I'm Jonathan Braylock, I'm Dra. Milligan, and I'm James III. And we're those of Black

Pink and Jump in Hollywood. It's a comedic podcast that reviews films with leading actors

of color and analyze them in the context of race and Hollywood's diversity issues.

Yeah. Listen to new episodes on Mondays. Find us wherever you get your podcasts. I don't

care where you get them. I just want you to listen. Don't threaten the people we need

them to listen. Okay. Okay. Okay. Sorry, guys. Listen. Listen to us. Yeah. Yeah. Put

on a happy voice.

Welcome back to Hit Parade, a podcast of pop chart history from Slate magazine about

the hits from coast to coast. I'm Chris Malanfi, chart analyst, pop critic, and writer of

Slates. Why is this song number one series on our last episode? We talked about Taylor

Swift's country years, which are now being revisited in her 2021 re-recording of her

2008 album Fearless. Long before Swift made a deliberate move toward pop music, she was

bringing young fans to her country music and appearing in youthful mainstream spaces

like the MTV Video Music Awards. In 2009, Swift arrived at the VMAs with a song and

video you belong with me that was about to be the most played U.S. radio hit and the winner

of a Moonman trophy. But that win was where the troubles started.

If the song you belong with me was spunky, its video was more so, a fully realized depiction

of its high school story with Taylor playing both the mousey nerd pining for her handsome

male friend and the bitchy brunette queen B, whom he's currently dating. It was nominated

for Best Female Video at the 2009 VMAs and Swift's competition was heavy, clips by Kelly

Clarkson, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Pink, and of course, famously Beyoncé.

And Taylor won. And that's when the incident, the one that immortalized the phrase, Amalucho

...