Taylor Swift: Language and Representations blog tasks

 

Taylor Swift: Language and Representations blog tasks

Narrative

Go to our Media Magazine archive (issue MM79) and read the feature All Too Well on Taylor Swift and how she controls her own narrative. Answer the following questions: 

1) Why is Taylor Swift re-recording her earlier albums? 

Swift quickly announced her intentions to re-record her Big Machine albums, which would give her complete ownership of the records and nullify Braun’s involvement. So far two re-recordings have been released, to both huge critical and commercial success – Fearless (Taylor’s Version) and Red (Taylor’s Version). The latter album is Swift’s most successful in her entire discography to date, and is a mark of her continued resurgence against those who would dictate her career.

2) Why did Taylor Swift choose to make the short film 'All Too Well'? 

In choosing to make the song into a short film, rather than just a music video, Swift has consciously chosen to push her professional creative boundaries for the sake of her art and her storytelling – and that’s something we can only admire her for.

3) What other examples are provided in the article of Taylor Swift using media to construct her own image? 

the entirety of ‘Shake It Off’ is dedicated to telling Swift’s haters how little she cares for their opinions, while the video for ‘Bad Blood’ is yet another showcase of her filmmaking talents.

Taylor Swift textual analysis

Work through the following tasks to complete your textual analysis of Taylor Swift's website and social media. 

1) Go to Taylor Swift's website. What do you notice about the media language choices - text, font, images, page design, links?

The text is shimmery, bold. pink. This may be to attracts a younger female audience. 

The picture looks like a shattered mirror, suggesting that she may feel shattered an exhausted after returning from her lengthy eras tour.

2) Now visit her Eras tour microsite. What do you notice about the construction of this site in terms of images and website conventions? 

There is a collage of contrasting images to reflect her eras and life. Youre able to click on each era to further explore her music.

3) Visit Taylor Swift's Twitter feed. Analyse her use of tweets/posts - are they promoting her music, her tour, or something else? Can you find any that are socially or politically oriented? 

She has spoken in the past about trump and her views against him. She is a liberal and expresses her support for women.

4) Look at Taylor Swift's Instagram account. What do you notice about the selection and construction of images, reels and posts?  

The selection of images reflects her colour scheme and branding, in order to promote latest album. The use of teal is eye catching and is shown in all her highlights.

5) Research Taylor Swift across any other social media accounts - e.g. Facebook. Do you notice any differences in how she represents herself on different platforms? Comment on text, images or tone/content.  

all platforms have the same branding, bio and colour scheme. consistent branding helps promote her most recent era