Unit 26 Music Video Production Assignment 2

Taylor Swift - You Belong With Me 

Song Analyses 

Lyrics:

You're on the phone with your girlfriend, She's upset
She's going off about something that you said
She doesnt get your humour like I do

I'm in the room, its a typical Tuesday night
I'm listening to the kind of music she doesnt like
And she'll never know your story like I do

But she wears short skirts, I wear t-shirts
She's cheer captain and I'm on the bleachers
Dreaming bout the day when you'll wake up and find
That what you're lookin for has been here the whole time

If you could see that I'm the one who understands you
Been here all along so why can't you see?
You belong with me
You belong with me

Walkin the streets with you in your worn out jeans
I cant help thinking this is how it ought to be
Laughing on the park bench thinkin to myself
Hey isnt this easy?

And you've got a smile that could light up this whole town
I havent seen it in awhile, since she brought you down
You say you find I know you better than that
Hey, Whatcha doing with a girl like that?

She wears high heels, I wear sneakers
She's cheer captain and I'm on the bleachers
Dreaming bout the day when you'll wake up and find
That what you're looking for has been here the whole time

If you could see that I'm the one who understands you
Been here all along so why can't you see?
You belong with me

Standin by, waiting at your back door
All this time how could you not know that?
You belong with me
You belong with me

Oh I remember you driving to my house in the middle of the night
I'm the one who makes you laugh when you know you're about to cry
I know your favorite songs and you tell me about your dreams
I think I know where you belong. I think I know it's with me.

Can't you see that I'm the one who understand you?
Been here all along so why can't you see?
You belong with me

Standing by or waiting at your back door
All this time how could you not know that
You belong with me
You belong with me

Have you ever thought just maybe
You belong with me
You belong with me

You belong with Me by Taylor Swift tells the story of a teenage girl that is in love with her

 childhood best friend. She knows that he is not able to act like himself in front of his girlfriend, because she doesn't understand his sense of humour and doesn't like his taste in music. But Taylor understands him perfectly because she has known him all her life. She wants him to be able to see that his girlfriend is holding him back and the only reason he is with her is because she's a popular cheerleader. And if Taylor and him were together, life would be perfect for both of them because they both have so much in common. But she feels like she is not as good as his girlfriend, because she is pretty and popular and wears clothing to make her seem attractive. However, she doesn't doubt that the two of them belong together. It is easy for them to spend time together and they share the same interests and have so much good history together that their relationship would be so much better than the one he is currently involved in.

Taylor Swift's image and style...

Her image is very clean cut, she looks like an all America country girl. Her hair is long and blonde and curly, she has blue eyes, wears pretty dresses and plays the guitar. Her image is appealing to young girls aspiring to be like her, so I think children would find her to be a good role model and would really look up to her as a role model. Her style of music consists around love and problems she faces in life, she writes relatable pop songs which is why she has such a big fan base because they can relate to the songs she writes.

The style of this video follows her American sweetheart image and doesn't break away from the message she is trying to put across to young girls. The music video narrates a story, it tells a love story and the details of the lyrics go along with the main story line in the music video. I particularly like the communication channel used between the blonde and her love interest, this is shown by the handwritten messages they show each other through their bedroom windows for example... "You okay?" – "Tired of drama :(" And when they both pull out the "I love you" messages at the end of the video…. I could not stop looking because of the good use of non verbal communication used in the video, the facial expressions of joy, sadness and surprise and how they matched the story line. If one goal of the communication is to get the message crossed, the viewers can easily understand the story, making this video an effective way, if not the best, to illustrate this music. Because there's no actual speaking in the video, it's just acting and the lyrics of the song which makes the viewer engage in the video.

Also in this video Taylor plays both girl main characters in the video, this could send a deeper message to the audience that Taylor can be both characters at times and this could possibly confuse viewers. Or maybe it's showing that the boy was always interested in his childhood love interest and he found someone that looks just like her because he is too shy to admit his love for her. To portray the popular cheerleader character Taylor wears a brown wig and wears stylish fashion clothes such as skirt shorts to play this character, this is how we can spot the difference between the two different roles she is playing. The geeky shy girl character looks like how Taylor does in real life, which would lead us to believe that the star carries traits from the geeky girl we see in the video. The geeky character sings the lyrics in the video in different shots showing us what her life is like for example (playing with the bleacher band, sitting on a bench reading a book, sat in her bedroom) which are wrote in the lyrics, it's a good use of living out the lyrics to the song in video form.

During the bedroom shot we see geeky Taylor dressing in different outfits (Goth, Hippy, Sporty) which look like they would reflect on different types of stereotype of students in school. This shows that she is maybe searching for a new identity to impress her love interest and get his attention, during this shot he notices her through the window and smiles.  It indicates that she isn't happy with her current self and you can feel her low self esteem through the lyrics. But in the end of the video she ends up with the guy and it shows that you should just be yourself and not try to change yourself for anyone because if they're worth the while they will love you for who you are.

The fact that Taylor Swifts target audience is aimed at teenagers, especially girls, means that there shouldn't be any kind of sexual reference within any of her songs and videos and so far she has kept it out. In this video I think that the opposite is happening, instead of sexual reference I feel that it shows the innocence of teenage love. This can be proved in many different clips in the video such as at the beginning with the innocent notes to one another and then at the end with Taylor in a long white dress looking very natural at prom, it shows that she is pretty the way she is, her videos are very Disney fairy-tale like.

 I personally think that the shots are effective as they use close ups of Taylor and her love interest in their bedrooms to show their facial expressions and how each one feels (emotions) which is important in this love genre. The first shot is quite ironic as she lives exactly next door to him. A shot from inside his room looking at her is also effective as you see the relationship in some ways. Another effective shot that is used is when you see her but by her reflection in the mirror as she dresses up. Some edits are faded as it moves between scenes; others are quick jump shots to see what each character is doing, such as talking by writing and to who.

Overall the video is simple and doesn’t really include and special effects, but the simplicity makes it good. The mise-en-scene is very American, with the typical teenager bedrooms and the big American house. The popular girl’s convertible car which is stereotypical and often seen in high school teen movies. There is a football stadium as well which is in every American high school, in stereotypical teen movies. Then the final scene of where prom is set, typical formal costumes as well as in other scenes, football and band costumes. I think that the video did so well due to the simplicity to it. The fact that it doesn’t include special effects, it is just basic and well edited. Also how the images correlate with the lyrics.

Because the video is very typical and uses a lot of stereotypes and if I were asked to create a music video for this song, I would defiantly try and draw away from these generic conventions of teenage love and American high schools.

In my video I would show a geeky girl in Britain, everyone would be ignoring her and the guy  she loves would be really horrible to her at school and would show off with his girlfriend. The geeky girl would have flashbacks and day dream about how they we're so close in their childhood up until high school and she would realise how much he has changed. She is reminiscing on how they used to be together and how she understands that people follow the crowds and realised how much people changed. She ends up trying to change her looks, it shows scenes of her going out shopping with her mum and you see her peers in the shopping centre and they're all laughing at her. She then forgets about the boy and thinks he isn't worth it, we see her carrying on with how she is with her studying and concentrating on her career. We then see her rich in an office in London at the end wearing stylish Chanel clothes, with a clever handsome boyfriend and a big house and the guy ends up with a endless job he hates and his popular high school sweetheart cheats on his endlessly and is on benefits