Taylor Swift: Language and Representations

 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? 

This is so she can make more money as she didn't have the best record deal before and didn't make the most amount of money  before on record  deals. 

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

their ultimate purpose is the same: to allow Swift to tell the story in her own words and through that maintain control of her image.


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

She’s become an author, and her debut novel is titled (you guessed it) All Too Well.

not only is the song ‘All Too Well’ autobiographical, but in the world of the film Her takes control of the narrative herself – the same way that Swift does by writing the song and making the film. For both Swift and Her, art comes out of grief, and that art is not only a way of dealing with their grief, but of choosing to tell their own stories themselves, rather than waiting for other people to tell them first. This is important for both artists, because narrative dictates public image, and public image dictates all. For both women to take control of that is a powerful and understandable move.



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 top menu creates links for audiences to purchase and support Taylor Swift The front cover page is used to promote her new album and when it is releasing which is always the newest album, the next page is a shop where her fan base can purchase her album she also use  the image online  and the design of the homepage to create a minimalist style aesthetic for herself and her website. The use of a monochrome design also reinforces the celebrity persona of being timeless. 

In the image she is also hiding her face and identity  which is weird. This  suggests  that everyone already knows who Taylor swift is. 

.Link to  Mulvey and male gaze in he main image also link to Van Zoonen-women as a spectacle 



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

The collage of images represents the different eras as it is a era tour, the use of low quality, retro images establish this which is unconventional to modern websites

At the top right is links to all her different social media platforms showing digital convergence and can target different audiences who may not have all of them

The top menu shows her merch which is another way fans can support her 



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? 

Taylor Swift  uses her twitter feed to address her political status through tweets against Donald Trump calling him a white supremacist and racist during  his presidency   implying we will vote you off soon as she is supporting a female candidate Kamala Harris

she is political which has  lead to continuation of the culture war things such as the culture war.

Also has a hive mind fan base listen to everything she says.

Also she uses twitter to acknowledge other artists and her fan base building a relationship and to suggests re recording old songs she doesn't have the masters to 


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

Taylor swift  is following 0 people this implies she uses Instagram to promote and so she can stand out and be different  as her bio is always her newest album

All of her posts are promotional content, some of them imply vulnerability which could be used for male gaze to build a different audience


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.  

On her other social media platforms Taylor swift  similarly promotes her album to the audience these other platforms show Taylor swifts dominance in the industry




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