Taylor Swift at the iHeart Radio Awards (Getty)
Taylor Swift’s music videos have morphed into mini-media spectaculars. They run the gamut from cute, dorky, high school nerd, to diva rich girl villain, to just a regular nobody on the outskirts looking in. She plays a really good character and lends her full self to every character she plays.
Now that she has teamed with Zayn Malik for a highly anticipated new video for the Fifty Shades Darker Soundtrack single “I Don’s Wanna Live Forever”, we take a look at the Top 5 Videos by the pop-star juggernaut, Taylor Swift.
5. “You Belong With Me”
“You Belong With Me”, is a song from the Fearless album with its highest charting position at number 3 on the Billboard charts. The accompanying music video showcases Swift playing two characters, a nerd, and a popular girl. The nerd lives next door to the boy who is dating the popular girl with their bedroom windows facing each other. The nerd secretly is in love with the boy, and they communicate using signs through the window. The video culminates with the nerd showing up at the dance in a flowing white dress, not looking like a nerd anymore, with both of them holding up signs that say “I Love You”.
The video was shot in Hendersonville, Tennessee at Pope John Paul II High School with many of the real students utilized as extras including football players and band members. During the dance scene, the school used real decorations for the upcoming school prom.
4. “Shake It Off”
The song “Shake It Off” was the lead single from Swift’s huge 1989 record. Premiering in August of 2014, the single debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It was Swift’s second number-one single in the US staying on the Hot 100 list for 50 consecutive weeks.
The video was directed by Mark Romanek and shot over three days in Van Nuys, CA. The video was a complete embracing of Swift’s inner dork and showcases her dancing along with other professional dancer’s in differing styles including; ballet, jazz, cheerleader, and hip-hop. Swift tries to emulate the dancers, but never quite gets the dancing and ends up just dancing as she wants to. The video is really hard not to like, and to date has 1.86 billion views on Youtube making it the seventh most watched video on the site.
3. “Out of the Woods”
“Out of the Woods” is the fourth single from the multi-platinum album 1989. The single went to number one in several countries and entered the Top 20 in Australia and the U.S. The song peaked at number 18 on the Billboard hot 100 and it has since been certified platinum by the RIAA.
The music video for “Out of the Woods” was directed by Joseph Kahn and saw its premeire on Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest in 2015. It is a sprawling and beautiful mini-movie filmed in New Zealand and begins with Swift standing on the beach in a blue dress. The video showcases Swift in differing locations with the four basic elements surrounding her. The Huffington Post’s Dominique Mosbergen called the video “haunting.”
2. “Blank Space”
“Blank Space” is one of the more popular videos from Swift’s collection. It was the second single from her album 1989 and reached number one on the Billboard charts. Swift became the first woman in Billboard history to succeed herself at number one on the charts. The song went on to claim the top spot in numerous countries including Germany, New Zealand, Spain, and the UK.
The video was once again directed by Joseph Kahn was shot over three days at Oheka Castle In Hungtington, New York and received its first televised performance at the 2014 American Music Awards. In the video Swift plays a crazy villain playing mind games with her significant other. The video has 1.93 billion views on Youtube and is the fifth most watch video on the site.
1. “We Are Never Getting back Together”
The song “We Are Never Getting Back Together” was off Swift’s 2012 album Red and immediately found ear worm status as a song no one could get out of their head. It was an instant success and was Swift’s first number one on the Billboard Hot 100. The single was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Record of the Year Category, as well as a People’s Choice Award for Favorite Song of the Year.
The video is a quirky, fun, sing-along of a time with a dreamlike sequence of random images all filmed in one continuous shot with no editing, like a pop up book. There are woodland creatures interspersed with camera shots following the song’s story with Swift and a boyfriend fighting. There is a party at the end of the video where the boyfriend shows up trying to get back together with Swift, but she slams the door in his face subsequently singing “We are Never, Ever, Ever, Getting Back Together.”