In The Music Industry, Love Is A Losing Game

Reaching for the gun: is it real life, pettiness, or just a marketing strategy?

By now, it’s near-impossible to have escaped Sabrina Carpenter’s newest album Short n’ Sweet. The sultry, ultra fun pop record has debuted at number #1 on charts. From massive summer hits such as Espresso and Please, Please, Please or her now-perfected and highly identifiable style, Carpenter has cemented herself within the music industry, if the nearly two billion streams for the aforementioned singles didn’t already. 

But this isn’t a review. Outside of music, reception towards Short n’ Sweet has been focusing on romantic endeavors, whether or not she is “tearing down” women, or simply bouncing back and forth on her role as “the other woman.” How is it that expressing one’s personal life is a double-sided coin? Every party is either praised as a relatable saint or condemned as a sinner, no room for the very same human complication that makes music authentic. 

Two songs in particular, Taste and Coincidence, have garnered a special kind of attention. Rumored to be about her short-lived fling with 2010s singer-songwriter Shawn Mendes, both songs jokingly take jabs at the male subject for fooling around, but showing a sort of attachment despite the subject being uncommitted / clearly not over his ex. Fans immediately made connections and timelines between Carpenter and Mendes’s relationship, as well as his relationship with pop singer Camila Cabello. 

To quickly recap the “drama,” Mendes and Cabello have been romantically entangled (officially) since 2019. Despite the two splitting in late 2021, they were seen kissing at Coachella 2023. Basically on and off; many have been speculating about their romantic tension since Senorita. However, in February 2023, Carpenter and Mendes were romantically linked, though Mendes denies any official relationship. 

Recent controversy can be traced to Cabello releasing “June Gloom” as part of her June 2024 album C,XOXO. It is speculated to be about Mendes running back to Cabello after being with Carpenter:

If she's so amazing, why are you on this side of town? 
If you like her so much, what are you here trying to find out?

Just last week, Carpenter released Short n’ Sweet, with lyrics from Taste reading:

What a surprise, your phone just died 
Your car drove itself from L.A. to her thighs 
Palm Springs looks nice, but who's by your side? 
Damn it, she looks kinda like the girl you outgrew 
Least that's what you said (That's what you said)

But anyway, that’s glossing over how both Mendes and Cabello have made racially insensitive comments in the past, with the latter going to “racial healing sessions” that are now resurfacing as a result of the love triangle of sorts. 

On the internet, people have curiously been tearing down both parties. Cabello for being… cringe? Criticisms outside of her racism seem to be completely unaware of a valid reason. From being a copycat (which is… 75% fair, I would say, especially following that picture) to posting a TikTok with the lyrics “House fire, for sure / Hope it'll burn out, but it just gets bigger” the majority seems to be on the hate train for her rather than Carpenter. Not to say that Carpenter is deserving of hatred.

Cabello on a boat via Facebook vs Carpenter’s cover for Espresso

With Carpenter being called foolish or a homewrecker just because Mendes and Cabello have been playing a back and forth game forever, etc etc (strange, with Mendes and Cabello being long separated at that point), this seems like a repeat of a repeat. 

Carpenter even says so herself on Taste:

I know I've been known to share

Which, in my belief, was aimed towards the infamous Olivia Rodrigo / Joshua Bassett / Sabrina Carpenter love triangle that started it all. A love triangle that resulted in Carpenter writing on all because i liked a boy:

I'm a homewrecker, I'm a slut 
I got death threats filling up semi-trucks 
Tell me who I am, guess I don't have a choice 
All because I liked a boy

As other users have pointed out, the blame has always been bouncing between the two women. Carpenter is unfortunate enough to have experienced it twice. The blame never on the man for not being over an ex or perhaps being over an ex too much, for fooling around. Even moreso, the blame has never been on the audience. Surely I am not the only person in the world who has had a rebound, been a rebound, not over their ex, etc. These songs are made to be personal, relatable–that’s why you like them so much, why they’re so popular.

The music industry and its audience sensationalizes every romantic endeavor or perceived mistake. Marketing aside, the response these songs, whether it be driver’s license, June Gloom, Taste, etc, gets uncontrollable when one song gets immensely popular, the public forming a collective and often negative opinion for the sake of having one, and a subject (usually a woman) getting condemned and torn down to oblivion. 

Of course, there’s a difference in making art out of one’s personal life vs capitalizing on one’s life. But it is the audience that enables this hateful behavior that we’ve seen time and time again, intentional or not. Either way, it has the same impact. 

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My good friend

Asisa Kadiri

did a really interesting article talking about the Madz / Central Cee / Ice Spice love triangle a while back. She talks a lot on credibility that the entertainer (slash public figure) creates based on their personal life getting blown out of proportion and how audiences react to it. Check it out below!

What A Presidential Candidate and a Tik-Tok Influencer Have In Common.

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Hey you! Thanks for reading all the way through (at least, I hope you did), this article was fun, although slightly frustrating to do. Misogyny and entertainer/audience relationship, you know, so exhausting. Anyway, here’s the playlist for this one! Hope you enjoy :)

If you liked this article, be sure to subscribe as it’s the most direct way to support me and work! Share with someone who just got their driver’s license or was a little gloomy in June. 

Love love love, 
Alaїa