Taylor Swift
Star theory is the thoughts of Richard Dyer, “a star is an image not a real person that is constructed (as any other aspect of fiction is) out of a range of materials”. This goes with the idea that there is two types of artists; pop performers like Katie Perry who care about their music not the fame. Then there is pop stars who live of publicity and scandals for their music and there image; these are people like Justin Bieber.
For my star theory I have decided to study Taylor Swift. Born in 1989, raised in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania. She then moved to Nashville, Tennessee to peruse a career in country music. She then got a signing from the music company Sony/ATV music publishing house, realising her debut album in 2006 (manly country music). Her ‘fearless’ album in 2008 became more towards to pop genre, it was the best-selling album in the US in 2008. She is now a global super star having sold 40 million albums.
In the start of her career she was producing music of the country genre. Being represented as this country girl, full of innocence and youthful. In her song ‘Our Song’ from her debut album she is characterized as a girly-girl, like a princess (because of her costume). She’s singing about love like it’s a fairy-tale which makes her relatable to young girls which attracts a specific target audience. In her second album the song ‘love story’ she is still being symbolized as again as innocent and dreaming of this fairy tale ending. The album cover for this as well is full of high key lighting which just represents her naive.
Now she’s later on in her career she’s started to get characterized as more powerful, sexualised women. In her 2012 Red album was at the time one of the most successful of her whole career, on the tour she received roughly $150 million. The music video for ‘red’ involves a large setting with an emphasis on camera angles which help show the audience and there reaction to her music. This was showing her as a great, powerful women with this great big cult following. But she also started to get sexualised buy how she moved from the long princess type dresses to small black shorts with bright red lipstick. In her songs ‘Bad Blood’ and ‘Blank Space’ she continues to be characterized as powerful, dominating and sexualised. Her costumes become more revealing and there is more of her body on show making her more sexualised to the audience. She is also wearing more make-up like red lipstick and bold eyeliner making her look more ‘bad ass’ and rebellious.
The close ups of Taylor Swifts in the media have changed significantly. The record company have changed her from a girl to a woman. She started out being very youthful and natural, her backgrounds of her first albums were blue backgrounds with butterflies; making her look very down to earth, innocent and childlike. Her hair in many of her first music videos was very perfectly styled, either straight or perfect curls to show her innocence and her youthfulness. Her costumes were white/blue dresses very much like princesses it represents her vulnerability and makes her look like she’s in a fairy-tale. The setting of her videos also change from quite, rural, country settings where we can see tranquillity and the youthfulness of songs and her as a star. In her more recent songs the setting has become a bigger scale, just like the way that Taylor’s image has become on a bigger scale and reaching a bigger audience. She has become a much more sexualised star as well that people look up to, her hair has become a lot more looser and more wild representing how she a rebellious star rather than the innocent singer she started out as.
The camerawork and editing of Taylor’s videos has also helped develop and shape her as a star. In the beginning of her career in her video ‘you belong with me’ there is many mid shots used to show her in her bedroom, being able to see the setting means that it makes her look relatable for a younger target audience. We were also able to see her costume of her pj’s representing her youthfulness. Later on in the video there is this other mid shot when she walked into the prom. This camera shot allows us to see her white, princess type dress, suggesting her innocence to the audience. We are also able to see the background behind her with people turning round to look at her, representing early on that she is a star people look up too.
As Taylor has developed into a pop star here camerawork and editing of her music videos have changed. As she’s matured into this global artist her music videos have developed with her, sticking to the image she wants to portray as an artist.
When you watch her ‘blank space’ video there is a long shot which is used to show Taylor differently to how she was represented in a mid-shot. This long shot allows us to the full setting and how eccentric it the setting is. Having this eccentric setting of white horses, chandeliers represent her power and wealth. She’s gone from being represented as this small, innocent, youthful girl to being represented as powerful, influential and wealthy. Her being represented in this way reinforces the idea that she is a dominating, sexualised woman who is powerful.
Having these two shots being edited together helps also to portray her image as youthful, fun and princess like. Her dancing in the long, glittered ball gown with her ‘prince charming’ is something many of younger age groups (8-16year olds) dream of and want; therefore they will look up to her image and her as a pop star improving her mass following. The shots of her riding around on the bike again represent her as fun and in touch with her younger self, creating this image that she’s this all round pop star package, improving her relatability and therefore her cult following.
Taylor swifts worldwide cultural significance in that she’s gone from this little girl to an strong independent women with huge amounts of power to her name. Her Fearless album had the song you belong with me on it, this music video really represents the ‘old’ Taylor, the one who studies in her room like an educated, good girl that she wants to be represented as. There is also strong attention sent towards the fact she’s failing in love with a man and she’s trying to get his attention and his approval. On her 2014 album of 1989, one of her most popular songs featured on it, Blank Space" reached number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 following "Shake It Off". Swift became the first woman in the hot 100's 56-year history to succeed herself at the top spot. Her cultural significance had changed dramatically at this point and she became this 20th century independent feminist with empowerment. In the bad blood video we had this absence of men and we saw he push the man, representing her power and control as both a women and a star, she challenged the idea that women are the less powerful sex which attracts feminists but also challenged sexism.
To conclude Taylor swift is an empowered feminist with a global audience. But it’s undoubtable that star theory is what’s made her that way; her development from a young, innocent girl who believed in true love as a fairy-tale to these global, sexualised women who has everything from wealth to power of her audiences. Taylor swift has changed considerably in relation to Dyer’s theory to gain that audience which a super star desires.
