Andrew Goodwin's theory on Taylor Swift Love Story

Abul Kalam 13 al2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xg3vE8Ie_E

Links Between lyrics and visuals.

“we were Both Young when I first saw you” “im standing , on a

balcony in summer air”

“i Sneak out to the garden to seeyou”

“Marry me juliet you never have to bealone”

How does it link between lyrics and visuals Taylor swift love story is a narrative video which ,

represents its image with the lyrics The images create a meaning and a genre of the

music. The genre of this song was country and pop , we saw the relationship and the use of mis en scean relating to the genre, because the setting was based in a rural area , where there was more of a country side feeling . E.g “I Sneak out to the garden to seeyou” the image that was set at that moment was her in a really big field , this relates to the fact that the visual and lyrics match the genre its based at cause we can see her in a field. Therefore the music video demonstrated the genre characteristic.

Therefore Andrew Goodwin theory was correct , links between lyrics and visuals is a key factor.

Links between music and visualsThere are lots of cuts and shots

to highlight the song, which creates impact between the music and the video, so the audience stays focused to the music. There is a dance scene

in the video which has been cut and edited well to fit the song, so the relationship of music and visuals fit together

Genre CharacteristicMost country pop artist base their video ,

around their self, so that all the attention are on them ( being on a field singing , and having nothing on the background , will conclude the audience to just look at the character as there is nothing at the background) so in the video the main focus was on Taylor swift. Most Country pop video include narrative, such as this Taylor swift love story, its based on a story line of Romeo and Juliet, and the video is performed in story.

Notion of looking and voyeurism

As the song is based on a love story , and the narrative of Romeo and Juliet, it is easy to sense that the relation ship in the video is a secret “somewhere we can be alone” the camera work uses close up of the couple, this suggests that there is closeness between both them, and it creates dramatic irony because the audience is able to tell that its a secret, more over there was a long shot used to show that both of the couple has sneaked out , which may have been used to suggest that it may be danger.

Multiple close ups of the artist / record labels need to sell extra

Taylor swift plays the main character and also the main actor in the music video, so there is so many close ups, and screen type which is always focused on her, selling will be conventional as the song relates to the genre its from

you can see by the album cover , that she is in an old fashion clothing , with a really posh texture of old buildingwhich all relates to the genre , therefore record labelscan sell extra as it is something different not many artist use this type of convention.

Intertextual referenceOne of the Intertextual reference from the

video was Romeo and Juliet within the lyrics “ cause you were Romeo , daddy said stay away from Juliet” at this point of the video the artist was shown in the balcony.

More over Intertextual reference was shown by the time period, through the use of mis en scene , such as the clothing and setting.