Annotated Bibliography Assignment
1. Dickey, Jack. "Taylor Swift Talks Business." Time. Time, 13 Nov. 2014. Web. 16 Nov. 2014.
This article is an excerpt from an interview that Time Magazine conducted with Taylor Swift. In it, she discusses her recent decision to pull her music from the online streaming service, Spotify. She brings up the reasoning behind her choice, stating that, “I think that people should feel that there is a value to what musicians have created, and that’s that.” Her thoughts about the way in which Spotify devalues the albums on its platform are in this piece, as well, and she cites Beats Music and Rhapsody as music streaming sites that actually value her work because “you have to pay for a premium package in order to access my albums.” She also discusses what her vision was for her new album, 1989, and about songwriting, of which she says, “I’ve been able to write songs and feel better. They clarify and simplify the emotions that you’re feeling.” She makes several points about sexism within the music industry, citing artists such as Nicki Minaj and Iggy Azalea as other famous women whose work gets questioned based solely on their gender. This article shows several angles through which Swift has decided to market herself, particularly for her latest musical effort. It showcases her as an artist who is dedicated to her craft, as well as a woman in the public eye who is concerned about how other women in the public eye are treated.
2. Eells, Josh. "The Reinvention of Taylor Swift." Rolling Stone. Rolling Stone, 8 Sept. 2014. Web. 17 Nov. 2014.
This article features an interview with Swift, released in the build-up before the release of her new album, 1989. In it, she talks about how it feels to be famous and compares it to walking around with a cat on her head. She says, “Sometimes it would be nice if someone just said, 'Hey, I think it's really cool that you have that cat on your head. I think that's interesting.'" Additionally, the article details what it is like to be Swift on a daily basis. It chronicles the video shoot for the first single, “Shake It Off,” off her new album and gives an insight into how she feels about the level of security needed for the video shoot to take place, as well as the level of security needed for her to exist in her daily life. She says, “It's sad to have to look for cameras in dressing rooms and bathrooms. I don't walk around naked with my windows open, because there's a value on that." The article focuses heavily on the relationships she has with other women in the entertainment industry, such as Karlie Kloss and Lena Dunham, whose quotes about Swift in the piece are primarily about Swift’s newfound feminism. She speaks about transitioning from country to pop music, as well as the subjects behind her songs (although she does not name names). This article frames Swift as a famous person who is relatively normal, despite all of the attention she gets.
3. Hoby, Hermione. "Taylor Swift: ‘Sexy? Not on My Radar'." The Guardian. The Guardian, 23 Aug. 2014. Web. 16 Nov. 2014.
This article includes snippets of an interview with Swift, conducted following the release of “Shake It Off” as the first single off her new album. A large portion of the article is spent discussing the song and its origins in the public perception of Swift. She says, “You can either go crazy and let it make you bitter and make you not trust people, and become really secluded or rebellious against the whole system. Or you can just shake it off and figure that as long as you’re having more fun than anyone else, what does it matter what anyone else thinks?” She talks about her behavior at awards shows, where she is infamous for dancing to musical performances with friends such as Selena Gomez, a fellow young adult in the industry. The topic of her relationships with more young women is brought up, and her friendships with Lorde and Lena Dunham are mentioned. Feminism is spoken of in relation to Dunham, and Swift says, “Becoming friends with Lena – without her preaching to me, but just seeing why she believes what she believes, why she says what she says, why she stands for what she stands for – has made me realise that I’ve been taking a feminist stance without actually saying so.” She speaks about how her lyrics have matured as the years have gone on, as well. This article presents Swift as a young woman who is learning how to relate to her audience while still learning about herself.
4. Taylor Swift's House Party - David Letterman. Perf. Taylor Swift and David Letterman. CBS, 2014. Talk Show.
This is a video clip from a full-length episode of “The Late Show With David Letterman,” which airs five nights a week on CBS in America. In this clip, Letterman asks Swift to describe the listening parties she threw for fans a month before the release of her new album. Swift says that the parties, which she called the 1989 Secret Sessions, took place at various places around the world wherever she owned a house. She cites Nashville, New York, Los Angeles, Rhode Island and London as the five locations. Letterman expresses shock that Swift allowed fans into her actual homes, saying, “What was the screening process?” Swift answers by explaining that she invited fans who left her nice comments on the social networking site Instagram, as well as fans who had seen her multiple times in concert but had never met her. She stresses that none of the fans who were invited had ever met her before. When she mentions how the sessions went and says she made the fans dinner, Letterman dramatically proclaims, “You’re Mother Teresa!” to which Swift and the audience laugh and applaud. This video clip shows Swift as an artist who has chosen to break down the barrier between celebrity and fan in an unheard of manner. It also shows her as someone who is very aware of how people respond to personable experiences.
5. Helmrich, Brittney. "How Taylor Swift Rocks Social Marketing ... And How You Can, Too." BusinessNewsDaily.com. Business News Daily, 4 Nov. 2014. Web. 17 Nov. 2014.
In this article, Swift’s joining of the social networking site Tumblr is discussed. Swift’s already impressive social media presence is mentioned due to the millions of fans she connects with on sites such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Then Tumblr itself is explained, as it’s still a relatively misunderstood social networking site compared to the aforementioned ones. The customizable and personal elements of the site are highlighted as what made Swift joining it such a genius idea. The article says, “But the end result on Tumblr, for many of its users, is an online collage of everything that makes up their personality and interests them, no matter how mainstream or unique those interests may be. And that's a distinction that many brands and celebrities fail to make when they sign up. Swift, however, just gets it.” Swift’s technique of connecting via Tumblr is further broken down, and the article highlights the things she did right upon joining. The fact that she asked for help from fans who followed her is listed as the most important, as it allowed her to show her genuine interested in becoming a part of the Tumblr community in the right way. Her humor is then mentioned, as is the fact that many of Swift’s Tumblr posts have become legendary and viral due to the jokes she’s made. This article shows that Swift understands modern business, where the majority of publicity comes from the Internet. It paints her as a smart businesswoman, but also as a celebrity who is willing to interact with fans on a more personal level.