champagne problems
The definition of “champagne problems” is that this expression is used to refer to a problem that’s insignificant… worthless, compared to so many other worse situations (such as world hunger, wars, a pandemic).
My view of this song is that Taylor used problems she experienced involving marriages that, at first, seemed to have ended her world. But even though they were troubled moments, she realized after a while that they were not so bad compared to so many other problems in life.
The song portrays 3 times that Taylor was personally involved in thing relative to weddings. 1) The wedding blow that KK had to participate in (white letters); 2) Once Tay refused a marriage proposal (red letters); 3) Confirmation that Taylor and Karlie are married (yellow letters).
That’s what happened after Karlie told Taylor personally about the marriage maneuver. What is obvious, at first, must have triggered a HUGE fight between them.
This is Taylor’s reaction after the news. She seems to have been shocked and then they fought. Tay returned her engagement/wedding ring to Kar. And apparently, after KK left for some other home their, when Tay was calmer, she seems to have realized that she wasn’t the only one who was suffering from what was going to happen, and Taylor kind of regretted having “dropped” Karlie’s hand at a time that must have been one of the most distressing in her life (can you imagine how terrifying it must have been for her? Probably KK must have been “cornered” to participate in this scam and thought that because of this, she would lose her fiancee/wife). Taylor then realized that, in the grand scheme of things in the world, this was nothing more of a “champagne problems” compared to so many other things that they, or even people close to them, have already gone through in life.
Karlie told the family everything that happened, the future wedding coup that she would have to do, the fight with Taylor and nobody was happy with what would happen. I think Kaptain Kimby got drunk with sadness that the girls were in that situation.
Taylor is recalling an ex-girlfriend’s proposal that she once refused. And talking about the reaction of people close to this ex who commented that Tay’s refusal was nothing big. Just a silly “champagne problem”.
I don’t know if you capture that same vibe that I do, but the first times I heard this excerpt, it seems that the person who is proposing marriage is someone who is always surrounded by friends, someone who is the center of attention of the group, a person popular. It also seems that this ex-girlfriend took it for granted that Taylor would accept her engagement proposal. And after being refused, the girl wanted to know why Taylor had said “no”, but Tay did not know the reason for her negative response to this proposal. Taylor just knew it was “no”.
This passage is the most interesting and revealing to me.
“Midas touch” is an expression used to refer to someone who can make something prosper.
Chevy is short for Chevrolet, the famous car brand. Do you know what awards Chevrolet sponsored in 2017 and even had a commercial with Luke Bryan? Link
The 51st CMA Awards. The one in which KK participated and presented the music award of the year, which went to TS’s “Better Man”. That is, Taylor thinks she only won that prize, because KK was presenting and brought her good luck. And I believe that Tay put this moment here, to try to show us, when more or less this fight because the wedding blow happened. Sometime in 2017. OMG! That woman’s mind… 🤯;
Taylor reveals how her insecurities were on edge when she made a joke that she was crazy. Because after so many people said that to her, and other bad things, Tay believed them for a while (pre reputation period);
She also talks about how loyal and true their friends are, and that, from that moment on, they could no longer say “our friends” (feud’s public narrative was in progress) and soon these friends will be decorating the corridors (the friends will participate in the fake wedding to try to give credibility to the coup) that they’ve already crossed;
THEY’RE MARRIED!; 🥰♥️🥰
Taylor mentions the two stunts, and how she was never ready for that to happen, despite knowing that this blow was coming;
Once again, Tay remembers the refused marriage proposal, now justifying to the ex that sometimes, all you know is that you need to say “no”. Until you meet the right person who will make the proposal;
Taylor remembers again that she was called crazy for having refused the proposal and consoles her ex-girlfriend, saying that the ex will find the real thing, from experience.
Taylor reassures that there’s still hope for her ex to find the one, her true love. That special person that will be there to collect/mend your “pieces” when you’re broken. Just as Taylor found Karlie. And when that person arrives, Tay’s refusal will just be “champagne problems” in ex’s life.
In other words, the main theme of the song, talks about how, at certain times in our life, there’re situations that seem to be the worst thing that has ever happened to us, or that is going to happen to us, but then you realize that it was a “champagne problems” compared to so many other worst realities in the world, such as the pandemic we’re experiencing, for example. And Kaylor is still together.
👸🏼♥️☀️
P.S.: I only came to the conclusion that this disagreement occurred in 2017, after I tried to think of a time when Taylor was using a “flannel cure” + a moment of prosperity that occurred in November + and that Kar was present (since Midas is associated to gold, and the gold color is attributed to Karlie). It was then that I remembered the video of Tay watching Kar giving a CMA award for “Better Man”.
And despite this disagreement, because of the marriage scam, it seems to be, and maybe it’s classified by the girls as, the worst fight of their relationship, I think that they never ended it. I think they probably fought for a few days. But they didn’t go to the extreme of finishing their relationship.
As soon as I started peeking at the fandom in 2014, at times, some Kaylor blogs would comment more frequently on questions regarding Taylor’s possible ex girlfriends, or direct people to blogs that specifically talked about the subject or a certain “ship”. I confess that I was never interested in knowing about the subject and, therefore, I never entered these blogs to learn more.
So, about the identity of the ex-girlfriend who had her marriage proposal rejected by Taylor, I believe it’s Dianna Agron.
Because someone commented to me about it once (in person), and I remember reading it a few times, on a kaylor blog, that the Swiftgrons (is that how you write it?) believed that after many comings and goings in their troubled relationship (apparently toxic), and full of betrayals by Dianna (I’m not sure about that), at a time when they were separated, Dianna in a final attempt of Taylor getting back with her, proposed to Tay. Which of course, now seems to have been confirmed that such an event actually happened through the letters of “champagne problems”, and Taylor refused DA’s proposal. As I said before, I’m not sure if this is true or not, because I never tried to confirm what I heard and read a few times. But perhaps someone who knows more aboutthis whether this can confirm if my assumption is real or not, in the comments.
Argumentative, antithetical Dream Girl
FINALLY I THOUGHT IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN!!! also i hope tree will shut down the media and that taylor is not gonna read those stupid articles
One of Taylor’s best songs ever is also one of her gayest: “New Romantics” employs some of her most brilliant lyrical tricks to construct a narrative that’s clever, moving, and, for lack of a better phrase, hella hella gay. First, let’s talk about the structure of the lyrics: The verses all end in couplets (ABABCC rhyme structure as opposed to the pre-chorus and chorus, which are both ABAB) – in poetry, you use a couplet to draw attention to something, to emphasize a point. Let’s see what she has to say: We’re all bored We’re all so tired of everything We wait for Trains that just aren’t coming
When Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone named this the second best song of 2014, he called boredom “the least Tay of emotions.” But if this is a song about breaking the cycle of bearding – as Taylor did in 2014 – this verse sets up the dreary monotony of being in the closet, pretending to be someone you’re not. She brings the point home in the couplet:
We show off our different scarlet letters Trust me, mine is better
What’s Tay’s scarlet letter? Her love ‘em and leave ‘em inability to keep a man? No – that’s the character she parodies in “Blank Space.” This song is about her real scarlet letter, the one we don’t know about: her queerness and all the lies that come with it. Let’s skip ahead to the third verse to see why:
We’re all here The lights and boys are blinding We hang back It’s all in the timing
Something is already off here: The rhyme structure is broken. Instead of the perfect ABABCC of every other verse, verse 3 gives us ABCBDD. This could just be sloppy writing, but that’s not Taylor – this verse is meant to undermine our sense of stability in the song, to prick up our ears. This works in the context of the lyrics – Taylor being blinded by the boys and lights (presumably media attention/camera flashes?) – but it also serves to make us pay close attention to her next couplet:
It’s poker, he can’t see it in my face But I’m about to play my Ace
What’s her Ace? Her scarlet letter, of course – her bright red A, the Ace of Hearts. And she’s about to tell us exactly what it is:
We need love But all we want is danger We team up Then switch sides like a record changer
“We need love, but all we want is danger” can read like she wants danger instead of love, but I don’t think that’s what’s happening here. What if we read the line like this instead: “We need love, but everything we want is dangerous.” That fits thematically with Taylor’s other work in songs like “Treacherous” and “Style,” and it also makes sense in the context of the next line. What exactly does it mean to “switch sides like record changer”? What even is a record changer? There’s a vague allusion to turning over a record on a turntable here, but Taylor is making up words because she’s telling us something else: that she’s teaming up with someone to change the record about her dangerous love life. And “record” here is a triple meaning – it also alludes to the songs on this record, which can literally change sides as you flip the LP over, but can also change sides in terms of who she’s singing about depending on whether you know the truth about her scarlet letter, her Ace.
The rumors are terrible and cruel, But honey, most of them are true
Taylor punctuates this verse with a wink to those of us who’ve heard the rumors about her: She’s heard them too, and she wants to tell us they’re true.
This brings us to the second pre-chorus and chorus, and to the essential question of the song: Who is “we”? Is this a platonic song about Taylor and her girlfriends (and, by extension, single people everywhere), or is this a romantic song about Taylor and her girlfriend (and, by extension, queer people everywhere)?
Baby, we’re the new romantics Come on, come along with me Heartbreak is the national anthem We sing it proudly We are too busy dancing To get knocked off our feet Baby, we’re the new romantics The best people in life are free
We’re too busy going out with our friends to fall in love, we sing proudly about our heartbreaks, the best people in life are single. Yep, that works! But it ignores the broader context of the song – let’s take a look at the bridge, where everything slows down a LOT (again, Taylor is telling us to pay attention):
Please take my hand and Please take me dancing and Please leave me stranded It’s so romantic
The rhyme structure here (AAAA with lots of word repetition and proximate rhyme, a trick often used by noted lesbian Emily Dickinson) is like a big flashing sign: HEY, THIS IS WHAT THE SONG IS ABOUT. And it doesn’t sound platonic at all – it sounds like dancing with your girlfriend in public, only to have her leave you alone lest she confirm those terribly cruel rumors. (This bridge is also a prelude to “Dancing With Our Hands Tied” as surely as “Every day is like a battle, but every night with us is like a dream” is a prelude to “…Ready for it?”.)
The song is called “New Romantics.” She’s telling us, as clearly as she can, that this is a song about romance. Taylor has taken all the bricks people have thrown at her – at this point, still largely about how boy-crazy she is – and built a castle where she can be free with her girlfriend. Read this way, we can see a new meaning for the first verse of “Call It What You Want”:
My castle crumbled overnight I brought a knife to a gunfight They took the crown but it’s all right
This verse reads like it’s about the Kimye controversy, but I think it’s also about kissgate. Taylor built a glass castle of safety for herself and Karlie, and when it collapsed, her crown (i.e. the king of her heart) was taken from her. They had to go back into hiding (“nobody’s heard from me for months”), but they found a deeper, truer love all on their own.
“New Romantics” is one of Taylor’s best songs ever – not just because the melody is amazing and the lyrics are killer, but because it takes the language of heartbreak and turns it into an anthem of strength for Taylor and for every queer person who has ever had to hide who we are. She opens 1989 by telling us we can want who we want, and she closes it by telling us the same thing: The best people in life are free.
🏳️🌈
Taylor’s alleged MySpace comments in a chronological order from 2005 to 2006. (Time of posts on 24h). Pictures of the comments were too blurry, so I didn’t add, but if needed, I have them saved in a file if anyone needs proof.
NB: All the comments are replies to unknown posts by her friends, so the context is unknown.
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in commemoration of this momentous occasion coming up thirteen days from now on April 18th, i thought i’d share some compiled thoughts that i’ve gathered over the past year. and god, what a year its been. please note the majority of this is an attempt to bring together a bunch of links to posts, and string together a story surrounding the theory, a theory that i still call a theory. in short, i understand this falls in the conjecture column, in lieu of the terms “reach” and “fanfiction.” (well tbh i think its true as hell but im not here to create a convent) and i think this is worth mentioning, it’s meant in good faith 😌
👁The Theory: #all eyes on us
taylor included some part of an image of karlie’s right eye, flipped and placed on the right side of taylor’s face, in the reputation photo used on the cd skin and stadium tour poster.
Czytaj dalej
The inspiration behind ‘Don’t blame me’, aka she is obsessed.
Yes, Taylor clearly sampled. This is not the point though. The point is what inspired her. Not only the lyrics but her muse as an angel that falls from grace. The fact that the commercial came out right after they met makes it all the more interesting. Now I want a mashup of both songs.
so swiffers really don’t get that when Taylor says “you know i love a london boy” she doesn’t mean 🦶 at all. she doesn’t mean a specific british boy, she means “you know i love a British beard to promote my music in the uk ;)”
like.... it’s a hilarious song. nothing romantic abt it. if i were someone’s boyfriend and she wrote me a song like this i’d be confused af. “he likes my aMeRiCaN smile” like girl? what do you want 😪
and can we talk about the line “iN tHe pUb wE aRe wAtChInG rUgBy wItH HiS sChOoL fRiEnDs”? ummmm tfu taylor i came here expecting a love song but you’re being funny
SHOW ME A GREY SKY LOOOOOOL A RAINY CAP RIDE LMAO ok it’s more of like “you make me f***ing depressed boy”
and like she mentions Stella McCartney for no absolute f***ing reason??? in a song about her bf? she is like “imma mention my girl stella cause i luv her”
I absolutely love London Boy it’s the funnier version of Blank Space