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Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince
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Wikipedia article
{{Infobox song
| name = Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince
| artist = Taylor Swift
| album = Lover
| released =
| studio =
* Golden Age (Los Angeles)
* Golden Age West (Auckland)
| genre = Synth-pop
| length = 3:53
| label = Republic
| writer =
* Taylor Swift
* Joel Little
| producer =
* Joel Little
* Taylor Swift
| tracks =
| misc =
| type = song
}}
"'Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince'" is a song by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, taken from her seventh studio album 'Lover' (2019). She wrote the song a few months after the 2018 U.S. midterm elections to capture her disillusionment with the American political climate. Produced by Swift and co-writer Joel Little, "Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince" is an atmospheric gloomy synth-pop song with marching band-styled percussion and background cheerleading shouts. Its lyrics use high school imagery to depict the protagonist's struggles navigating through a flawed system, with allusions to a troubled love story.
Most music critics praised the track's production, poetic lyricism, and layered messages, but a few were unimpressed with Swift's efforts to write a political song. Some journalists noted "Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince" as 'Lover' most political song and that it represented Swift's decision to become more socially engaged, departing from her previous apolitical stance. After 'Lover' was released, the song charted on the singles charts in Australia, Canada, Scotland, and Singapore. In the United States, it peaked at number 49 on the 'Billboard' Hot 100. Its title is the namesake to Swift's 2020 documentary film, 'Miss Americana'.
Background and production
American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift's seventh studio album, 'Lover', was released through Republic Records on August 23, 2019; it was her first album after she ended her 12-year contract with Big Machine Records. Recorded after Swift finished her Reputation Stadium Tour in November 2018, 'Lover' was inspired by her recalibrated personal life after the controversies leading up to her sixth studio album, 'Reputation' (2017). The love she received from fans despite her tarnished "America's Sweetheart" reputation in the press, which "[assigned] humanity to her life", inspired her to embrace positivity and vulnerability. 'Lover' predominantly consists of open-hearted love songs celebrating the ups and downs of love and represents her mature understanding of a sustainable relationship, with a bright and atmospheric sound incorporating 1980s-influenced pop rock and electropop.
A few 'Lover' songs reflected Swift's evolved perception of contemporary American politics. She had been warned against getting involved in politics by her record label since she started out as a country music singer in 2006, and did not publicly endorse any candidate for the 2016 U.S. presidential election. After witnessing the political events affecting the rights of certain people, she became disillusioned with the contemporary American political climate and decided to abandon her previous apolitical stance. In the 2018 U.S. midterm elections, she endorsed Democrat candidates for her home state of Tennesseeher first time publicly voicing her political opinion. The most explicitly political song on the album is "Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince", which she wrote a few months after the midterm elections. Swift wrote and produced the track with New Zealand producer Joel Little, who recorded it at Golden Age Studio in Los Angeles and Golden Age West Studio in Auckland. The song was mixed by Serban Ghenea, assisted by John Hanes, at MixStar Studios in Virginia Beach.
Music and lyrical interpretation
"Miss Americana" is an atmospheric gloomy synth-pop song. It features a slow-burning production with a refrain backed by marching band-styled percussion and syncopated piano tunes. Reflecting Swift's political disillusionment, "Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince" has lyrics using high school imagery to critique the contemporary American political climate. In the September 2019 issue for 'Rolling Stone', Swift said she thought the high school imagery was an appropriate metaphor because she found the social events of a traditional American high school could alienate certain people, similar to "our political landscape ... like we need to huddle up under the bleachers and figure out a plan to make things better".
In the melancholic ambient opening, Swift sings about her disenchantment, imagining herself with her "pageant smile" on a homecoming: "American glory faded before me / Now I'm feeling hopeless, ripped up my prom dress / Running through rose thorns, I saw the scoreboard / And ran for my life." As the song progresses, she sings about how depressed she is witnessing "my team is losing / Battered and bruising / I see the high fives / Between the bad guys." The refrain is more upbeat and alludes to a troubled love story, with Swift singing "It's you and me, there's nothing like this / Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince / We're so sad, we paint the town blue / Voted most likely to run away with you," over cheerleading-styled background vocals shouting "Go! Fight! Win!"
Music critics noted that compared to the bright-eyed high school imagery on Swift's earlier songs about teenage experiences like "Love Story" (2008) or "You Belong with Me" (2008), the high school imagery on "Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince" is darker and represents the parallel between the flawed high school and the flawed political system. In 'Variety', Chris Willman wrote that the line "The damsels are depressed" depicts how women are at a disadvantage in this political climate, and the line "They whisper in the hallway, 'She's a bad, bad girl' " alludes to Swift's hesitation to endorse Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election for fears of being seen as "another Hillary-loving Hollywood witch". The troubled love story, in the views of Alexis Petridis from 'The Guardian', reflects not only Swift's familiar trope of two young lovers vowing to leave their small town together, but also the political climate under the presidency of Donald Trump. As noted by Lindsay Zoladz from 'The New York Times', the track also refers to sexual violence through the lyric, "Boys will be boys then, where are the wise men?"
Reception and commentary
"Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince" received acclaim from music critics, who called it a standout on the album and praised the political undertones of its lyrics. Will Gottsegen from 'Spin' considered "Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince" to be a song that encapsulates both the cheerful, bright tones of Swift's releases in her early career, and the dark tones on 'Lover's preceding studio album 'Reputation' (2017). Gottsegen wrote that the song exemplifies the "ecstatic and free" attitude of 'Lover' overall, but is still affected by the media drama surrounding Swift's personal life around the 'Reputation' era, praising it as the album's highlight for being a "conceptual evolution, and a love story for increasingly precarious times." 'Time's Dana Schwartz said that the song contains Swift's "most poetic lyricism", while Alexis Petridis from 'The Guardian' lauded the track for effectively conveying Swift's political message, compared to other pop artists' desperate attempt at being "woke". Rob Sheffield of 'Rolling Stone' said the song is a "political allegorylooking at the whole country as one big high school where the damsels are depressed, and the mean cheerleaders leer at bad, bad girls."
In an op-ed for 'Teen Vogue', Claire Dodson wrote that "Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince" successfully captures the disappointment at American politics, and likened the song's theme to the content of 'Euphoria', a contemporaneous drama series dealing with issues in contemporary America such as body insecurity, transphobia, and drug addiction. Writing for 'Variety', Chris William felt that "Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince" would be a great "protest song" because, in his opinion, the song effectively conveys Swift's deep sorrow and disappointment towards American politics, which is rare among other protest songs where "anger feels like a lifetime condition, not something that's been arrived at as the culmination of a long character arc." William added that "songs about the United States as a creeping dystopia tend not to be very interesting, or listenable; a song about the U.S. of 2019 as a homecoming-game horror movie is something else". The song's atmospheric, melancholic production received comparisons to works by Halsey and Lana Del Rey. 'Slant Magazine' named it the nineteenth-best track of 2019. A few critics were unimpressed with Swift's efforts to write a political song.
In a 2022 retrospective, 'The New York Times' critic Lindsy Zoladz felt the high-school imagery of "Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince" might undermine adult listeners on a superficial listen, but asserted the song has a "dark vision" that addresses cruelty, depression, and sexual violence ("Boys will be boys then, where are the wise men?") under a high-school camouflage, and addresses those topics more directly than any of the songs Swift wrote as a teenager. Zoladz added that the song's title "alludes to a larger world outside the high school walls, and the greater systemic forces that keep such patterns repeating well into adulthood."
Commercial performance
Upon the release of its parent album, "Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince" debuted and peaked at number 49 on the US 'Billboard' Hot 100, simultaneously charting with the other seventeen tracks of 'Lover'. It also entered the official charts in Australia, Canada and Scotland.
'Miss Americana'
"Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince" inspired the title of Swift's 2020 Netflix documentary, 'Miss Americana', directed by Lana Wilson, that follows Swift's life and career over several years. The song was used in the documentary's trailer.
Credits and personnel
Credits adapted from Tidal
* Taylor Swift vocals, songwriting, producing
* Joel Little producing, songwriting, drum programming, keyboards, recording engineer
* John Hanes mix engineering
* Serban Ghenea mixing
Charts
Notes
References
Category:2019 songs
Category:Taylor Swift songs
Category:American synth-pop songs
Category:Songs written by Taylor Swift
Category:Songs written by Joel Little
Category:Song recordings produced by Taylor Swift
Category:Song recordings produced by Joel Little
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