OSP: Taylor Swift CSP - Language and Representations

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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? 
In 2005, aged just 15, Swift signed a record deal with the label which gave it ownership of the masters to her first six studio albums. Swift’s deal with Big Machine ended in 2018 and she
signed with Republic Records, but the masters remained with her former label, which was subsequently purchased by  Scooter Braun for a reported $300m – with his purchase of the label, Braun became the owner of Swift’s masters in late 2020 on the condition that he would continue to financially profit from them. She quickly announced her intentions to re-record
her Big Machine albums, which would give her complete ownership of the records and nullify Braun’s involvement.

2) Why did Taylor Swift choose to make the short film 'All Too Well'? 
Swift has consciously chosen to push her professional creative boundaries for the sake of her art and her storytelling – and that’s something we can only admire her for.

3) What other examples are provided in the article of Taylor Swift using media to construct her own image? 
Album 1989 (2014) were a direct response to criticisms about her private life: the entirety of ‘Shake It Off’ is dedicated to telling Swift’s haters how little she cares for their opinions.

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?
She has the logo of the album at the top left. The colour scheme consists of black, grey and white to give her a more sophisticated, timeless persona. Typography is serif and fits with the original concept she is communicating. 

2) Now visit her Eras tour microsite. What do you notice about the construction of this site in terms of images and website conventions? 
There are links to her social media to give fans the opportunity to interact and engage more. The collage shows how she has reinvented herself with the eras she has been through- Steve Neale repetition and difference

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? 
Her tweets reinforce her feminist and liberal ideologies as she has since endorsed Kamala Harris. Her twitter bio also encourages people to stream her album and links people to her website

4) Look at Taylor Swift's Instagram account. What do you notice about the selection and construction of images, reels and posts?  
Her Instagram is used to promotes her music ad tour - capitalist ideologies. Her highlights re of her past eras to remind people of hem and her pinned posts are her album covers

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.  
More promotional content on her Instagram- posting her tour, merch  however her Tiktok posts appear more authentic and reliable as she comments on her fans posts


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