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? 

Her music was bought by Scooter Braun so she could no longer owned the rights to any of her old music which she spent her entire life making so she want back and re recorded her old songs and change them a little bit so that her fans will want to listen to her re recorded version that she owns rather than the old music, regaining control of her songs.

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

she wants to show her own story from her perspective since she has been criticised for her romantic relationships and has had them told for her by the media. She has chosen to push her professional creative boundaries for the sake of her art and her storytelling.

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

Her previous songs representing what she was going through then and her responses to criticism she was getting. She uses her different albums to represent her different eras of her life and her social medias to promote them.

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?

much more colourful than her old website, she still has emphasis on all of her different eras and on buying her different items like her music or her merch.

Still heavily reinforces capitalistic ideologies.

She has a letter to all of her fans on her website telling them how thankful she is for their support and that she plans on rereleasing more of her albums when the time is right, building a stronger personal relationship with her audience and giving them something to look forward to.

a lot more modern rather than the timeless aesthetic of her old website to represent how she is has rereleased all of her old music and now she can focus on making new music.

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

Very centred around her different eras presenting them with nostalgia for her audience

trying to sell merch

presents her new era as very vulnerable 

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 still promoting her new album as well as her pinned posts

her tweets are cantered around her beliefs and political views which makes her audience see themselves reflected in her but also so that supporting Taylor is supporting their own identity and beliefs

talks about shows that use her music like The Summer I Turned Pretty which is mutually beneficial for her music and the show.

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

Still promoting her new album in her bio and pinned posts

Her highlights also promote her different albums and songs 

does not show too much of her personal life apart from her wedding but shares mainly posts about her tours, her albums and pictures from music videos.

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.  

She uses different language to target different audiences however across all her platforms its mainly promotional content rather than interacting with fans

A/A* extension tasks

Read this academic history of celebrity culture and social contexts. How much can we find that is relevant to the kind of celebrity persona Taylor Swift has created? 

She has become so famous in this age that everything she does or says will be scrutinised and that now we live in a time where this doesn't just happen to celebrities but to normal people as well