Taylor Swift: introduction
Taylor Swift is one of the most commercially successful figures in the global music industry, having been a star from a young age and working in a range of genres including country, pop and rock. The media company Bloomberg has estimated her wealth at just over $1billion. She was the most played artist on Spotify in 2023 and was Time magazine’s Person of the Year (2023). The financial magazine Forbes ranked her as the fifth most powerful woman in the world (the women above her in the list were all politicians).
Taylor Swift is a millennial artist (born 1989) whose (often very devoted) fans, known as ‘swifties’, range from young teens, Gens X and Z, millennials as well as the baby-boomer generation (‘senior swifties’). The persona she constructs across online and social media reflects the need to address these different target audiences. Swift is also a very influential figure in an industry context, credited with shifting the power relationships between the music industry and individual artists.
Source: AQA CSP booklet.
Taylor Swift: websites
You can check out Taylor Swift's main website here and her tour microsite here.
Taylor Swift: social media
Taylor Swift uses social media very deliberately to create impact. In 2018 she wiped all her social media before returning to platforms a couple of days later with a snake video that was designed to kick off an album announcement.
Taylor Swift: representations
Taylor Swift is the perfect example of a modern celebrity – fully in control of her persona and able to skilfully construct her representations across multiple media platforms and through her live performance. She has also highlighted the representation of women in the media and music industry.
Taylor Swift: Language and Representations blog tasks
Narrative
Go to our Media Magazine archive (issue MM79) and read the feature All Too Well on Taylor Swift and how she controls her own narrative. Answer the following questions:
1) Why is Taylor Swift re-recording her earlier albums?
Her original label sold her music rights without her consent.
2) Why did Taylor Swift choose to make the short film 'All Too Well'?
Taylor Swift chose to make the short film "All Too Well" to visually express the story and feelings behind the lyrics while connecting with her audience.
3) What other examples are provided in the article of Taylor Swift using media to construct her own image?
Taylor Swift textual analysis
Work through the following tasks to complete your textual analysis of Taylor Swift's website and social media.
1) Go to Taylor Swift's website. What do you notice about the media language choices - text, font, images, page design, links?
2) Now visit her Eras tour microsite. What do you notice about the construction of this site in terms of images and website conventions?
3) Visit Taylor Swift's Twitter feed. Analyse her use of tweets/posts - are they promoting her music, her tour, or something else? Can you find any that are socially or politically oriented?
4) Look at Taylor Swift's Instagram account. What do you notice about the selection and construction of images, reels and posts?
5) Research Taylor Swift across any other social media accounts - e.g. Facebook. Do you notice any differences in how she represents herself on different platforms? Comment on text, images or tone/content.
- Longer Posts
- Event Promotion
- Community Engagement
- Visual Variety
- Visuals
- Stories and Reels
- Candid Moments
- Updates
- Real-Time Engagement
- Humour
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