Taylor Swift had started to pursue a career in country music and she was signed with Big Machine Records. Her debut album in 2006 had reached number 5 on the Billboard 2000 and spent many weeks there. Se became one of the youngest people to write and perform herself a single from her album which became a number one song. Her second album, Fearless, had won four Grammy Awards and she became the youngest ever 'Album of the Year' winner. Her 2010 album has debuted number one in the US and the single had one two Grammy Awards.
On her fifth album, she became the first act to have three albums sell a million copies within one week in the USA. The three singles from that album has reached number in the US, Canada and Australia. It had received three Grammy awards and Swift became the first woman to win 'Album of the Year' twice. Her '1989' tour had become one of the highest grossing of the decade and her latest single, 'Look What You Made Me Do' had lead to the top of the charts in the US and UK.
She has sold out more than 40 million albums and 130 million single downloads. She has appeared in many magazines such as:
- Time's 100 most influential people in the world
- Forbes' top earning women in music
- Forbes' 100 most powerful people
- Forbes' Celebrity 100
She has also won multiple awards many times such as:
- Grammy Awards
- Emmy Awards
- Billboard Music Awards
- Country Music Association Awards
- Academy of Country Music Awards
- Brit Award
LINK: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taylor_Swift
Big Machine Records
Big Machine Records
This is an independent American Record Label which mainly specializes in country and pop artists. It is based in Nashville and it is distributed by Universal Music Group. The label was launched in 2005 by a former DreamWorks Records executive. In November 2014, it was said that BMR consisted of 88 employees and four office buildings.
Taylor Swift is one of the many artists signed to this record label. Her father owns a big stake in the record label and other artists include Tim McGraw, Rascal Flatts etc.
LINK: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Machine_Records
'Blank Space' Music Video
Lyrics
Nice to meet you, where you been?
I could show you incredible things
Magic, madness, heaven, sin
Saw you there and I thought
Oh my God, look at that face
You look like my next mistake
Love's a game, want to play?
New money, suit and tie
I can read you like a magazine
Ain't it funny, rumors fly
And I know you heard about me
So hey, let's be friends
I'm dying to see how this one ends
Grab your passport and my hand
I can make the bad guys good for a weekend
So it's gonna be forever
Or it's gonna go down in flames
You can tell me when it's over
If the high was worth the pain
Got a long list of ex-lovers
They'll tell you I'm insane
'Cause you know I love the players
And you love the game
'Cause we're young and we're reckless
We'll take this way too far
It'll leave you breathless
Or with a nasty scar
Got a long list of ex-lovers
They'll tell you I'm insane
But I've got a blank space baby
And I'll write your name
Taylor plays a rich girl who lives in a stately mansion. She starts off in the video sitting on her canopy bed while she's thinking about the new man in her life. Through the video, she is going out on all sort of adventures with her boyfriend who she thinks is the perfect match for her. She then sees him texting another girl and decides to exact her revenge. She cuts up his clothes and throws them onto the ground, acting deranged whilst damaging his sports car. The whole idea of the video is that instead of confronting him about him cheating on her, she let's him work it out for himself whilst she does plays her revenge.
LINK:http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4369326/plotsummary
Timeline
Lyrics Analysis
In Andrew Goodwin's theory, he states that there us often a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals in music videos.
Referencing to the title of the song, 'Blank Space', she is saying that on her 'long list of ex-lovers', there's enough space to write another name of the person who's broken her heart yet again. The video shows that instead of the setting being all dark and gloomy because she was finding out she had been cheated on, it was instead still bright and grand as all she was feeling in that moment was anger and resent. Towards the end of her song, she sings 'Boys only want love if it's torture'. This is showing that the amount of relationships she's been through have all had a bad ending for her and it ends in her being heartbroken and in pain.
The whole song kind of links to the line, 'Cause darling I'm a nightmare dressed like a daydream'. I think this because under all of that sweet, innocent exterior, she knows how to get her revenge and people may think she is an easy target in relationships but that's only because they judge her for what they see on the outside. Whilst she's singing those particular lyrics, she grabs her partner's face whilst clearly digging her fingernails into her cheeks to leave scars and marks. This shows that she can be dangerous even though she doesn't show it.
In the line 'Rose gardens filled with thorns', this shows that the relationship is all happy and perfect in front of people but once you get to know the person and get involved deeper into the relationship, it's almost painful hence relating to the hidden thorns.
In the song, she repeats the words, 'And I'll write your name' many times throughout the chorus. This almost seems like she's saying it as a threat to her ex-partner and is trying to intimidate him.
Mise-en-Scene
Setting
The setting in which she acts in is a very upmarket property. She plays a wealthy, affluent woman who lives in a luxurious mansion. It resembled a palace as it had crisp cut, neat grass with greenery everywhere and fancy cars parked outside the property. The video was filmed in Oheka Castle which is located in Huntington, New York in Long Island.
As you can see, the music video starts off with quite a dark setting which looks quite gloomy and rainy. However, further on into the video, the lighting becomes very bright and the setting looks a lot more glamorous as they are riding down on pure white horses together.
Costume/Make-Up
The man who plays 'Swift's' love interest in this music video is first seen wearing a crisp clean, black suit with a tie and polished shoes with sleeked back hair. This shows us that he is successful and rich and he flaunts it around proudly.
Taylor Swift portrays a very wealthy character so as she should, she wears very elegant clothes. For example, as you can see in the picture below, she is wearing a long silver dressed which is covered in diamonds. It looks classy as well as costly. She also wears black gloves at the start of the music video which is what is expected as it is stereotyped that rich women wear long evening gloves at formal events. She wears a lot of black in the video which connotes to power, elegance, evil and mystery. All of these themes are included in the video as she is portraying an elegant woman who is mysterious and thought to be naive, but once she finds out about all the secrets, she plays an evil revenge on her love interest, showing that she has the power.
In the middle of the video, her appearance changes as she finds out he's been cheating. She starts to have black mascara and make-up running down her face with red lipstick stained perfectly. The red lipstick connotes to passion, desire and love so even though all the rest of her make-up is becoming ruined, the red lipstick shows that the true love for her partner is still strongly visible
Both of their appearances are very sophisticated and high-end couture clothing. His hair is very slicked back and tidy and his posture is very perfect as he walked with his head-held high, proud of his affluence.
Key Shots/Camera Movements/Edits
I think that the most effective shot is at the very beginning with the first two shots. These shots show the palace that they filmed in whilst the car came driving in at the beginning. It then did a close up of the car whilst the man was getting out. The director had only shown the guy with one leg out of the car before it transitioned to another shot. The camera had then shown Swift singing whilst sitting on her canopy bed inside the residence and then the shot changed again which shown the man's full face which was a close up shot of him.
The whole of the music video had a variety of shots ranging from a long shot to an extreme close up shot. Swift changes her facial expressions many times throughout the video which is what tells the story. She goes from happy to sad/angry to spitefulness and get revenge.
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