Taylor SwiftI am analysing Taylor Swift because I like her style of ‘modern country and western’. She is a country singer but wears modern clothing and has a modern look. I would like to use this style in my magazine to make it more appealing to my target audience.

This long shot is effective as her costume is bright. It connotes Country & Western as she plays an acoustic guitar and is wearing cowboy boots.

How this has influenced me: I would like to construct this representation for my front cover in order to anchor the genre.

Taylor Swift is now a pop artist, but originally she started out as a Country and Western singer. I chose this image because it shows how she has kept the Country theme but also brought in the pop image as well. This image to the left shows a pop image because she has her hair curled and has her make up is subtle yet obvious. She seems to be more voyeuristic and her representation has changed.

This acoustic guitar is an indexical sign [Barthes] because they are highly associated with country and western music. It works with her boots and dress to define her representation.

How this has influenced me- I would like to use a guitar like this but probably on the contents page with a different artist. I want to use an electric guitar on the front page to excite a younger TA.

This dress is not usually associated with country. It is more of a pop/model style of clothing, which appeals to a younger audience because it is short and more modern. It uses the colour orange which shows wisdom, this tells us that she is very strong and independent. Also the colour orange appeals to a younger audience because it is bright and is more eye catching.

According to Dyer “a star is an image, not a real person” and here we can see Taylor Swifts star image developing and appealing changing, modern audience.

These boots are ideal and clearly signify my chosen genre. However, this may be difficult to source for my model. I will have to add this to my TA research and also ask my models.

Alternatives:

Jeans over the top of ankle bootsBare foot on grass/ strawMustang boots are popular

Overall I like the representation of Taylor Swift because she uses a more modern style of country and western.. I love how she breaks conventions and it works.She ahs also worked with Ed Sheeran, Miley Cyrus, Ryan Adams.