Taylor Swift – Blank Space

Textual Analysis

L.I.I.A.R

Mise-en-Scene

The mise-en-scene within this music video uses satire to reflect the media’s view on Taylor Swift and

how she is portrayed.

• The prestigious house, clothes, car, and boyfriend are all part of an act that mocks the way she is

represented within physical and social media.

• The large mansion suggests that she’s rich and clothing such as Christian Louboutin shoes conveys

that she could be very materialistic and only soughts as after the best product.

• A grey sky is used from 0.48 seconds in the music video when there is a long-shot of her and the

man walking outside of her mansion. This and her black dress further conveys her supposed ‘dark’,

‘twisted’ character.

• The red lipstick throughout suggests that she is dangerous (red t-shirt syndrome) and as you watch

the video ahead, you see her turn from very sweet and innocent (portrayed via summer clothing)

into deranged and irrational person (she wears a red jumper in the scene from 1.53 – 2.13).

• The use of a red apple at the end has an exophoric reference to snow white and poison, therefore

suggesting that she is dangerous just like the witch in Snow White is perilous. Also the red car that

turns up at the end of the music video reinforces the red t-shirt syndrome, showing that whoever is

driving the car is in danger and may reach the same fate as the others.

• Her leopard print dress further represents her wealth as animal print is seen as an esteemed item of

clothing.

• Another exophoric reference would be the cut up shirt shown at 2.31 as this refers to the film ‘Mean

Girls’ as character ‘Regina George’ does this to spite someone. This is clever satire of her portrayal

from the media as they generally convey her as a “crazy ex-girlfriend” as she is known for writing

songs about past relationships. Therefore, this reference plays on another text and takes one ideology

and inputs it within another.

Cinematography

The cinematography is introduced with a traditional establishing shot which also reflects the prestigious

mansion-like building.

• This establishing shot shows an expensive sports car and therefore, the audience can assume that

whoever lives here must be wealthy.

• There is a pan at 0.05 seconds which also graphic matches with the bedroom scene at 0.08 where

Taylor moves her arm to the right (in the direction of the previous pan). This creates continuity with

the rest of the video and therefore gives credit to the film producer and director as you can determine

that this is a high quality video.

• The cinematography at 0.13 is symmetrical in nature. Everything from the white horses

(representing wealth due to the connotations of a horse being a well-sought, high-end animals – due

to the representation of derby days and mystical white creatures such as unicorns.) This symmetry

shows that the main protagonist likes everything in a particular way. In the media, Taylor Swift is

presented as someone that turns almost psychopathic if she doesn’t get her own way, therefore, this

long-shot shows that she likes to be in control and prefers things a certain way.

• When things get out of her control, you can see this via the shot- reverse shot sequence starting at

1.54 where you can see a conflict between Taylor and her boyfriend (from the music video). You see

her throw a vase at him and therefore this supports the representation of this music video (that she is

mocking the media for their false presentation of her.)

• The close-up at 2.53 seconds shows Taylor holding a red apple. This matches her red lipstick and

therefore connotes that she is dangerous.

• There are many mid-shots and long-shots within this video – this is done to show the scenery and

where the narrative is set, therefore determining what kind of person she is.

Editing

• The pace of the editing becomes faster as the narrative progresses onto Taylor Finding out that the

man in the video had cheated on her. 1.54 - the shots become fast paced and more frequent

• The use of animation at 3.00 could further represent the surreal way media portrays Taylor Swift –

this, for me, shows that their representation of her is false (just like the animation.)

• The use of slow-motion shown at the beginning of the music matches the narrative as to begin with,

both characters are very calm, however, later on in the video, the only slow-motion is when you see

the burnt clothes being thrown out of the window and therefore both situations highlight the nice and

horrible aspects of their relationship.

• The graphic match at 2.22 shows Taylor punching a wall and then a cut-shot to her knifing the

picture she painted of the man in the music video. This is done several times throughout the video

and I think it really highlights the psychotic, violent portrayal of the media.

Sound

The only sound within this music is the non-digetic soundtrack.

However, music videos such as ‘Rihanna - We Found Love ft.

Calvin Harris’ has a one minute dialogue that sets the tone for the

rest of the video. This therefore could reinforce that the music

video is more of a short-story in that case.

Rihanna – We Found Love ft. Calvin Harris

Language

If you analyse the lyrics from a first-glance view, you can interpret that the song is about getting into a

relationship. However, in collaboration with the song’s music video, the song lyrics become a lot more

reckless and encrypted. It almost becomes a game to her within the music video as she states ‘’Cause

you know I love the players, And you love the game’ suggesting that her ‘long list of ex-lovers’ were

just games that ended. In the media, she is portrayed as someone who manipulates men and toys with

their emotions, whereas in real life, she claims she writes the song about the ex to establish self-

security after a seemingly harsh break-up. Therefore, the language in this song can be seen as sarcastic

as she says ‘So hey, let's be friends, I'm dying to see how this one ends’ almost suggests she’s mocking

the representation of her in the media – that she has so many ex-boyfriends so she can write songs

about them. She mentions the media within her video in a sarcastic manner as she says ‘They'll tell you

I'm insane’, ‘they’ can suggest that many people believe what the media tell them which thus reinforces

the hypodermic needle theory which states that the media influences large groups of people directly

and uniformly ‘injecting’ them with appropriate messages designed to trigger a desired response.

Which in cases for parody film-maker ‘Bart Baker’, he uses the media’s false portrayal to create an

unrealistic representation of artists such as Taylor Swift for a comical, entertaining purpose.

Taylor Swift - "Blank Space" PARODY PARODY REAL VIDEO

Ideology

The ideology of Taylor Swift is conventionally teenage relationship troubles. However, after

bringing out her new album ‘1989’, her ideology has seemingly changed slightly. She was

quoted saying that she wanted her new album to be about being free and not being tied down

by things such as relationships is reinforced by her hit single ‘Shake it Off’ that came out on

8th October 2014 and her song ‘Clean’ that are both about finally being your own person.

However, the ideology of the Blank Space music video does not portray her as being set free

and down to earth like all of the rest of her songs in the album. This is another reason that

can support the fact that this music video is being sarcastic and playing on stereotypes. In

the mise-en-scene, you can determine that she is very high maintenance and always needs a

lover in her life – shown by her wall of paintings (of ‘ex-lovers’). This could however be

aimed at her target audience of teens to show that you should stand up for yourself if you

don’t agree with what people are saying about you.

You can see the

hammer in the head of

the painting

Institution

Taylor Swift is a singer/songwriter from

Wyomissing, Pennsylvania. She moved to

Nashville, Tennessee when she was just 14 and

was signed to the independent label Big Machine

Records. Creating her first hit album at just 17.

She began as a country princess but has

recently had a career change and with the

release of her fifth album ‘1989’, she now

produces pop music. Although she is signed to

an independent label, she is regarded as a

mainstream artist.

Audience

For this specific music video by Taylor Swift, I think that her target audience is for those who

create false representations of her such as: the media and certain characters within society. It

highlights a very prestigious lifestyle that can only be obtained through money, I don’t think

Taylor intended to create a superior image of herself, therefore, making a mockery of people

who lie about her seems more feasible.

Her target audience seems to have expanded after her entrance as a pop artist last October and

now people of all ages want to dance and sing-a-long with her. This is evidently because pop

is a highly mainstream genre whereas country music is low-frequency in terms of popularity.

Therefore, more walks of life are going to stumble across Taylor’s new music as it is

mainstream and would therefore be played through more popular radio stations as they know

more people will tune in.

Also, Taylor has now strayed away from writing primarily about ex-boyfriends, which

generally attracted her main audience of young to older teenage girls. Therefore, the school-

girl representation shown in ‘The Story of Us’ is left in the past and her new, more refined

music attracts more people as it relates to various different life struggles or accomplishes.

Representation

There are distinct representations of

both men and women in this music

video.

The woman is represented as a

clingy, attached ex-girlfriend who is

also slightly insane. She is

represented as prestigious and

wealthy and therefore the audience

can assume she is presenting herself

as someone who goes crazy if they

don’t get their own way (hence the

crazy ex-girlfriend stigma).

The man is presented as weak and

vulnerable to her temptress ways,

therefore, the audience is more

favourable of the representation of

the man as he seems under her spell.