Taylor Swift: Language and Representations

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? 

She re-recorded to give her full ownership of the records and nullify Braun’s involvement.

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

This short film was to show how she has broken free of control by others and created an image of the greatest artists of all times. ‘All Too Well,’ a song that aches from heartbreak and longing as Taylor wanted to push her creativity.

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

It writes how she has gone to such lengths to take back her masters, to remove control from the hands of the wealthy and powerful. The key idea is that she is using her music to control her persona and construct her image.

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 page opens up to a central of Taylor in quite revealing clothes which can reinforce many negative female stereotypes. Her own logo/brand identity is on the top left almost reflecting how she reinvents herself in order to keep her persona fresh. The menu is a website convention where each section is a new place for fans to access and explore. We can see how the colour s are monochrome giving her whole website a classic  and even timeless look. Scrolling down there is her shot official section that is designed to make people buy her albums. They are all physical items  for people who like to collect or even senior swifties. This could also link to this new era of her album and concept of giving a nostalgic feel. The typography is serif font and can reference to Nirvanas iconic font giving a sense of intertextuality.

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 page is introduced with a collage of images to symbolise her different eras. They are all grainy and retro coloured grading to give the nostalgic feel once again. This can strengthen how she is able to re invent herself every single time. These images could again reinforce the male gaze and Taylor sexualising her self. The top menu is placed so that fans can spend money or jest even interact with other sections. She has also linked her social media sites as a sort of promotion and interaction.

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? 

Her Bio is similar across the platforms promoting her album. There is a placement of her logo on her banner that is consistent across the different album in order to promote her concept. She has a huge following showing how successful her engagement figures are. She is a big political influence as she has endorsed kamala Harris for the precedential race. There is also mention of her being a feminist as she supports female artists and movements that surrounds women.

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

Her Instagram is shown as a business account as she has a large amount of followers but is not following anyone this can show her capitalistic ideologies to promote her music. Once again her highlights are promoting her music whilst her pinned posts promote her album and tour. Most of the pictures taken are professional photographs whilst the one with the royal family is a selfie which can show authenticity. This can show how the monarchy are in tune with modern society and that both mutually benefit from this photo. This can reflect how mainstream she is to have such a large reach into society.

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 Facebook her posts are quite similar to her twitter although she does not post there regularly. In terms of images, formatting and even bio is similar to her other accounts almost identical as if she is just copying the same posts across multiple accounts. Although, I do feel like she is more herself and connected on Facebook as she did grow up with this being one of the fist social media platforms so I feel there might be a connection. This may feel like this as her other account seem more promotional and business accounts while this one is more personal showing how Taylor intents to connect with fans in a more mutual way. She can post and talk about what she is currently thinking without really having to worry about her album or music video.