Music Video Analysis - Blank Space

Song Name: Blank Space

Artist: Taylor Swift 

Genre Characteristics: At the beginning the audience are shown and establishing shot of a luxury mansion with an expensive sports car outside, this sets the tone of the video.

Relationship Between Lyrics And Visuals: As the lyrics "incredible things" are heard, the viewer is shown a ridiculous room full of expensive things with two horses. It shows the outrageous wealth the character possesses and also links in to the lyric "take this too far" because the viewer is shocked by what they're seeing.

Relationship Between Music And Visuals: The viewer is shown a close up of a handsome man as the lyric "look at that face" is sung. This ties in with the story of the video and is the girl trying to justify to the audience why she fell for him.

Are There Any Close-ups Of The Artist: As Taylor Swift is the main character in the video it creates a star image motif. Numerous close ups are shown of both characters to the viewer throughout the video. This could be done to create intimacy between audience and character or to emphasise meaning into the characters actions and/or words.

Is There Reference To The Notion Of Looking: At one point if the video, Taylor is stood at the top of a staircase looking out towards the audience. The audience are in the same level as Taylor and so suffers she is trying to pursuades them to believe her and not him.

Are There Any Intertextual References: The two horses at the beginning of the video could be making reference to the death of Emily Davison, the suffragette trampled to death by the Kings horse at the 1913 Derby. A week earlier before releasing the video Taylor had withdrew from Spotify, arguing that major corporations are taking advantage of artists and that Artists feel powerless over what happens to their music. Throughout the video the man is constantly on his phone. He does it while having a picnic with Taylor, he dies it whilst in the garden with her and she is clearly unhappy about it. This is clearly a message to Spotify that streaming is killing Songwriters' careers and she wants no part of it. Taylor then later drops the phone into water. This symbolises her cutting all ties with Spotify and her clear statement that she will not be exploited like other artists.