Media Coursework 2

1. Bad Blood Analysis

2. Lyrics and Sound
In the chorus of the song Bad Blood “Cause baby, now we've got bad blood, You know it used to
be mad love, So take a look what you've done, Cause baby, now we've got bad blood, hey!”
suggests that Taylor Swift (the artist who sings the song) is in a quarrel with someone over
something they have done wrong. As the lyrics “bad blood” means there is a fight as such. The
music video is able to work with the lyrics of the song; as throughout the music video Taylor
Swift and Selena Gomez are in some sort of disagreement and are at war with each other. In this
way the narrative and storyline of the music video goes with the lyrics that are being sung.
Also in terms of sound at the start of the music video before the music even starts there is the
diegetic sound of a building alarm and fighting suggesting some kind of trouble or danger. The
diegetic sound of the males arm breaking in particular, when Selena Gomez’s character breaks
his arm and his diegetic scream afterwards due to the pain, emphasises the pain which the
female has brought upon him which suggests her physical strength and the fact that she appears
to be stronger than a male as he unable to defend himself goes against the stereotype that men
are stronger.

3. Mise En Scene
The performance at the start of the music video where Taylor Swift and Selena Gomez’s
characters are fighting the men shows their power and goes against the stereotype that
mean are stronger than women as the men are the ones being beat up by the women
unable to defend themselves and fight back making the men the victims. Throughout the
music video the females seem to be wearing tight, revealing and conventionally sexy
clothes which shows the music industries effort to sexualise females to the audience.
This happens to be very stereotypical in the way that women are portrayed in the media
industry. The weapons that are used as props that are used by the females in this music
video goes against the stereotypes as females are not usually seen with weapons or seen
as threatening, typically men are usually the ones with the weapon and are saving the
victim which is usually a women. Another prop that is also quite significant is the white
teddy bear which gets a knife thrown at its head could highlight the fact that these once
so innocent women have now transformed into remorseful tough females with no mercy
willing to defend themselves and fight. A teddy bear is also a child's toy and when is
thrown at the teddy it marks the women's transformation from a child to a ruthless
woman. The colours used throughout the music video could reflect the artists feelings
and emotion. Black and a fiery red colour is used throughout the music video. The black
suggests her dark and powerful nature and the red highlighting her anger and fury
towards her enemy.

4. Cinematography
Crowd shots are used to show crowds pf people in this case crowd shots are used right at the
end of the music video when both Taylor Swifts and Selena Gomez’s armies are walking towards
each other in a long line. This is used to show how the women have united together and have
become an army. This is a metaphor which is used to show the rivalry between Taylor Swift and
Katy Perry. A pan is used to show the amount of women there are showing the togetherness of
the females metaphorically suggesting Taylor Swifts stance against Katy Perry (Selena Gomez in
this case). A pan is also used at the start of the music video when Taylor Swift is in the middle of
three of the same woman. The fact that Taylor Swift is in the centre shows that she is obviously
the most relevant person within the music video.

5. Editing
During the music video the is intercutting between the characters. The use of intercutting shows
who the characters are and what weapon they are holding as that will determine their role in
the music video.
Slow motion is used to bring attention to the characters and what they are doing. An example of
where slow motion is used in the music video is at the end when the army of women are
walking towards each other which adds to the dramatic tension in this part of the music video as
this is what the music video has been leading up to. In addition to this the slow motion in some
ways makes the females in the music video look more attractive because of the way the slow
motion makes them look.

6. Star Image and Brand
In order to get the music video an increased amount of views and popularity Taylor Swift was
able to gather a group of celebrities to take part in the music video. By having these celebrities
partake in the music video it is able to reach a bigger demographic audience of people due to the
fact that the celebrities featured within the music video come from different areas of the media
industry such as films and all have different careers such as dancers, singers, actors, models etc.
The celebrities featured in the video also get a bit more recognition.
Taylor Swift: Singer
Selena Gomez: Singer and Actor
Ellie Goulding: Singer
Karlie Kloss: Model
Martha Hunt: Model
Cara Delevingine: Model and Actress
Gigi Hadid: Model
Zendaya: Actress, Singer and Dancer
Lily Aldridge: Model
Hailee Steinfeld: Actress, Model and Singer

7. Narrative
The story that the music video is trying to portray is showing what Taylor swift is singing about.
Taylor swift is singing about how her and her former friend have had a falling about because of
something her friend did and to portray this they have made the music video about how Taylor
swift is preparing for some kind of revenge. In this way the storyline of the music relates to the
artist herself which puts across a message.
The music video also consists of the typical codes
and conventions of a music videos, an example of
this would be how the women are portrayed in
terms of how they are dressed showing the music
industries attempt to sexualise them.

8. Intertextuality
Intertextuality means the process of creating references to any kind of media text through
another media text. With relevance to the Bad Blood music video the song was allegedly aimed
at Katy Perry who is another well known artist. Taylor Swift and Katy Perry got along really well
but then Taylor Swift accused Katy Perry of stealing her backing dancers and since then they
have been in quarrel with each other and evidently do not like each other anymore. This is
shown in the music video through the lyrics and the performance throughout. Particularly at the
near end of the music video when Taylor and Selena (who represents Katy Perry) have their own
small individual armies about to fight each other, which mirrors the fight (disagreement)
between Taylor Swift and Katy Perry. The lyrics also highlight that both Taylor Swift and Katy
Perry were once quite close as friends and now after all that has happened they now don’t like
each other and are on bad terms. The lyrics that show this are when Taylor sings “Oh, it's so sad
to, Think about the good times, You and I, Cause baby, now we've got bad blood…” suggesting
that the good times have become sad to think of now that they are no longer friends. When
Selena pushes Taylor out of the window this marks the start of when Katy and Taylor fell out and
throughout the video Taylor is preparing for revenge.

9. Voyeurism
Taylor Swift is first introduced at the start of the music video and is seen to be wearing a tight
fitted nude coloured outfit consisting of a revealing top and a short skirt. This links to the idea of
voyeurism which is the idea that people would gain erotic pleasure from looking at this sort of
image in a sexual way. This is essential to a music video as because of these pleasures and/or the
lust for the artist it makes a good selling point. By wearing this outfit Taylor Swift is revealing
more of her body making her look provocative which juxtaposes Taylor swift a few years ago
when she was a few years younger and would wear pretty clothes that would make her look
innocent. For example in one of her music videos to her popular song ‘Love Story’ she’s is
wearing a white dress and the colour white suggests her purity whereas in the ‘Bad Blood’ music
video she is wearing a lot of black which contrasts to the pure white colour.