M.P: Goodwin Analysis - Taylor Swift

Blank Space

 

Andrew Goodwin, carried out research into mainstream music videos and identified typical conventions. 

 

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  Firstly he stated that music videos demonstrate genre characteristics.  This video could be categorised as being in the pop genre.  It is conventional in that that music video has high production values. This is due to the video being Taylor Swift’s who is a popular mainstream singer therefore she can afford to spend more money on making the video visually impressive to her audience.
• Her music video location is set in a big stately home with large grounds. There are inside shots where the vast size of the rooms and expensive decoration are presented as well as outside shots where the well-kept grounds of the place is shown. The video’s narrative is easy to follow and she is portrayed as a crazy girlfriend.
• She begins the video welcoming her love interest and their relationship is good for the first half of the video. However midway, the relationship turns bad as she thinks he is cheating on her. She then begins to do crazy acts such as smashing up his car and cutting at the tree where she carved their names in. T
• he video ends with a new love interest going into her property and she looks at him whilst he stares at her. As the narrative contains a love element, it conforms to pop video conventions as many pop videos do contain an element of love in the narrative due to the lyrics being based around the topic.
• Throughout the video, the different camera shots are always focused on Swift and there are many close ups of her face and meat shots. This appeals to her fans as they want to see her in the video as much as possible.
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  She also continuously breaks the fourth wall. For example, in one scene she is dancing with her love interest and then the camera zooms in on her face where she turns her head to look directly into the camera. This is a convention of pop videos due to para-social intimacy trying to be established.
• The music video displays Swift’s individual iconography. In the video she wears red lipstick which is a motif for her causing her to be recognisable and more popular . Also as the video shows Swift having a love interest, it is also another iconography for her as she is also known for dating. As the video features Swift, it is appealing to audiences as she is a marquee name in the music industry therefore increasing viewership, popularity and production values.
• Goodwin discussed the relationship between lyrics and visuals. In the Blank Space video, the relationship between the lyrics and visuals is amplified containing some illustrative links.
• An example where a literal link is made, is when the lyric “Oh my god, look at that face” is sang, the shot that is shown is a close up on the male protagonist’s face. The lyrics in the first half of the song show an optimistic and positive attitude towards the relationship that is being shown. This is also shown through the visuals. For example, there is a lyric saying “hey let’s be friends/ I’m dying to see how this one ends/ grab your passport and my hand”. The visuals that accompany this lyric show Swift and her love interest dancing, riding on their bikes inside laughing and Swift painting a portrait of him. The visuals change from this happy looking feel when the lyrics change.

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  When the lyric is “Screaming, crying, perfect storms/ I can make all the tables turn”, the visuals show Swift and her love interest in a heated argument with both of them looking frustrated. This therefore shows a link between the visuals and lyrics.
• He also considered the relationship between music and visuals to be an important convention. In the video we can see that there is a link between the music and visuals through the editing of shots. The cuts are smooth and cut to a beat of the song making it look natural and not jumpy. The close ups of Swift that are shown with the music shows a relationship between the visuals and music as it establishes Swift as the artist as well as the actress in the video.
• He discussed talked about the voyeuristic treatment of the body.  With reference to this video, the camera is always focused on Swift which sells her as an artist and pleases the audience as those watching the video will be fans of Swift. In this music video there is no fetristic treatment of the body. However there is one shot which shows Swift on top of her love interest and she bites his lip. This could be seen as feteristic due to the strong red lipstick she wears.
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  Music videos are a postmodern form which implies that they often borrow and rework ideas from other texts and forms. Swift uses intertextuality in the form of pastiche fairy-tale like mise-en-scene. For example, the location is a large stately home which has castle elements to it, such as the grand staircase. There is also a scene in the video where Swift and her love interest both ride on a white horse in the grounds. This has a fairy tale vibe to it as it looks as if they are “king and queen”. There is an intertextual reference to ‘Snow White’ (which is a fairytale), where Swift holds a Red apple and can control her love interest using it. Her love interest then consumes the red apple and spits it out instantly as if it has been poisoned.

 

• Therefore the video could be seen as conventional in that it covers many aspects of Goodwin’s theory such as the narrative style, visual motifs and intertextual references. A possible reason as to why the theory cannot be applied to this video is because this video does not employ the typical dance performance that many mainstream videos have. Ultimately, the Blank Space music video by Taylor Swift is conventional to mainstream music videos.