Taylor Swift - Wildest Dreams (An Interpretation)
As you all have heard and seen, Taylor Swift released her new video for Wildest Dreams during the Video Music Awards (VMAs). Wildest Dreams is my favourite track of her album, 1989. Directed by Joseph Kahn, of course I would be damn excited because he has directed so many iconic music videos for so many artists like Lady Gaga, Gwen Stefani, Janet Jackson and etc.
After watching Wildest Dreams for a bout 10 times straight, I felt compelled to write my personal interpretation of the video. Let me get straight to it.
The first few scene of the video depicts the African wildlife reserve – animals running free. This sets the mood and setting for the video. Unlike some abstract music videos nowadays, this video is very consistent with its portrayal of era, character and environment. The scene cuts away into an overlaying of the animals and Taytay who looks like she is dreaming – about the wild that is. Thus the first several seconds of already capture the title of the song.
What do you associate the safari wilderness? The heat, that is of course the Sun. Great connection made here. So the scene from the sun to the big spotlight to TayTay’s eye, what could it possibly mean. From my understanding, it is the director’s way of zooming to exactly whom the video is about. The director juxtaposed the sun to the spotlight because both are bright and linked it to her eye because it is round just like the spotlight (physically). If you understand it a little bit deeper, it is just the way the director wanted to introduce TayTay. The spotlight is on her, she is the star, she is the apple of the director’s eye (director as in the person acting as the director in the video). Hopefully you guys are not lost yet.
The scene cuts away into a giraffe, why you may ask. This is because she sees herself as a giraffe – shy, quiet, calm and graceful (will explain more about this as we go along). It cuts away into TayTay, further strengthening the connection. The rest of the cut-aways before she sings is to set the story line, a movie film recording is taking place in the wild, era – before there was anything digital.
Next scene, as the camera zooms out of TayTay, we see a giraffe in the background. That’s her (in her mind), the giraffe may or may not really be there but it suppose to show their character connection. The following seconds in the video shows TayTay and her male counterpart, Scott Eastwood, going into filming. Before they kissed, the giraffe is there again in the background, looking at Scott, I believe.
Scene continues to where she is wearing a long flow-y dress being blown by the fan. Giraffe is there again, juxtaposed against her – everything about the giraffe is long; long legs; long neck. Thus the long dress TayTay is wearing.
The music video continues with a lion appearing in the background (again the lion may or may not be actually there, it actually to show characterization). Here the lion is actually Scott, the alpha male, so the lion is actually at her. The giraffe and lion start this very dangerous sexual relationship where both don’t know where it will lead them to.
Both of them start to fight on set. And a zebra appears on scene, it is not coincidental. The zebra supposedly symbolizes individuality and balance – hence black and white stripes. TayTay and Scott had their fair share of ‘fun’ times together and now the unpleasant moments.
The next 40 seconds shows them exploring the wild. Only the two of them are on the plane, two of them against the world. When you are up there, nobody on the ground can stop them from doing anything they want. The plane looks like it’s flying into the setting sun, symbolizing there’s hope to where they are heading to (with their relationship).
TayTay frolics on the ground beside the alpha male lion, symbolizing she has conquered her fears and is romancing the lion. The next few cut-aways is a bit messy for me, so bear with me as I try to explain it to you simply.
The next several second is directed that way is to show that life if full of ups and downs, just like in a relationship, it is not always a bed of roses. There’ the zebra that makes appearances, the elephant, cheetah and the vultures. The vultures is particularly very interesting because, the premise of the video is that of TayTay being in a dream-like state but she’s not, she really is having some sort of a relationship with Scott. The vulture in a dream, symbolizes that you or someone is being opportunistic and taking advantage. From how I see it, both are opportunistic and taking advantage of each other.
While the elephant in a dream ‘can refer to the powerful responses in us such as fear, sex, survival, and the power of imagination to evoke great anxiety or great pleasure’.
The cheetah makes a dash in her ‘dream’ , reminding her that things are actually moving a bit too fast for them at the moment.
One very interesting part of these messy scenes is the appearance of three giraffes. TayTay might be thinking about starting a family with Scott.
At the end of it, reality sets in, the lion roars because he is unhappy or unsure, the giraffe runs away and there’s only the one lonely giraffe again.
Special Note: At 2.35mins, both of them kiss against the sunset. As their face merge with each other for a kiss, it actually kind of creates a bright shining heart shape that slowly fades. This is not a coincidence I suppose, this is to symbolizes, their brief romance is coming to an end and so is their work as actors.
They stand in the dark studio, probably saying their last goodbyes.
The rest are pretty self-explanatory. They go to the movie premiere. She is happy to see him only to realize that he is actually married (Like WHAT). The part where they looked at each other during the scene in the movie they made – embracing each other probably sparked something that made them to lock eyes.
She realizes that it is too much for her to bear. She leaves the cinema even before the movie ends to go home I suppose (Well there’s nobody around so I guess, she left early). Scott chases after her but it is all too late (How could you play with her feelings like that, Urgh). As the car moves and travels further, Scott is seen in the rear view mirror fading into the distance. Clearly, TayTay wants to go far away from him and completely forget about him.
Well folks, that was my take on the music video. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it and discovering new things. I guess taking some filming modules in university did me good.
