Performativity

I think that Taylor Swift's new music video/song is an interesting performative statement. The song "Shake It Off" and music video to go along with it definitely show Taylor Swift "acting out" yet again.

Here's the link to the music video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfWlot6h_JM&noredirect=1

In this video, Taylor Swift performs many different personalities in my opinion.

Here's a general summary:
She begins as a ballerina, then hip hop looking with a boom box, then swan lake costume (ballet again), then not really sure but wearing grey clothing and doing acrobats, then a gymnastics costume, then lady gaga looking costume (space-themed?), then all black with glasses, then twerking with short jean shorts and a cheetah top, then wearing black singing looking normal singing with a jazz band, then a cheerleader, then from here on out she switches between all these "personalities" with the ending being with normal regular people in normal clothes as opposed to costumes all dancing with her.

Her lyrics imply "shaking off" the rumors and stereotypes people say about her. The song seems to make a statement in the sense to shake it off and live your life and cause "the haters gonna hate (hate, hate, hate, hate)".

The reason I am bringing up this music video/song is because I feel like her main goal is to shake it off and forget what people say by bringing light to it. She addresses rumors and haters and doesn't "seem" to care by singing a happy-forget the haters anthem.

I think that before people even saw the video, they had their critiques lined up. In a way, Taylor Swift's song kind of addresses the negative feedback she might have gotten from this music video.

I think that the message in this music video is interesting because she portrays herself in different costumes, performing different actions. Does she identify with these characters? Is she simply performing them? Who is the real Taylor Swift? I think that her music video shows different people and different interests, but how at the end of the day we are all people. The end of her video which included "normal" looking people all dancing together just showed that we are all humans with different hobbies, looks, backgrounds, etc. and shouldn't worry about what anyone thinks.

No matter what the actual message of the song/music video for "Shake it Off" is, I think Taylor Swift wins because it's a catchy tune and is #1 on the iTunes Charts currently.