Music Video Analysis

My favorite singer is Taylor Swift. And I think that everyone has to admit that she can make a mean music video. I chose to analyze her music video for the song “You Belong With Me”. I think that this video tells the cutest story. If you just listen to the song you think the song is simply about a girl who has fallen for her friend who already has a girlfriend but she still thinks that they should be together. But the music video adds so much to that. The music video tells a different story. In the video the two friends are neighbors. They talk to each other by writing notes and showing each other the notes from their bedrooms which face each other. It shows that the boy and his girlfriend fight a lot and she eventually cheats on him. On the night of a dance, the boy goes to the dance thinking that his friend is staying home to study. She surprises him at the dance and shows him a note that she had written earlier in the video that said “I love you” on it. Then he pulls out a card that says “I love you” on it too and they kiss. You can see how much the video adds to the story.

I think this shows how much visuals add to a story. It took an almost four minute song and created an entire storyline out of it. The video shows that the neighbor girl is a nerd because she is in the marching band and she wears periodic table t-shirts while the girlfriend is popular because she is a cheerleader and drives nice cars. The football player and the cheerleader seem like they should be perfect for each other because that is a stereotype. A football player would never end up with the band nerd. And yet the two break the stereotype and end up together at the end of the video. The video uses high school stereotypes to get the point across.

I think this video and song are so good because they can relate to a lot of girls. What girl hasn’t had that crush on a boy that she thinks is “out of her league”. We all like to think that that guy actually belongs with us and this video makes it seem like that is completely possible for us. Why can’t we break the stereotype ourselves?

I think that one of the super clever parts about the video is that Taylor Swift plays the neighbor of the boy, and also the boy’s girlfriend. She plays the “girl in the bleachers” and the “cheer captain”. It actually took me awhile to realize that the brunette was actually also Taylor because it looked nothing like herself. I think that also added something to the video. I love this song and even though Kanye West might not think so, I think this video is the best music video.