Mean by Taylor Swift
You know those people who tell you they like “all kinds of music except county and classical”? A) Run away from those kinds of people. B) I am not one of those kinds of people because I actually love country music (no joke, Kenny Chesney is one of my faves). So I am amazed it took me this long to start listening to Taylor Swift. It’s something about her face. All cute and innocent like that. Almost smugly innocent… if that makes any sense at all. And let’s face it, who doesn’t love a break-up revenge song?
The settings in this clip are just gorgeous. The costuming and make-up of that 1920s-40s glamor suits Taylor perfectly and there’s a colour palette that runs through every scene change that keeps the whole clip coherent. Keeping the one theme (though different characters and scenes) throughout the clip plus the standard use of colour really helps keep the video all together. While it is jumping around between different characters and each verse has a new location of the band and the singer, it all feels very smooth to the viewer which is a nice change from a lot of music videos that - used as an effect or not - seem horribly jumpy and incohesive.
Sure the story lines are hilariously and obnoxiously, over the top obvious - I don’t know about you but my college degree does not have the word ‘College’ written in giant bold letters on it. And why is the fashionable kid hanging out in the football teams locker rooms anyway? - but they’re also very truthful and relatable. When my sister was in year 5, the other girls wouldn’t be friends with her if she didn’t have a pair of Nike Air Max - true story. So the clip works in the same way Katy Perry’s ‘Firework’ clip did in that as the audience, you should be able to see yourself in one of those situations. Or Taylor’s situation (at least the break-up part. You may not have gotten around to the being famous part yet).
And I have to love that Taylor Swift is totally smug in this. Perhaps a tiny bit of overacting but mostly that cheeky grin of someone who’s thinking “sucker, this song I wrote about you totally came true” and sticking it to someone who hurt them is kind of endearing.
Top that all off with a subtle message about how you don’t have to mean everything to everyone and that it’s still worth it if only one person admires you, and you have a fairly decent music video on your hands that appeals to all ages, stages and I would wager even those people that don’t like country music.
