Music Video Analysis

Bad Blood- Taylor Swift

This music video is a narrative video as Taylor Swift stars as the main character in the music video. According to Goodwin's music video theory, it is important for the main artist to play a key role in the music video as it makes the video more realistic and allows the audience to have a better understanding of the lyrics. The song is about a feud that Swift had with another female artist (rumored to be Katy Perry) and this is reflected in the video as there is a feud between two girls (Taylor plays one of them).

During this video, there are many scenes when Taylor is fighting with another character, most of these scenes are showed whilst the lyrics 'Cause baby now we got bad blood' are played. This shows that this video is illustrative as it represents that the two characters do not get along and have "bad blood" therefore the visuals and the lyrics match which reinforces Goodwin's music video theory. The music and visuals also link together, for example when there is a beat, or a change in the music, the characters guns/weapons are fired.

However, this video goes against one of Goodwin's music video theories. The song is a 'pop' song however the video does not represent the stereotypical genre characteristics of bold, bright colours and partying and instead represents fighting, dark colours and feuds. Although, this music video does use young people therefore it does represent one of the stereotypical pop video conventions.

The notion of looking is also used in this video on many occasions. This is done to reinforce the meaning of the lyrics 'now we got bad blood'. However, it is also done to meet the needs of the record label so the main artist that they are trying to 'sell', gazes into the camera, as if to make a connection with the audience. This is done to make the artist known and recognizable to the audience.



Voyeurism is represented in this video. This is a key feature of pop conventions as it 'lures' the audience in through the artists sex appeal. It is done to represent the 'sex appeal' of women therefore they are expressed in a sexual and seductive way to draw the audience in.

Overall, this music video does support Goodwin's theory of music videos, despite it not representing the stereotypical conventions of a pop video.