Video analysis's

I will be analysing Taylor Swift video ‘you belong with me’ This is a pop song presented in a narrative way. It tells the story of a typical ‘geeky’ girl who falls for the ‘popular boy’, a common movie theme. The target audience seems to be largely girls, as it is a ‘fairytale’ story, and also the song lyrics and artist will bring more interest for girls. The artist herself, Taylor Swift, plays herself as the lead girl, which is a common feature of narrative videos so she is still seen in it. In this video, Taylor Swift plays the ‘Geeky’ girl, and also the girlfriend, so she has both lead roles, showing the focus on her.
This is also a common theme throughout all of Taylor swift’s songs and lyrics, being about love and story’s about the boy and girl falling for each other. This is clearly Taylor Swift’s style of music, which is supported by her videos being narrative. This helps for the audience to visualise the song, and it is easily done because her songs are very story like, with a purpose throughout the song. So there is very strong links between Lyrics and Visuals, because the whole concept of the song is shown through the story. Precise examples include, ‘you’re on the phone with your girlfriend she’s upset’. At the point, the leading male is seen through the window pacing up and down on the phone. It shows Taylor Swifts reactions as well, which also makes it more story and film like. A second example, includes ‘she wears short skirts, I wear t-shirts’ and points to her T-shirt, Next, there is: ‘laughing on a park bench’ and they are both sitting on a bench laughing and talking. There are many precise links such as the above, and they all support the lyrics and relate it to the narrative in the video.
The music again has strong links to the video. Whenever the chorus is played, the action is always the bigger and faster part. For example, with the first main chorus with a faster beat and pace, Taylor swift is dancing around in her room to the music. At another chorus, it is at a busy football game with Taylor swift performing in a narrative sense with very exaggerated and big movement. So the bigger more eventful parts are placed during the chorus, because it is the main point of the song, and the most memorable parts for a audince.
There many close up of the artist, Taylor Swift. This is not only because they want to show who she is and what she is singing, but also because it is narrative and there is close up’s of her facial expressions. For example, when the leading boy is with his girlfriend in the car, you can see Taylor Swifts character and her facial expressions watching him, one factor implying she likes him. Theese shots help devolp the chacacters and storyline. One of the longest held close up's is at the end, when Taylor swift has 'Tansformed' and suprised everybody by dressing up and being there, and also there is a close up on the signs which they wrote to each other.Theese are defining moments in the story line and the audince is drawn to them becuase of the camera shots.
Taylor Swift has a clear style, her songs all relate to love and stories about falling for each other. This can be seen as her style because in her album ‘fearless’ all the songs are based around this theme. The previous single, ‘Love story’ it was a similar approach, with narrative story of a girl falling for the boy, with the video being very girly and sweet again. This was a very successful and popular song for a long time, which might be why this second single is similar and this definitely has similarities to her pervious video, playing the pretty quiet shy girl in both videos. The image of Taylor swift is being given as a teen, with all the typical teen story approaches. She is being shown as the innocent, quiet and sweet older teen, as she is this character within the video. However, what is interesting with this is that she also plays the popular girlfriend, with a costume change and makeup; she plays the two different extremes. I think this shows that she is versatile.
There is no reference to looking, and I think this is because the whole image of Taylor Swift and her music wouldn’t support the notion of looking. The whole video, as well as the music, lyrics and Taylor swift herself, are presented in a very sweet, cute, innocent way, so any notion of looking wouldn’t suit this ‘fairytale’ image. Even towards the male lead, there is no reference to looking.
Even though this video idea is based stereotypically I do not notice and intertexuality. It’s very stereotypical to many American film ideas, with the whole idea being the pretty ‘geeky’ girl falling for the ‘popular’ boy with his ‘bitchy’ girlfriend, and then the ‘geeky’ girl and the boy ending up together. This idea links In with many American teen movies, however there is not specific intertexuality included.
Overall, I think this is a very successful video. I believe it has a specific audience, as males and older males probably wouldn’t be interested in watching a girly romance. Also, it is presented from Taylor Swift’s character point of view, so girls will have more relation to this and may be more interested. However, I think the whole overall image is correct for this audience. I think it is interesting to watch, as it is a whole small movie story line with the music so there are a lot of visuals. I think it links very well to the song, and especially the lyrics and main meaning of them. A variety of camera shots have been used, mainly changing with the chourus. This speeds up the pace and keeps the tempo matching with the song.