2. Lyrics and Visuals
She says: ‚She wears a short skirt, I wear a t – shirt.‛
Taylor looks in the mirror, upset about the way she looks. She wants to
be loved for the way she is, therefore when the lyrics are about not
having the right ‘look’ we see a visual representation of her as she is
looking in the mirror.
3. She says: ‚Hey what you
doing with a girl like
that.‛ Straight away we
see him with a girl
Then the scene cuts to her face. She looks upset
because her lover is with another girl. The
purpose of this is to make Taylor look like a sad
heartbroken girl. Because her fans are mostly
teenage girls this allows Taylor’s fans to relate
with her as they too would be facing such
problems and feelings of not being loved. This is
also part of the star construction that most artists
and record labels hope to achieve, through
exploring and exploiting such issues that
teenagers, especially the girls face, clearly Taylor
has created a platform whereby her fans can
come and relate to such problems and leave
feeling comforted as these things happen to
celebrities as well.
4. Music and Visuals
Throughout the whole song she acts
with the lyrics, but when the chorus
comes in, she dances to the beat of the
music to add entertainment to the
video.
Here, Taylor is swinging
her hair in time with the
chorus
5. The music genre is a hybrid consisting of a merge of pop and
country. It contains conventions of pop music for example, it
follows the structure to pop music, also it has an accompanying
beat throughout and is aimed at teens.
Although country isn’t explicitly showed in the video, i.e. they are
not in a rural place, there are some instruments that indicate that
this is country music, for example the guitar and banjo are used
throughout the son, these instruments are typical of the country
genre.
A convention of country music is that it has a strong narrative
aspect. Clearly in this song it tells a story through the lyrics and
the music used to enhance this message.
Country music has changed over the years, adopting a more
modern style, mixing with other genres in order to attract a larger
and more diverse audience. Examples of artists are Taylor
Swift, Ed Sheeran
Genre Characteristics
To sum up this song, Taylor loves
the boy but he doesn’t love her
back. She is jealous and upset of
the guys girlfriend. The guy
breaks up with his girl and she is
there to make him realize that he
actually likes her
She looks modern, this goes
well for her image and it
reaches out to more fans
because this is how a typical
teenage girl may dress at a
party
6. Notion Of Looking
She looks into her lovers window to see
what he is doing
She looks into the mirror to see why her lover
doesn't like her back. She believes it’s the way
she dresses
The guy looks at her when she is unaware.
Because she is unaware and he is smiling, this
shows that he likes her, he is watching her. So
you can see the ‘notion of looking’ is frequent
throughout the video.
7. The music video helps sell the artists image. Taylor
plays two characters in the video and both characters
wear different clothes. The change of clothes allows the
fans to see more of the artist and like them more for
what they are wearing. The image of a female artist
especially is important because most female artists in
the mainstream music industry sell their bodies. Their
image and fashion sense makes money for the industry
and constructs the ‘star’. Also the fans like and expect
such things from their idols
Also, through the narrative and the message of the
song, Taylor Swift Is being promoted and an image is
being created of her so that fans can relate.
Selling The Artist
8. There may be many references to other songs
and or other things within this music video.
But because this is a country style song, I am
not familiar with this genre and the
intertextuality it may have. Moreover, the song
contains a narrative aspect, this may be the
reason why there is less or no references to
other things. However, the story itself could be
a reference to many other things as the
narrative is so typical in teen movies, movies
like ‘High school musical’ for example.
Intertextuality
