Textual analysis of music videos - Taylor Swift - We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together

Mise-en-scene

This video is a story about a girl telling her ex-boyfriend that she does not like him or want to get back together with him. During the video, there are a lot of things that symbolise this and lets the audience know the full story.

For example, the when Swift is arguing with the male in the first scene, she is shouting at him and telling him to leave her alone. The connotes anger as you can tell just be looking at her mouth movement and her body posture and the facial expressions of the male that she is shouting at him.

The next thing that we see in the video is Swift is having a party in her apartment straight after she has told her ex-boyfriend to leave. This connotes relief and happiness that it the relationship is over, and it allows the audience to see that the male is very much forgotten about by Swift.

Throughout the whole video, Swift seems to be a lot more excited and happy about the fact that they habe broken up, whereas the male is a lot more depressed and upset about the situation.This could connote the emotional strength of females as it is showing that females cope with situations like this better than males do.

The phone calls in the middle and near the end of the video between Swift and the male is emphasising the fact that she does not want to get back with him, and they way she is talking to him connotes more anger towards him, as the tone is very aggressive and impolite and she looks like she's having fun and isn't really bothered about the conversation.

Sound

All of the sound in the music video is non-diegetic, however the phone call scene between Swift and the male sounds different as all of the background music gets a lot quieter, in order for the audience to hear the conversation more clearly and for it to have a more serious tone to it.

Camera angles


There most frequent shots used in this music video are two-shots and close ups. The close ups are used mainly to capture the expressions of Swift's face, when she is talking about her ex-boyfriend, and when she is actually talking to/shouting at him. This allows the audience to see how angry she is towards her ex-boyfriend and it emphasis the message of the song.

Two-shots are used often when the couple are arguing, so the audience can see both people involved and their actions towards each other. This means that both peoples facial and bodily expressions are seen helps the audience work out how Swift and the male both feel, as Swift looks more angry, but the male looks more upset.

Narrative

The main story line of this music video is Taylor Swift telling her ex-boyfriend that she no longer loves him and that she does not want to get back together, hence the name of the song; 'We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together'.

It consists of many different scenes and many different locations, and they all include Swift letting out all her anger at her ex-boyfriend, by doing it in person and over the phone.

The video is a continuous message to emphasise the point that she does not like him, and she repeats this message many times throughout the song.

Titling

Titles are not used in this music video as they are not really necessary.