The Peculiarities of Taylor Swift's 'Bad Blood'
‘Bad Blood’ is a music video produced by Taylor Swift. Taylor Swift is a multi-genre artist who started in country music and moved into mainstream pop. The main story line in the video is two teams preparing to go to fight.
Throughout her music video she comes across as strong independent woman who has a great support network of friends. To help sell her song she has lot of celebrities during the video which meant that lots of fans would have watched the video to see a celebrity they like. During the time this song was released she was in a feud with Katy Perry, so this song was directed to her which also helped majorly to promote her music and keep the song and music video memorable.
The lighting throughout the music video is constantly dark but bright enough to Taylor swift and her friends. the Location of the music video is in various places in various places in London which references typical to an urban city. The costumes and makeup are all dark tones to blend in with their environment this could also connect to the revenge elements of the song and music video; all of character’s costumes look similar which could mean there all on the same team/ gang. Even though they are wearing dark costumes they have many feminine qualities for example at the start of the music video Taylor swift starts to apply her lipstick and lipstick has a connotation of being a woman’s because makeup is stereotypically seen as a woman’s item. At the beginning, one of the female characters has a cigar which is a prop commonly used by men in power. This makes Lena Dunham's character seem powerful and enforces the women empowerment message of the video and twists the stereotype. Taylor swifts bad blood music video includes lots of weapons this shows power, violence and control; This represents Taylor as powerful as she has all these weapons and she is using them and is allowed to which displays her power and dominance as she is doing what she wants. Taylor swift is always in the shot, even when the focus is on someone else for example when Taylor swift gets kicked out the window, the audience can see her face in the reflection of the glass. This puts emphasis on Taylor and her image. Throughout the music video close ups of Taylor and the other character's faces to introduce both their image and their character
There are Tracking shots at the beginning of her body which objectifies her body under the 'male gaze'. This proves Godwin's theory of music videos. Also, when you look at the other females in the music video they are all in tight and short outfits that are extremely revealing proving his theory on people gaining sexual pleasure from watching these women in tight clothing.
In conclusion this video is successful because it has over 1.3 billion views on YouTube which is a major application that artists use to promote their songs through their music videos. The timing of the release also had a major impact on the success because everyone was interested and hooked on what she was representing in her video.
