A music video can be indentified as a type of short film that is made in synchronisation with a song by an artist as a promotional tool. Music videos within the modern age are typically created to be used for promotion due to an artist promoting their song.
Within this blog, the music video that I will be discussing is Taylor Swift's 'We are never getting back together'. The purpose of this music video is to act as a marketing tool to promote the song. This is due to the lyrics being extremely repetitive, therefore catchy. Due to such repetition, the song became more popular therefore the demand for a video heightened. Because of this, the imagery of the video needed to fit the mould of the song. As well as this, another purpose is to show a short narrative/representation of the artist (Taylor Swift). The video portrays the ideas and views hidden within the song, as a bad breakup is discussed. This videos shows the events that take place during and after the idea. This can further represent Taylor Swift as being strong and having the power to create a popular song in the charts about somebody from her past.
There are two specific styles used within this music video. The first is the idea of performance as Taylor Swift runs around singing and dancing. Seen through a long shot as Taylor Swift is known to have a cute, innocent image as she tries to keep her reputation high to be a role model to fans. This also shows that she is carefree about the ending of her relationship which contrasts with the more brutal lyrics.
This further links to the idea of narrative as Taylor tells the audience the story of her relationship and the breakup and how these elements occurred. This causes the audience to learn some more about her life and her more private relationships are shown publicly. However with this quirky lyrics, Taylor seems content and this can be seen through lighting as it is high key as Taylor reminisces over the relationship, showing that she is happy and isn't the typical victim, sad girl character.
The genre of music that this song is categorised in is pop. The codes/conventions of this certain genre is happiness and having fun however, an event either positive or negative is typically explored for example, the idea of break up. Linking to first convention, this video follows this genre as Taylor dances around, seemingly content with the break up,wearing pretty costumes.
However, the video can also be viewed as challenging the conventions of the pop genre as discussed, Taylor does dance around and act in a positive way however in most pop videos (for example, Katy Perry's 'Thinking of you', Pink's 'Just give me a reason' and Taylor Swift's 'White Horse' to name a few) as the artists act timidly, showing explicitly that they are hurt by the break up, however Taylor appears unphased, setting a strong example.
I have found that Taylor Swift's particular target audience is teenaged girls and females that have experienced the same events or can bond with the artist due to possessing the same emotions. This video appeals to this target audience as Taylor almost appears as 'the girl next door' stereotype as she bonds with her fans by highlighting that she has faced the same problems as them. This can be seen though the use of a mid shot as the couple argues. She is sat at a table with her boyfriend, arguing about contrasting music taste. Petty/tedious argument topics such as this appeals to her audience and the wider audience as these are types of arguments that couples face, and Taylor is cleverly showing that she can relate to everyone, therefore the audience bond with her, the song and video.
Lastly, Taylor uses this video to give her target audience a life lesson and how to deal with a breakup and not to be conventionally 'heart broken'. This can be seen through factors she uses to get over her partner. An example of this is the use if iconography as she talks about the break up with a friend on the phone. This directly bonds her with her target audience and this is a common routine for teenage girls to discuss life events and problems with their friends. This can be seen as a clever tactic, as this appeals to the target audience, therefore teenage girls would buy this song after watching the video as a means of dealing with their personal life issues.
