Blank space is the second single from Taylor's album 1989 released in 2014. The lyrics of the video is aimed at men but there is speculation that the actual video is aimed at the paparazzi who create all the headlines and stories that perceive Taylor as some kind of man eater.
The video is set in a country house-mansion decorated lavishly. Taylor plays a character going through stages of a short term relationship. She goes through all the feelings a jealous and insecure person goes through in a relationship ranging from her thinking she is being cheating on, wanting to take revenge, ignoring all the crazy thoughts and taking out her rage
It's possible to say that Taylor's character is purposely over exaggerating everything include the murder of the lover to prove her point that the stuff in the tabloids is far from the truth. She knows that there is some truth in what the papers say about her but the truth is boring so they add thing to the story to make it much more exciting and readable. She's portraying the person the paparazzi think she is.
Because she's dated huge stars such as harry styles, Conor Kennedy, Ed Sheeran, Jake Gyllenhaal, John Mayer, Taylor Launter and Joe Jonas for famously a short period of time and with never a neutral break up she is used against this constantly. Not to mention the abuse she gets because she writes her songs based on her relationship experiences (which every artist does its just her that gets abuse for it) it's escalated to a point where she is no longer dating because she can't deal with the abuse any more and after at least 5 years of it it would get pretty tired defending yourself when your not the only one who does it or the only one in the relationship.
The narrative in the video is very strong and clear. As stated before, she is playing out the phases of an insecure girl in a relationship. There are scenes in which she is happy and being all romantic with her lover but there are scene when she is the complete opposite; drawing red crosses through paintings of him, dropping his phone in the pond and cutting up all his clothes. She is then seen sitting on her bed dressed in black (much like something you would wear to a funeral) with a giant knife in her hand stabbing a heart shaped cake. We also see her slashing pictures of him with the same knife. The more sceptical people watching this video who isn't a fan of Swift would have seen this as an actual murder and some reports even suggest the murder actually took place, but we can infer that the death of the man in the video is a metaphor for Taylor making an actual stand against all abuse she's been getting and she is no longer that girl. That girl is gone.
Taylor Swift fits perfectly into Richard Dyer's star theory. He stated that "the terms 'pop performer' and 'pop star' have become interchangeable. The difference between the two is that the pop performers are simply known for performing pop music. Pop stars are known for having an identity or a certain persona which is not necessarily restricted to just their musical talent. " Taylor is one of the biggest pop star in the world but she didn't just come on to the music scene like it. She was constructed by management for the pure purpose of making money. They know she was a relate able teenager who sung about real life situations so they stuck to that but they exaggerated it a ridiculous amount and they've created the world phenomenon that is Taylor Swift.
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