How are media representations of Taylor Swift challenged in the video ‘Blank Space’?

Taylor Swift is a female international music artists who has been one of the most successful women to date. 'Blank Space', released November 10th 2015 has over two billion views on YouTube. It reached number one in Australia, United States and Canada. The 1989, from which 'Blank Space' appears one, sold 1.287 million copies worldwide. Taylor Swift has headlined many festivals and sold out many of her own tours, however locally she headlined Norwich's Radio One Big weekend in 2015. Swift's music is classed in the genre of pop, being one of the more mainstream artist's she features in the Top Ten frequently with new music.

In the media Swift is shown to be a boy crazy young woman who is stuck in a cycle of failing relationships. Magazines portray her to be neurotic girlfriend that traps the man she is with, then when the pending doom hits the relationship she writes about them. Swift herself has said "If you're horrible to me, I'm going to write a song about it, and you won't like it. That's how I operate.” With the media constantly bringing out headlines like these in such magazines as 'Famous' and 'Star' it is no wonder Swift has produced 'Blank Space' as a hit back at the media as she mocks their ridiculous representation of her. Swift has said before that this representation of her private life is simply not true, various publications have produced articles depicting her love life apart but one stands out from the rest; The Telegraph's Taylor Swift love life timeline.http://www.telegraph.co.uk/music/artists/taylor-swifts-love-life-a-history/

            








'Blank Space' conforms to most genre of conventions of pop music, for example Swift is shown throughout the music video to be impeccably dressed with high fashion clothing, for example here, at 0:41 seconds, we see Swift featuring in a diamond ball dress. The lavish clothing is a common feature in pop videos, this maybe to express wealth or an extravagant lifestyle.
Another genre convention that features in Swift's is the lyrics are based around relationships and love, especially in Taylor Swift's case as most of her songs feature these two topics.
The song has a set structure that attributes a consistent beat which most pop songs typically do, other artists such as Ed Sheehan say you can make any existing pop song with the same three guitar chords. Which may be suggestive that they all sound the same.

In the music video of 'Blank Space' Taylor Swift challenges the media representations as she mocks their stereotype that she is psychotic in relationships and bounces from man to man. Swift produced a statement on the subject herself that reads 'For a female to write about her feelings, and then be portrayed as some clingy, insane, desperate girlfriend in need of making you marry her and have kids with her, I think that’s taking something that potentially should be celebrated – a woman writing about her feelings in a confessional way – that’s taking it and turning it and twisting it into something that is frankly a little sexist.' This quote directly hits back at the media that portrays her in a particularly negative light in relationships. For example this is executed in one of the first wide shots; 

Swift also challenges the media's representations of her through this close up shot;

Here we see in this wide shot how things are starting to go wrong which is suggested by the wise en scene and camera work.

Finally we see how the role reversal in the music video is significant as the male is now seen as replaced and objectified.

What is Goodwin's theory all about?

Goodwin’s Theory of Music Video?

Andrew Goodwin, a director of music, wrote ‘Dancing in the Distraction Factory’ from which his theory of music videos stems. Goodwin’s theory is split into seven points and he believes these are key to making a successful music video. Namely:

1. There is a key relationship between the music and the visuals
2. Narrative performance through song
3. Many close-up shots of the artist (demands of the record label)
4. Voyeurism
5. Intertextuality
6. Technical aspect of the music video 
7. Typical genre conventions 

'T-Shirt Weather' by Circa Waves belongs to the same genre of music as Finn Doherty's 'Process'; indie/alternative. 'T-Shirt Weather' was released on the 25th of February 2015, it has had nearly two million views on YouTube proving this single to be very successful. After their first album hit the Top 10 and they featured in Radio 1's A List Singles, they rose to fame, quickly becoming one of the most successful indie bands from the U.K. They were formed in Liverpool in 2013 and have since opened events such as the NME awards tour in March 2014. They have since sold out an entire tour and performed at iconic music festivals like Glastonbury and Leeds. This is a typical music video by Circa Waves, most of their videos have an element of nostalgia, for example in their video for 'Fossils' the entire video portrays a montage of memories through being filmed on an older camera using outdated technology which in turn, enhances this nostalgic video as they look like classic vintage home videos.

'T-Shirt Weather' follows the conventions of an indie music video quite closely, for example the whole video is a low budget music video, it does not feature expensive locations like a palace or wild animals like mainstream pop videos for example Lana Del Ray 'Born Two Die'. Another convention it follows is the setting. It only has one setting which is typical of an indie band because it is common to focus on the performance while keeping other aspects like settings simple. This could be because unlike pop artists which like to feature a sense of theatricality, they would rather keep the audience's focus on the music and not take away from that factor. One genre connection broken is the theme of a strong narrative, 'T-Shirt Weather' does not feature actors playing the roles of characters inspired by their song but instead has videos playing in the background which appear to be fond family memories. 'T-Shirt Weather's' front man of the band; Kieran Shundall say's 'This came from thinking about my childhood and how things seemed so different back then memories almost becoming like a movie and everything seeming more interesting and the grass being much greener. A twisted nostalgia". They are trying to tell their own stories rather than something imagined. 

Goodwin's theory applies to this music video through the key relationship between the visuals and lyrics. Shundall himself explains that the song and music video is about memories of childhood, therefore there is a direct correlation between the visuals that feature behind the band performing.  

Secondly, another point of Goodwin's theory that can be applied to 'T-Shirt Weather' is voyeurism, this is the notion of looking into something like the camera to create the impression that the artists is singling you out and talking directly to you. The direct gaze makes the audience feel important and as though they are in the room with the band.

'Oceans' by Seafret was released on the 1st of February 2015 and has over 32 million views on Youtube, this maybe due in some part to leading actress; Maisie Williams who stars in 'Game Of Thrones'. Seafret are a British duo of Jack Sedman and Harry Draper. They have been together since 2015 and in their two short years together have produced a debut album that featured in the Top 100 Album chart. Their genre is of the same as Circa Waves analysed above; indie/alternative. This music video follows some of the codes and conventions of indie/alternative music videos, for example it has a strong narrative. The narrative of this video features a young teenage girl returning home from school to find a note left from her Mother saying she is working late, we later find out that the young girl has been bullied as she has 'loser' written on the back of her white school shirt, she then goes on to dress up in an old childhood superhero costume that is clearly homemade. This creates a sense of empowerment that is later undermined by the bullies who violently attack her. She then comes home to her Mother whom she falls into her arms. This constructs a sense of reconciliation between the daughter and Mother.

Goodwin's theory can applied here through the key relationship between visuals and lyrics, for example the visuals in this music emphasise the meaning of the lyrics and create a clearer understanding and meaning of the lyrics. They may also hint at what the song could be written about, it could be a personal childhood memory from either of the two band members.

In this screenshot of a wide shot from 0:16 seconds in to the music video, we can see a note on the counter that reads "Working late (again) sorry x Dinner is in the oven", at this point the song begins to play and as she reads the note we hear 'I want you', this connotes that the Mother and daughter do not have a close relationship and the daughter often feels quite forgotten about. The red colour which surrounds the note emphasises the feeling of anger that the young girl feels about being left alone. This also reinforces the sense of disrupted relationship between mother and child.  How the diegetic back light from the window shines light on the note could be suggestive of how the teenage daughter being left alone a lot is the problem in their relationship and they lack the close bond that is usual for a Mother and daughter to share.

When this wide shot arrives on screen we hear the lyrics 'To the way that I need you' plays, this image of 'loser' written on the back of the shirt further drives the sense of how alone she feels. It constructs a  sense of truly needing her Mother as she stands in her bedroom alone looking at her defaced shirt. This shot highlights how the young teenage is struggling and as she stands there alone it highlights how no one is there to help her. However later on in the song the lyrics ' we hide our emotions' play as the girl is surrounded by bullies.

At 2:21 we get a sense that she has been hiding her emotions about being bullied as the lyrics play and we see her become overwhelmed by the situation. This connotes that due to her relationship with her Mother she has not been able to talk to her about her dreadful situation. However, when she returns home we see this image on screen;

At this point the song is climaxing, it is when she see's her Mother than the song slowly calms down and fades into the background which creates a sense of calm. This may be suggesting that the overwhelming sense of panic she was feeling earlier when surrounded by bullies has disappeared as soon as she see's her Mum. We hear 'it feels like there's oceans, between you and me', we hear the singing voice decline into the background which connotes a sense of reconciliation between Mother and daughter, this ultimately closes the narrative of the music video as between the beginning and the end we have seen a series of events which have led up to the emotional hug that is shared between them.

To conclude, to apply Andrew Goodwin's theory of music videos from 'Dancing in the distraction factory' to our own music video would create a successful music video. Particularly the key relationship between visuals and lyrics, this creates a clear understanding of the song for the audience and also makes it more personal. These are all details that would make our music video ultimately more successful.

Choosing a song for our music video

The four songs we evaluated;

  

The first song we evaluated is ‘Take it or Leave it’ by The Montagues and Capulets, a local band from Norwich; although we do not know them personally we would be able to get in touch with them. The song is four minutes and 16 seconds long which ultimately is slightly too long for a music video as this would be much more footage that would need to be filmed and the audience may lose interest by this point, by this I mean that we would need to hold an audience interest for a lot longer than intended. The optimum length of a song that we are looking out for is from 2 minutes and 30 seconds to 3 minutes.

Whilst listening to the song we felt there was something missing, the song did not seem to entice us or seem at all catchy. Perhaps this was because of the similar pace throughout the entirety of the song, ‘Take it or leave it’ does not have clear sections like chorus or a bridge. These seem to blur into one another making them unnoticeable to the listener. This ultimately leaves the song creating a weak impression as it does not have that familiar catchy feel to it. Going back to the slow pace of the song, this is a particularly weak prospect as to be able to create a good edit we need a song that uses pace effectively. There needs to be a distinct rise and fall, which this song does not have, therefore there cannot be different speeds to the edit which would ultimately create a more successful edit.

Personally, I do not like this song very much which creates a problem, the lyrics to me do not feel inspiring to make a music video because of this I have found it difficult to think of ideas to shoot. Overall, we agreed that due to mostly the slow pace and uninspiring this was the right song for us.

Next, we looked at ‘Choose’ by Finn Doherty, a local solo artist that I know personally from high school. This song features on Finn’s latest release, his EP album; ‘Heritage and parenting’. This song starts with a very clear beat and a crescendo, these are strong points for a possible music video to be made. Quickly there is beat introduced by a sound of strong drums and guitars this continues throughout the entirety of the song. Another clear strong point of Finn Doherty’s ‘Choose’ is the definitive sections, compared to The Montagues and Capulets ‘Take it or leave it’, ‘Choose’ has a much clear structure to the song. For example, the chorus in ‘choose’ compared to ‘Take it or leave it’ is much more coherent. ‘Choose’ has strong dynamics created by the different instruments used like drums, guitar and piano at the beginning.

The lyrics of ‘choose’ have already started to create ideas of possible narratives for a music video, the narrative could become more intense in time with the crescendo of the song which I feel would be a very effective technique to have a successful music video. Overall ‘choose’ could be a possible contender for a music video.

Thirdly, we evaluated ‘Process’, another song from Finn Doherty’s Heritage and Parenting album, like his song ‘Choose’ this song also begins with a strong rhythm created by the beat of a piano, guitar and drums. Although this song does not feature a crescendo like ‘Choose’ the fast pace works in its favor as ‘Choose’ is slower compared to ‘Process’. The fast pace the climax to the chorus and the chorus. This would allow us to change pace in the edit, which in turn would give us a more successful video. This is because keeping the same pace throughout the whole entire video would be considered boring and would not show case our skills particularly well. Personally, these lyrics spark more ideas for a potential music video than ‘Choose’ because I believe ‘Process’ to be about a romantic relationship which is easier to create a narrative for. I feel that ‘Process’ is a stronger contender than ‘Choose’, this is down to the pace of the song, dynamics and the lyrics.

Finally, the last song we evaluated was ‘Text Me’ by The Visitors. It is just under four minutes long which immediately causes a concern as this song would require a lot of footage to be shot. This song begins with a soft guitar instrumental, this is does not create a strong beat, it is also has quite a slow pace. Compared to Finn Doherty’s this song seems softer and gentler because of the lack of a beat, this pivots us more towards ‘process’ as a good beat is a strong selling point. However, the pace does increase towards the end of the song as more instruments become introduced like drums, which does strengthen the beat, the pace only seems to change once unlike ‘Process’ which weakens the song as we are looking for several pace changes so that the edit can also change pace to. Personally, as I do not like this song because alternative rock is not my own music taste, the lyrics do not ignite any ideas for a potential music ideas.

We choose Finn Doherty’s ‘Process’ as the song for our music video, this song came out as the top contender while evaluating the suitability for all four songs. Using this diagram

, we could compare of the songs accurately. As shown ‘Process’ out as the four songs hit the suitability points that were looking for most, therefore I feel that it is a sensible and the best choice for our music video.

First Post

Hello, this is my A2 Media Blog for year 13 coursework to uploaded upon.