Music Video Textual Analysis

By Fasiha Zaheer

"You Belong With Me"

By Taylor Swift

Album: 

Genre: Country Pop

Year of Release: 2009

Directed By: Roman White

Record Company:

 

Music Video Type:

Narrative & Performance Based

 

Narrative of Music Video:

Text

The video begins with the male protagonist having a conversation on the phone, which looks more like an argument. Taylor Swift is the protagonist, as soon as she notices and after the phone call ends they both start communicating by holding up signs through their bedroom windows. Taylor is basically shown as a nerd. After which the male protagonist closes his curtains and Taylor is shown holding up a sign saying "I love You".

 

 

As the songs chorus is approached Taylor starts to sing and dance in front of the mirror, wearing different outfits.

Then, Taylor is seen sitting on a bench in front of their house reading a book. The male protagonist arrives and sits next to her.

This is when Taylor the antagonist arrives in a red convertible car and the male protagonist gets in the car, she kisses him and glares at the protagonist.

The setting changes and the antagonist is seen cheer-leading at a football game while the protagonist is on the bleachers, as a part of the school band. After, the male protagonist wins the touchdown, he goes to his girlfried (Taylor antagonist) but to his surprise he finds her flirting with another team mate, which follows an argument resulting in their break up. While Taylor the protagonist is in disbelief.

 

After, which they are again seen communicating through signs, the male protagonist asks, Taylor the protagonist if she was going to the prom to which she responds, "no studying". To which the male protagonist responds, "wish you were". Taylor notices his bleakness. Due, to which she changes her mind. 

 

The setting changes again and Taylor is seen entering the prom in a white dress, breaking out of her shell.

 

 

 

Finally, the male protagonist spots her, he walks towards her and Taylor the antagonist in a red dress, attempts to stop him but to her surprise he ignores her.

 

 

 

 

In the end, the male protagonist and Taylor the protagonist reveal to each other the signs saying "I love You" and kiss.

Representation:

 

This music video represents the stereotypes in school. Such as the popular "Jocks and Cheerleaders" and unpopular "Nerds" and "Band Geeks". The narrative is very cliché as it follows the typical love story where the nerd falls in love with the Jock and is not aware of it.  Whereas. the Jock is in love with the cheerleader. 

Cheerleader

Jock

Nerd/Band Geek

The cheerleader is being represented as "mean" and "betraying". As she flirts with another teammate. 

Taylor Swift changes into various outfits that represent stereotype within a school to appeal to a wider audience.

Media Message:

This music video gives the message that the good wins the battle as the protagonist gets the happy ending. Its not necessary that the "popular" teens get everything.

 

Another message received by the target audience could be that sometimes the people who are always there for you are perhaps your soul mate.

 

Also, a person should not be judged by their physical appearance as there may be many different sides to one person.

Intertextuality:

Various intertextual references are taken from different media texts example films and fairy tales. Such as the narrative is based on films, based on the popular culture of stereotypes within high school. The nerd falling in love with jock and the jock is in love with the cheerleader and he fails to see the nerd. For example there is a similar theme in the movie "She's All That" (1999).

At the end of the video we see a intertextual reference  from the fairy tale Cinderella because her arriving at the prom in the white dress, leaving behind her "glasses" and "plain clothes", everyone staring at her because she looks beautiful. Just because of her transformation from a "nerd" to a different person she gets her prince charming. Which shows an underlying theme of the fairy tale Cinderella. 

 

Andrew Goodwin's theory on music videos, talks about the key features which distinguish a music video as a form. These include:

Theories:

Jock

Cheerleader

Nerd

Andrew Goodwin

1.  Music Videos demonstrate genre characteristics:  

It follows the genre characteristics of  "Country Pop". The target audience of this genre is the youth therefore we see the actors are young, the lighting used is bright and the colour palette used is vibrant.  The girl next door dancing in her bed room this suggests an innocence that comes with some pop music and the youth culture of today.

 

The typical American stereotypical ‘Boy gets girl’ high school love story, which includes stereotypes of the "popular"(Jocks and Cheerleaders) and "not popular" (Nerds).narrative is very common in the genre of pop. The pop genre is focused on enjoyment and easy listening and watching of the video. It isn’t a serious video and it allows the audience to follow the narrative easily.

 

Theories:

The relationship between the lyrics and visual is also seen.  The artist sings the following lyrics:

 

"You're on the phone with your girlfriend—she's upset,
She's going off about something that you said
Cause she doesn't get your humour like I do."

 

We see that the telephone call, actually being played out  by the love interest of the artist.  

 

Another example is: 

"She wears short skirts I wear t-shirts"

 

As she sings this she points to her t-shirt therefore giving a literal explanation and there is a clear relationship between the lyrics and video.This is frequent throughout the video and it allows the audience to connect the lyrics to the video, which aids their understanding of the video.

 

 Everything matches to the lyrics, and the use of close ups express her emotions every time the boy leaves. The camera switches back and forth from her to him to show the connection between them.

 

 

Jock

Cheerleader

Nerd

Text

2. There is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals:
 

Theories:

The relationship between the lyrics and visual is also seen.  When the music cuts to the beat,  Taylor swift is seen trying on different outfits. The pace of the music is a little bit faster, short fast images are shown.

 

As the music slows down Taylor Swift is seen entering the prom.

 

 

Jock

Cheerleader

Nerd

Text

3. There is a relationship between the music and the visuals:

This is seen throughout the music video where the cuts are in sync with the beat of the music.

Theories:

The music video is filled with close up of Taylor Swift focusing on her emotions specifically and when she is singing. This because the record companies use it a selling point to promote the sales of the music video and the music.

 

Jock

Cheerleader

Nerd

Text

4. There will be a demand on the part of the record company for a lot of close ups of the main artists or vocalist:

5. Frequent reference to the notion of looking and voyeuristic treatment of the female body:

Andrew Goodwin suggests we are ‘watching’ the performer for pleasure (this relates to voyeurism) We are ‘watching’ the performer for pleasure throughout the video there are recurring motifs such as a reflections. This re-enforces the idea of watching. during the video this is a feature all the way through, firstly Taylor Swift is looking through a window which you can see her reflection, another time she is looking through the mirror is inviting the audience to engage in.

 

Theories:

At the end of the video we see a intertextual reference  from the fairy tale Cinderella because her arriving at the prom in the white dress, leaving behind her "glasses" and "plain clothes", everyone staring at her because she looks beautiful. Just because of her transformation from a "nerd" to a different person she gets her prince charming. Which shows an underlying theme of the fairy tale Cinderella. 

 

 

Jock

Cheerleader

Nerd

Text

6. There are often inter-textual references:

Star Image

The start image is presented throughout; Taylor swift has a  quirky individual style ad this is represented throughout, by showing her ‘geekier’ style at the start of the video, by wearing glasses and baggy t-shirts, and being in a high school band with an unflattering outfit. It shows her girl next door style. Her curly hair style being her signature is seen throughout. 

 She also doubles up and plays the enemy of her as the girl that is completely opposite with brown hair straight hair, this forms a contrast between the characters. It includes many close ups of her and different camera angles, this allows the audience to connect to her. It would please the audience as in the end she gets the boy, and her being happy by completely changing her look by wearing  a white prom dress, which was  opposite of  how she first looked  in the start of the video. This enhances her star image also because she has the ability to connect to  her target audience. 

THE END