Taylor Swift Star image

Taylor Alison Swift is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Her career begun when she moved to Tennessee at age 14 where she signed with an independent label called 'Big Machine Records' and became the youngest songwriter ever hired by the Sony/ATV Music publishing house.

Her first album was released in 2006 and was self-titled which was done in order to start a buzz and increase her popularity by making her name more known and dominant in the media. This helped to create a fan base by getting her star image and name across to the media by selling her name. The third single of the album called 'Our Song' made her the youngest person to single-handedly write and perform a number-one song on the Hot Country Songs chart.

Swift's second album called 'Fearless' was released in 2008 which included 2 singles called "Love Story" and "You Belong with Me" that were sensational due to the success of combining both the pop and country genre in one song. This massively contributed to triumph resulting in 'Fearless' becoming the best-selling album of 2009 in the United States. The album won four Grammy Awards, making Swift the youngest ever Album of the Year winner which is a huge accomplishment.

Swift is a synthetically organic artist who's music has evolved over the years as when she started her career, she mainly focussed on the genre of country, however now elements from different genres such as pop, pop rock and country are found in her songs, making her sound very significant and unique in comparison to other artists in the industry.

Taylor wearing natural clothing in some of her music videos

Taylor's target audience when she first begun at age 17 ,where mainly young females up to the age of 18, however now Taylor's target audience appeals to both genders (mainly females) and widely varies in their ages, from the childhood years to adulthood as you can find 4 year olds and 40 year olds enjoying the beat and sound of her music, making it very rewarding and successful. This is a very broad target audience yet similar to ours which is also mainly females ranging between 15-25 years of age. As Taylors albums changed through the years from her first album being released when she was 17 to her recent album being released at the age of 25 show how her maturity has prospered through the lyrics in her songs and music video concepts. As oppose to her first 2 albums where she sang about teenage-like relationships making it seem kind of fairy tale-like, she now sings about more adult relationships, experiences and being more independent as a women. Moreover, this makes her music more relatable to her dedicated fans who grew up listening to her music and are dealing with different situations and but can still connect with her songs and the meaning behind them. This makes Taylor seem more genuine,vulnerable and relatable as it shows she experiences similar situations as typical people her age even though she's a famous singer and is in the industry. This is the kind of image we would like our artist to have to enable our target audience to have a closer relationship with her and feel connected to her music and lyrics, as her music will portray ordinary experiences females her age encounter. This applies to Richard Dyers paradox 1 theory, as she is simultaneously ordinary and extraordinary for the consumer, where she releases smash hits and wins Grammy awards yet still has to go through stereotypical encounters and experiences.

In Taylors music video for her single "Love Story",Taylor acts as the main character in her music video, where there are many close-ups of her which helps to sell her star image and make her more memorable and dominant to the fan base she is trying to create. Therefore our artist will have many close-ups in her music video as her image still hasn't gained the popularity it needs in the media for our artist to gain the fan base it deserves. As oppose to her most recent music video she released for her single "Bad Blood",where instead of having her as the main character, she is seen as the 'narrator' of the video where it seems she's telling a story of an experience she has had. As she already has accomplished her popularity and awareness in the media there's no need for her to be the main character in a music video and require many close ups, as her star image is already achieved.





Close-ups of Taylor in 'Love Story' to help sell her star image

Taylors make up is very natural and ordinary however bold red lipstick is knows as one of Taylors signature looks. Her look has evolved and changed slightly through the years, as in the early stages of her career a typical outfit she would wear on stage would be a sundress and cowboy boots emphasising her country style and embracing her youthfulness and her 'girl next door' image. This is a similar style we would like to adopt for our artist as she should portray energetic and young performances which will appeal to our target audience. Even though her costumes and style has evolved over the years, her makeup and hair has always stayed very minimalistic making her target audience feel even more similar to her, just like how we aim to make our target audience feel towards our star. Her fashion sense has stayed very girly and pretty, as she wears nice patterned dresses and outfits, which illustrates how she doesn't sell herself through wearing minimal and sexy clothing like Rihanna or Beyonce, but rather creates an innocent and mature look for herself, as she knows her audience can relate more to that. Hence, she is selling herself through her talent and originality. This is the type of star image we are creating for our pop star, just like Taylor Swift the 'girl next door'.

Taylor's style has changed over the years but her make-up and hair have stayed natural