band. Second, these lines evoke a feeling of victory. Homecoming queens usually wave to the student body after being crowned. Marching bands strike up when their team scores. YBWM was a huge hit for Taylor early in her career, and continuing from the previous lines, her early successes probably made her feel victorious.

I'm lost in the lights

The very last line of the first verse takes a sudden turn. The way Taylor sings this is very different from how she sings "lost in a film scene". When she sings "I'm lost in the lights" she sounds breathless and scared. She is no longer feeling the joy of being crowned homecoming queen or the excitement of your team earning a touchdown. She's not lost in the wonderment of it all, she's lost and scared. She got lost in the fame.

American glory

Faded before me

In this verse, we learn that Taylor is scared because her shining moments, her victories, her happiness is slipping away from her. She did not purposely push it away. It faded like a ghost, slipped out of her grasp.

It is interesting that Taylor links homecoming and football games to "American glory". While homecoming may seem like a tradition, it is distinctly an American high school thing.

Now I'm feeling hopeless

Ripped up my prom dress

Running through rose thorns

This is imagery of Taylor wearing a prom dress, and this immediately takes me back to earlier in her career when she used to wear princess-y dresses on tour. She also wore a prom dress in the YBWM music video. And that very same dress was repurposed for the Fearless Tour's performance of Love Story (calling back to the Lover theme).

Taylor ripped up her prom dress. How is unclear to me, because of the lack of punctuation in song lyrics. Is it "Ripped up my prom dress. Running through rose thorns..." Or is it "Ripped up my prom dress running through rose thorns". Did she purposely rip it herself or did it get accidentally torn by the roses?

If she ripped it up herself, it could be symbolic of her wanting to distance herself from the music business, from the fame, from the plastic Party-City homecoming queen crowns. But I don't think that's the case.

It is more likely the dress was ripped unintentionally. The rose thorns seems to be a call back to the line "Rose garden filled with thorns" in Blank Space. This line means that nothing is as it seems. What looks nice and pretty can actually hurt you. The life of celebrity looked pretty to Taylor at first. She wanted to be "lost in the film scene" with all the glory that a homecoming football game brings. But the industry ended up hurting her.

I am, of course, talking about 2016 when Taylor's reputation went from America's Sweetheart to a "snake". She was on top of the world with a hugely successful album and world tour, but became overexposed because of that success. Suddenly, people who posed as her "squad" on the red carpet started turning against her. Ex-friends and ex-lovers who usually kept to themselves started bashing Taylor all over social media. Longtime fans who had bought every album couldn't stop saying bad things about her. Her social media accounts were flooded with hate comments. The media thrived off of using her downfall as a headline.

I saw the score board

And ran for my life

Shortly after this chaos started, Taylor took a step back from the spotlight. She stopped posting of social media, releasing new music, doing interviews, attending award shows. She disappeared.

No cameras catch my pageant smile

With her avoiding the media, the paparazzi couldn't take new pictures of her "pageant" or fake smile.

I counted days

I counted miles

To see you there

It's been a long time coming but

It's you and me

That's my whole world

The "you" here is the Heartbreak Prince, or her love. Taylor went through many hard days before she was able to find love.

They whisper in the hallway "she's a bad, bad girl"

This line evokes an image of teenagers gossiping in a high school hallway. So we're back to the high school theme.

The "bad girl" is referencing Taylor's bad reputation that was mentioned earlier. But it also could be referencing her dating life. Taylor was mocked for years for having a rocky dating life. People would joke that men should stay away from Taylor. Taylor is comparing people who spread rumors to immature teenagers.

The whole school is rolling fake dice

The "school" is Hollywood. People obsessed with fame are fake.

You play stupid games

You win stupid prizes

The students at this metaphorical school are focused on the wrong thing. They risk cheating (fake dice) to win a game that in the end, doesn't yield you a fulfilling prize.

It's you and me

There's nothing like this

Miss Americana and The Heartbreak Prince

But Taylor isn't focused on those "little games" (Look What You Made Me Do) anymore. She's focused on someone that really matters to her.

It's so sad

We paint the town blue

Instead of painting the town red in celebration, they paint the town blue. This line reminds me of how Taylor and Joe painted Patrick's room blue together.

Voted most likely to run away with you

To me, this line is referring to how Taylor has jetted off to different parts of the world to be with Joe.

My team is losing

Battered and bruising

I see the high fives

Between the bad guys

Again, we get another visual of a high school football game. Taylor's team is down and others are celebrating her defeat. This reminds me of the Taylor Swift is Over Party, where people were celebrating the end of her career.

Leave with my head hung

You are the only one

Who seems to care

With the whole world seemingly against Taylor, it must've been a relief to meet someone who actually cared about her feelings.

American stories

Burning before me

This feels to me like a reference to Fahrenheit 451, which is about a dystopian society and the effects of mass media. Miss Americana has crumbled. Her glory days have been burned to the ground without any hope of recovery. Mass media and social media played a part in this.

Instead of just repeating "American glory" Taylor chooses to use "American stories" instead. Perhaps it's because no one wanted to believe her side of the story of things. Her truth was ignored.

I'm feeling helpless

The damsels are distressed

If boys will be boys

Then where are the wise men

Darling, I'm scared

The "damsels in distress" reference flows nicely after the mention of stories. Taylor is feeling like a damsel in distress, but no one is coming to save her.

"Boys will be boys" is an expression often said when a young boy acts reckless to excuse their behavior. Perhaps Taylor is waiting for her knight in shining armor, but he has abandoned her to go do something else. Everyone is excusing his behavior but blaming Taylor.

"If boys will be boys, then where are the wise men?" Is one of my favorite lines Taylor's ever written. If men are all off doing stupid shit, then who's the smart one around here? Where are all the men when it's their time to save the damsel in distress?

No cameras catch

My muffled cries

I counted days

I counted miles

To see you there

This could be referring to a long distance relationship. Miss Americana is going through some hard times, as described in the last 2 verses. But her Prince is not there to comfort her. So she has to hold out for a while.

And now the storm is coming but

It's you and me...

There are much more difficulties that lie ahead of the couple. I love how the last word of the verse is "but". and then it leads in to the romantic chorus. It's going to be hard, BUT, we have each other.

And I don't want you to go

I don't really wanna fight

Because nobody's gonna win

The last words of these lines are a standard cheer for high school football teams. The cheerleaders will yell "Go! Fight! Win!" to encourage the team.

Fighting is mentioned a few times in Lover, in songs like Afterglow, ME!, and The Archer. But in each song, Taylor sings about fighting with remorse. She doesn't want to fight with her loved ones or turn against them. Nobody's going to win in the end of the fight because they'll both be without each other.

And I'll never let you go

Because I know this is a fight

That someday we're gonna win

The last part of the bridge keeps the "Go! Fight! Win!" motif but changed the lyrics so that instead of fighting against each other, it's about fighting for each other. They might face some hardships but they'll be alright if they stick together. This song is an encouragement of their relationship.

In the end, Miss Americana became America's Most Hated and The Heartbreak Prince settled down with someone to love.

#taylor Swift #miss americana #miss americana and the heartbreak prince #maathp #lover #taylor swift lyrics

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