Music video Analysis#1
Title Track
Taylor Swift - …Ready For It?
Song Video
Artist
Single by Taylor Swift from the album Reputation
Released October24, 201
Studio MXM Studio
Genre Electropop/Industrial Pop
Songwriter(s) Taylor swift
Max Martin
Shellback
Ali Payami
Producer(s) Max Martin
Shellback
Ali Payami
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Swift is shown as two versions of herself in the music video — a hooded witch-type robot and a naked cyborg. A popular theory is that the naked version of Swift is the media's portrayal of her. At the beginning of the video, the hooded Swift is controlling naked Swift and it's kind of sad, TBH. Naked Swift is trying to get her glow on and keeps getting knocked down.
Then, at the end, Naked Swift reclaims herself and strikes back. This could also relate to her being naked in Kanye West's "Famous" music video. Instead of letting someone else be in control, Swift is now taking over.
VIDEO PLOT
Swift's video for "…Ready" is dark and sci-fi-themed, with callbacks to Tron and Blade Runner – but it's also laden with small clues to what could be the real story lurking behind the scenes.
The most obvious parallel to "…Ready for It?" in Swift's videography is the Kahn-directed "Bad Blood," a similarly futuristic, battle-heavy clip that finds Swift and her army of besties taking on haters. But in this video, she's on her own, and fighting against her toughest enemy – herself. There might be a Harry Potter reference, too.
Intertextuality
Swen E Carlson Theory
Television Barred
Technical Code
Lighting
Most of the scenes shot in the video have a very low light level. It is dark, gloomy and mysterious at most occasions. Although their are some great special effects showing lightening and fireworks but still the use of lights is very little which gives the video a true look full of suspense and mystery.
Camera angles
Close-up
The Low Angle
The Long Shot
The Wide Low Shot
Extra Close-up Shot
The Side Angle Shot
Swift is shown as two versions of herself in the music video — a hooded witch-type robot and a naked cyborg. Cyborg-Taylor at one point is mounted on a white horse, perhaps as a way of signaling that she's receiving her real-world döppleganger's memories.
Symbolic Code (Costumes)
Concepts
This music video includes the concept of :
- Sci-Fi
- Robotics
- Futuristics
- Self-Conscience
- Split Personality
- Violence
Science Fiction, wild, passionate, competing
Themes and atmosphere
Performance
Lip syncing by the vocalist Taylor Swift herself
Ideology
The video represents the youth of today who are confused and want to break free hence live a life of freedom without any barriers. They want to take control of their life and in doing so they might come across hazards and dangers.
Advanced Portfolio
The hoodie-clad Swift might be a replicant. In the first close-up of Swift's precision-lined eyes, they have a glint to them – a possible allusion to the way that the sci-fi classic Blade Runner (back in the zeitgeist thanks to a sequel) alerted viewers to the robotic core of some of its characters.
1989 gets a shout-out right away. As a hoodie-clad Swift stands at the threshold of the grungy subterranean bunker (or abandoned shopping mall?) where her cyborgian twin is stashed, two numbers appear behind her scrawled in graffiti: "89" and "91." The first is likely a reference to Swift's birth year, which provided the title of her last album; "91" could very well be a shout-out to Swift's current paramour, actor Joe Alwyn, who was born on February 21, 1991.
Swift's eight exes are part of the tableau again. In the "Look What You Made Me Do" video, Swift had eight backup dancers, which some thought was a reference to the singer's suite of famous ex-boyfriends like Jake Gyllenhaal, Britpopper Harry Styles and Avengers actor Tom Hiddleston; this time, eight black-clad sorta-cyborgs guard the entrance to other-Swift's lair.
Swift still has some bad blood. The most obvious parallel to "…Ready for It?" in Swift's videography is the Kahn-directed "Bad Blood," a similarly futuristic, battle-heavy clip that finds Swift and her army of besties taking on haters. But in this video, she's on her own, and fighting against her toughest enemy – herself. (There's also a possible allusion to the "Out of the Woods" clip, another Kahn-Swift work, when cyborg-Swift is posing on her platform.)
Cyborgian Swift rides a white horse. Swift's 2008 album Fearless has a track called "White Horse," which uses fairytale imagery to tell the story of a relationship that broke her spirit. ("I was a dreamer before you went and let me down," she sings). She also rides one in the Kahn-directed video for the poison-pen tease "Blank Space." Cyborg-Taylor at one point is mounted on a white horse, perhaps as a way of signaling that she's receiving her real-world döppleganger's memories.
There might be a Harry Potter reference, too. At one point cyborg-Swift gazes at a glowing orb, reflected in her eyes; one eagle-eyed Swiftie connected that scene to a moment in the Harry Potter films when Harry faces off against a "Dark Lord," who will face off with an unknown assailant who has "power the Dark Lord knows not… and either must die at the hand of the other, for neither can live while the other survives."
Surprised Taylor" makes a comeback – maybe because Taylor has freed herself from the past. The video ends with clone-Taylor watching as her combatant is struck down by lightning while standing on a platform emblazoned with the slogan "They're burning all the witches." While some have said that this could be a reference to Swift's breaking free of the narrative that's been placed on her by the media, the way nu-Taylor's eye glitters at the clip's very end makes one wonder what might be next.
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By aroojtas123
