alchemizing a new american dream
did you know a rumor among immigrants in the 1800s was that American streets were paved with gold? whether they meant it literally or it was just a shared expression, the phrase represents this idea that the nation was filled with endless hopes and dreams, opportunities, a chance at a better life. but this dream is one that has also been tied to over-idealizing material wealth.
the original wizard of oz by l. frank baum was published at the end of the Gilded Age, which was an era of hyperinflated artifice and material wealth that helped create the conditions for the great depression. economic catastrophe. the oz book is thought to be an allegory for this, with the yellow brick road representing the gold standard of currency that was used at that time, the original silver shoes representing the populist ideal to bring back a silver standard, and the green of oz representing fiat currency. but ultimately all of these things and oz itself are just artifice, and in the same way, the american dream has always been a false ideal and illusion—one that we are watching shatter and crumble around us in real time.
taylor has referred to the american dream either by name or allusion frequently. here are some notable examples:
“Now pretty baby, I’m running back home to you…to the house where you still wait up and that porch light gleams, to the one who says I’m the girl of his American dreams. And no matter what I’ve done it wouldn’t matter anyway, ain’t no way I’m gonna screw up now that I know what’s at stake here…”
“Salute to me, I’m your American queen [original lyrics: salute to me like the American Dream] and we rule the kingdom inside my room…King of my heart, body and soul…And all at once, you’re all I want, I’ll never let you go….”
these are her only two songs that directly invoke the phrase “american dream” (though in KOMH it’s in the original lyrics but it still counts imo) but it’s important to know it’s not THE american dream. in KOMH she’s comparing herself to her muse’s version of the american dream. the same is true in FOTS. the one of his american dreams. FOTS and KOMH represent taylor’s ideal of her authentic american dream, which subverts the concept of the american dream = material wealth. KOMH is about her giving up “fancy stuff” for true spiritual wealth, and that’s what’s she’s running home to.
• Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince:
“No cameras catch my pageant smile…And ran for my life…voted most likely to run away with you. And I don’t want you to go, I don’t really wanna fight, cause nobody’s gonna win, I think you should come home…And I’ll never let you go cause I know this is a fight that someday we’re gonna win, just thought you should know.”
• Midnight Rain / High Infidelity
“My town was a wasteland…Full of cages, full of fences, pageant queens and big pretenders, but for some, it was paradise. like a postcard…pcture perfect, shiny family, holiday, peppermint candy”
“Your picket fence is sharp as knives, I was dancing around, dancing around it”
these three songs depict taylor’s struggles with the mainstream/culturally dominant ideal of the american dream and how it feels like a battle, a fight for her life, and ultimately something she decides she has to leave behind. these three songs also are all examples of the dynamic of duality that is present in much of her recent work: brand taylor vs real taylor, miss americana and the heartbreak prince, and they have to come together again for her new american dynasty to begin. MAATHP always sort of sounded like a duet in how she sings it, like the person calling her to come home is the heartbreak prince, and the person who ran for her life and was scared but won’t ever let the other go because she knows one day they’ll win is miss americana. so when miss americana comes home, she’s coming home to the heartbreak prince’s american dreams. midnight rain is another clear example of her duality bc it has taylor literally singing in two pitches, having jack warp her voice to sound masculine. and high infidelity seems like it addresses two different factions of her fanbase, and the regret caused by her “bending the truth” too far.
• lyrical connections: “i’ll never let you go” in both KOMH and MAATHP and “pageant (queens)” in both MAATHP and high infidelity
• The Last Great American Dynasty
this song fully subverts the over-romanticized ideals of the american dream. what’s more of an american dream than an american dynasty? but rebekah rebukes it—she doesn’t just reject it. she ruins it. she ruins everything, and she has a marvelous time while she does it, being the loudest woman the town has ever seen. obviously in the end, taylor becomes rebekah. she identifies with her gleeful destruction of sacred, repressive institutions, expectations, traditions, and standards.
then along comes the tayvis circus. the comparison makes itself on a daily basis with no effort; i constantly see tweets describing the two of them as “american royalty.” the persona that taylor takes on in the context of this stunt represents the epitome of “Miss Americana” the idealized american dream. that’s why so many gaylors were averse to the tayvis spectacle from the start—we knew the kind of discourse it would encourage, and it’s exactly the kind of discourse you would expect from a narrative that encouraged returning to “comforting traditional american values.”
but taylor is rebekah. taylor is going to have a marvelous time ruining everything, too. she’s going to have a marvelous time tearing down their ideal of the last great american dynasty. those are her stakes! and she warned us all, so many times:
after taylor removed TLGAD from the set, she played it exactly twice in the surprise song set. once to announce she is running, leaving behind the traditional image of the american dream that doesn’t suit her, and begging her fans to still want her when she’s not their shining mirrorball anymore;
and once to reclaim her vision for the american dream and declare her choice, to rebuild her american dynasty, and to explain why she had to do what she did. and that she doesn’t regret it. it just felt so good (ruining everything).
and the show immediately after the first time she sang TLGAD with Run, she played these:
laying out her vision of what her (well technically his but he is the heartbreak prince who is also taylor so) american dream looks like, of what exactly she’s running back home to. and it’s… gay as fuck. girl, you’re running back home to emily dickinson’s fuckass stone ivy cottage to be with your lesbian lover and they can call it what they want bc no one knows you like yourself? i know that’s right.
a few more crazy little details that must be documented:
• 7/24/24: There's a chain 'round your throat, piece of paper where I wrote, "I'll wait for you". There's a key on the chain, there's a picture in a frame. Take it with you and run, run from the law, darling, let's run, run from it all.
• 7/27/24 (the next show): “and he keeps the picture of you in his office downtown, and you understand now why they lost their minds and fought the wars. now, pretty baby, I'm running back home to you, true love…I'm running to the house where you still wait up, and that porch light gleams. // I want to wear his initial on a chain 'round my neck, chain 'round my neck, not because he owns me, but 'cause he really knows me, which is more than they could say, I. I recall late November, holding my breath, slowly I said, "You don't need to save me. But would you run away with me?" Yes. So yeah, it's a fire, it's a goddamn blaze in the dark, and you started it. You started it. So yeah, it's a war, it's the goddamn fight of my life, and you started it.
• the first time she played TLGAD was with Run, a song that mentions a key on a chain. the second time she played it was in Ours x TLGAD, and she had one of her famous glitches. she started to play and then stopped and said, “that’s the wrong key Um, so wish me more luck than that.”
• the day after the first time she played TLGAD with Run, she played FOTS x This Love and ivy x CIWYW. before she sang ivy, she hit the note off-key (it sounded super on purpose), then said “well. sometimes you just don’t hit the right note, do you?”
• the first “great american dynasty” is the vision of the american dream she’s running from bc it’s “the wrong key,” the wrong note. she’s running back home to her own vision of the american dream, using performance art to physically represent her intentionality in making the different choice this time, in hitting the right note. and this love is ours, so you can call it what you want. it’s not theirs to speculate if it’s wrong 💞🌈 and they can’t take what’s ours
dededos
romaincrisis
kianamaiart
blakekathryn
stormborns
