The Building Blocks of Sabrina Carpenter’s Career
Words by Abigail Bures
Getty Images for TAS Rights Mana (Photo by Hector Vivas)
Popstar Sabrina Carpenter has faced an almost decade rise-to-fame, but, with a new attitude, she’s now at the top of the game. While challenging at times, Carpenter saw a collaboration of worldly influence and her own marketing talents push her to the forefront of pop music and the conversation around it. Her sixth studio album was released this past Friday, August 23, but leading singles have already charted in the top three positions on Billboard and have hit number one on Billboard UK. Short n’ Sweet perfectly captures Carpenter’s persona and the sound and style of everything she has been working towards musically.
Sabrina Carpenter began her entertainment career in the acting industry as a Disney child star. Her big break came from the Disney show, “Girl Meets World,” a spin-off of a ’90s show, “Boy Meets World.” While the show only lasted three seasons, Carpenter used this momentum to release her first two albums: Eyes Wide Open in 2015 and EVOLution in 2016.
From this early time, listeners can already find hints of the songwriting and producing Carpenter transfers to Short n’ Sweet. Carpenter’s first single, “Can’t Blame a Girl for Trying,” darts around the topic of messy relationships. She calls herself out a bit, singing, “And I think sometimes / I tend to be my own worst enemy.” Later going on to say, “Here comes another one, it’s so intoxicating / Being where I’ve been, I know that in the end / I’ll do it all again.” In track eleven of Short n’ Sweet, “Lie To Girls,” Carpenter transforms this message into something bigger, showing this habit in relationships has followed her. “Lie To Girls,” features a softer guitar than “Can’t Blame a Girl for Trying,” although both songs build up to a higher-pitched closing section. The outro of “Lie To Girls” becomes a hard-hitting moment as Carpenter repeats the true meaning of the song, that girls put in so much effort to make relationships work, but that is not reciprocated. She sings, “Girls will lose their goddamn minds for you (Oh) / They’ll cry and girls will lie and / Do it ‘til the day they die for you.”
The emails i can’t send song “Already Over,” uses the same technique as “Lie To Girls,” when it comes to showing a double meaning through lyrics. Although the song title “Already Over,” seems to reference the relationship was over before it started, the lyrics tell the story of Carpenter not being able to cut off the relationship. The line, “How am I supposed to leave you now that you’re already over?” references them meeting up at Carpenter’s house. “Already Over” is more about coming back to a person again and again than a relationship ending, which the title seems to suggest. In the same way, “Lie To Girls,” isn’t really about this guy’s inability to be honest in his relationships, but that girls tend to excuse behavior to save the relationship.
“Taste,” the first track on the album, became the third leading single in which Carpenter released a music video to celebrate. Starring Jenna Ortega, the video centers around her and Carpenter as two girls battling it out for the leading man. Another song with a similar theme, “Skin,” a single released in 2021, also discusses the girl other than Carpenter in the situation. In both, Carpenter seems to get the last laugh, saying she’ll always be remembered. “Skin” was released during a PR nightmare that sent swarms of cancel-culture fans to Carpenter’s door. A response to the drama, “Skin” doesn’t seem to rise above but rather embraces the act of winning the boy. “Taste” could be the later discovery that the boy really wasn’t worth it. While still an electric, fun sound this song elevates itself from Carpenter’s previous production with her breathy but strong voice, a heavy bassline and notes of electric guitar.
Other than continually elevating her productions, another talent of Carpenter’s is the ability to create insane pop melodies with devastating lyrics. If you listen closely, you can tell this is a writer scorned by past relationships—and she’s telling everyone. This appears in the “Bad Time” from Singular Act I. “I’ve been dying to use the line / I’m sorry, but you’ve called at a bad time.” Carpenter also used this technique in a deluxe single off of emails i can’t send titled “Feather.” Carpenter sings, “I got you blocked, excited to never talk / I, I’m so sorry for your loss.” Carpenter is known to mix up the final line from this verse to include her latest achievement. When she performed on Saturday Night Live, she sang, “I’m on SNL and you’re not!”
This same energy appears in “Taste” from Short n’ Sweet. Carpenter is direct and humorous, singing, “And singin’ ‘bout it don’t mean I care / Yeah, I know I’ve been known to share.” This album is incredibly personal to Carpenter, and she shares a lot about her relationships while remaining genuine, showing the bad and the good. “Slim Pickins,” adopts a country-pop aesthetic with a banjo sound fans have found similar to Harry Styles’ “Canyon Moon” and Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi.” This comparability to other pop sounds isn’t a bad thing and actually means Carpenter’s reach has grown to the point of comparison. Carpenter begins “Slim Pickins” by singing, “Guess I’ll end this life alone / I am not dramatic / These are just the thoughts that pass right through me.” The humor and relatability of this song don’t detract from the seriousness of this message, but you have to listen closely to catch that meaning.
The new and improved pop production does not mean Carpenter can’t create the perfect sad songs too. My personal favorites from emails i can’t send are “how many things,” “opposite” and “things i wish you said.” On Short n’ Sweet, only one song finds similar ground to these pain-filled lyrics. “Dumb and Poetic,” follows Carpenter’s type, singing she likes the aesthetic of men who show signs of being intelligent and good with words. However, this ends up being what destroys the relationship because they don’t know how to communicate genuinely. “Every self-help book, you’ve already read it / Cherry-pick lines like they’re words you invented.” Carpenter builds the song up to the chorus by increasing the breath strength behind her singing, but, during the chorus, she softens her voice. Taking inspiration from “how many things,” Carpenter finds herself regretting this relationship, but acknowledges that she puts herself in these positions. These songs feel like regretful sighs.
All this momentum Carpenter has created can be found throughout her previous songs, but there are some areas outside of her music that influenced her place in pop now. First, Carpenter has had to rebrand herself due to poor management and some bad press. While the rebrand of the confident yet vulnerable young woman is now what everyone wants to see, Sabrina Carpenter was not always seen this way and a lot of work went into creating this new image. When Carpenter was 18, she fired her management team and was promptly sued by them under the premise of not providing fair commission. A smart businesswoman and songwriter, Carpenter used this situation as inspiration for a single titled, “Sue Me.”
Another factor in the large rise in popularity for Carpenter is her opening act on The Eras Tour for Taylor Swift. Swift has had an incredibly talented group of artists open for her world tour, and the exposure that comes from this opportunity is not one that even established artists, like Boygenius and HAIM, want to pass up. Carpenter’s position as an opener for South American, Australian and Asian tour stops gave her tremendous amounts of exposure outside of the U.S., increasing her audience and streaming success globally.
Carpenter’s fame and success have been a slow build, but the rate at which she is overtaking the charts with Short n’ Sweet hints that more world domination is to come. The Artist of the Year win at the VMAs is looking very likely for Carpenter and it's also possible that she is nominated for Best New Artist at the 2025 Grammys. Even with all this potential critical acclaim on the horizon, Carpenter’s popularity is still more represented in streaming numbers rather than trophies. She represents what listeners want to hear more of—the reality of feeling vulnerable in relationships while also having fun. Carpenter exudes a new era of pop music with Short n’ Sweet while still throwing hints of her old self in there. The steps that she’s taken to elevate her lyricism and production have cemented her as the next pop star at the highest level.