Representation of Celebrity Homework

Representation of celebrity – Taylor Swift

1)      Daily Mail article – (Click here to view)

This article from the Daily Mail aims to represent Taylor in a way that we are not used to; sexy.
We all believe her to be quite an innocent artist, who sings about her experiences, yet here the article is portraying her as someone who, to show an ex “what they’re missing”, dresses ‘sexy’ and acts ‘fierce’ (if the article is to be believed).

Fans of Taylor like myself will know that although she is a fashion icon in ways, she is not really a sex symbol like Rihanna or Megan Fox. In my opinion, the encoders (in this case the journalist, Hayley Coyle) have written this article as it will catch the eye of fans and non-fans alike, as it may be quite shocking to see her take on this representation.

Essentially, this ‘sexy’ persona is quite the opposite to what we expect from Taylor, therefore is challenges audience expectations and this could either be due to the encoders feeding us this interpretation, or Taylor herself dressing this way deliberately in order to ‘make a point’. The Mail would of course say it was the second option.

Because of how society is today, we almost expect every female celebrity to be scantily clad and sexualised, whilst for Taylor Swift, a 22 year old woman, dressing quite reserved is the accepted norm because it is part of her personality, therefore any clothing deemed to be ‘sexy’ means she is losing her image, something several of the user comments on the article suggests.

Although I would take a preferred reading to this, that she has ‘vamped’ up her style and is sexier than usual, the user comments mentioned above suggest that it is not sexy at all.
In my opinion, looking at the artist as a text, it isn’t particularly what we define as sexy. It is, however, sexy when you look at the person involved; for Taylor Swift, the high-waisted shorts and shirt as nearly as sexy as you can get.

 2)      Music video with commentary for ‘You Belong With Me’ –

This is one of Taylor’s first real music videos and within it she took the opportunity, as the encoder, to present her own experiences and give a glimpse at what she felt she was actually like.
It includes the typical high school stereotypes that the target audience can relate to; the ‘shy band geek’, the ‘jock’ and the ‘mean girl’.

Taylor has mentioned that she wanted to portray the experiences that she had in high school that are relatable, and due to this I believe that most viewers from the target audience will take the preferred reading to this. As well as this, the video won ‘Best music video’ at the 2009 MTV VMA’s, which could suggest millions of people took the preferred reading to the text.

I chose this particular video as it has the commentary from Taylor giving an added insight into the video and how she helped create it. In her own words, she wanted the video to be “Funny and heart-warming” which is not only an opinion of the encoder but also an aim of what they want to portray.

In society this situation is one that happens a lot, and through the commentary we hear it happened regularly for Taylor in middle school, meaning that the ideologies of ‘young love stories’ are played up here to represent Taylor in a good light. Taylor represents various characters, showing one girl just trying to fit in; something we can surely all relate to at least once in our lives.

Although there is no way Taylor could be badly represented in her own production, the representation  that comes from reviews is important, and as listed above the reviews for this video were generally positive, with it going platinum on VEVO in 2011.

3)      ‘Got milk?’ advertising campaign –

I chose this print advert out of the many she has appeared in because it is from very early in her ‘breakout’ year when she was just breaking into fame and had this rare ‘innocent’ appeal to her.

‘Got milk’ is an advertising campaign in the US to encourage people, mainly children, to drink milk regularly to keep them healthy. The encoders (the company behind the advert) hired many of the biggest stars at the time like Miley Cyrus, the High School Musical cast and Rihanna to appear in print adverts that would appeal to the ‘tween’ market.

Having Taylor pose with her guitar and with the trademark ‘milk moustache’, as well as the accompanying writing which tells us that milk is ‘music to my ears’, gives us the impression that if you drink milk, you can become like Taylor. It is the old technique that if you do something like your favourite artist, you are alike to them and ‘closer’ to them as a result, hence why famous stars are used to advertise products and not just models.

As far as I know, ‘Got milk’ adverts are still around, so they have been a success for many years. Clearly on the most part, the preferred reading has been taken here. The promotion of health and wellbeing by stars in the modern day is seen with great enthusiasm, something which can be done subconsciously or consciously (buying milk after seeing the advert, whether you aspire to be like Taylor or not). This means that the representation of Taylor Swift here plays up to society’s belief in promoting good things, and what better way to do that than with celebrities?


4)      ‘RED’ album review, BBC – (Click here to view)

For my final text, I chose a review by the BBC for her new album, RED. This short review sums up Taylor’s album in just 6 paragraphs, yet manages to be convincing in doing so. 

The opinion of the reviewer here is easy to see, he is not biased, yet he is clearly ‘a fan’ of the album. He includes Taylor’s beliefs and ideologies which every song and album seem to follow, and points out a few songs on the album, whether it be on their good or bad points.

Through this review, which wasn’t actually very critical, Taylor is presented in a very good light. Fraser McAlpine even comparing her to this generation’s Morrissey. Without hesitation he takes the preferred reading to the initial text, the album, and therefore as readers who haven’t listened to the album, the positive review would – for the mean time – ensure we take the preferred reading too.

“And she does this partly because she’s a quick-witted lyricist with a sharp eye, and partly because she’s a true romantic, just like her audience.”

The above quote shows how Taylor aims to relate to and please her audience by writing songs she knows they can share experience. As well as this, the encoder, Fraser McAlpine, isn’t afraid to call out a particular track that has only ‘one tempo’, but then gives another positive to tell you that really, every song is good in at least one way.