"Delicate" Music Video Analysis:
Here's what I saw and the connections I found. I was going to use pictures but there were too many. This list is in order so you could read it while watching, pausing in between notes. 😘😘
The first two seconds shows a black screen with lowercase letters spelling "delicate" and on the third second we see Taylor Swift's forlorn face close-up with bright lights shining on her and she slowly comes out of her depressed dream stare instantly with a smile when she sees the camera flashes and hears the crowd and reporter.
Next we see Taylor standing on the red carpet and the camera focuses in on someone handing her a folded note. The man who hands the note is the same height as Taylor wearing in heels. We see Taylor's face up close lit in a more soft and defused light and her eyes are looking in wonder and curiosity.
Taylor walks into the Millennium Biltmore Hotel (known for serving alcohol during prohibition in the Gold Room, being of great lgbt importance, as well as having a security guard to turn people away who were only trying to meet celebrities.)
Millennium Biltmore Hotel hosted a very gay-friendly bar through both World Wars and was the site of an early milestone in gay rights advancement. In 1971, the Biltmore hosted the International Psychologists & Psychiatrists conference, which was going to declare electroshock therapy as the “cure” for homosexuality. The meeting was disrupted by the Gay Liberation Front, which effectively forced one of the first dialogues between mental health professionals and the gay community. Within two years of that incident, “homosexuality” was removed as a mental disorder after decades of stigma and official misclassification.
We immediately see that the same people in the crowd outside are now inside waiting. On the right side there is a statue of a female angel with what looks like a mermaid tail.
We see Taylor walking through the lobby surrounded by four guards and we see that some of the people have taken out their phones to record her. As Taylor walks by one of the guards is motioning to blonde woman wearing a dress with stars all over.
We see her taking selfies with her younger fans (as shown with their lollipop t-shirt, baby doll length sequined dress, and a crinolin tutu) but as soon as she's grabbed by a guy they seem to only care about how their selfies were ruined. They aren't looking at Taylor or asking if she's OK but instead they seem only disappointed they were interrupted.
The man who attacked her and tried to push her down is dressed as a service professional; a bellboy.(There's an incredibly gay film called the "Bellboy" where a man named Jake discovers gay sex and an erotica lifestyle at the hotel he works at.
After this altercation we see Taylor look between her fans not caring about her wellbeing and to the bellboy being carried away. We see Taylor's upper lip curled in a display of disgust at her fans behavior.
One of her bodyguards is taking her away while looking forward and Taylor is looking up in resigned annoyance.
We see Taylor next walking in the middle of four men who appear to be security guards. We see that they each have a full beard or a goatee. There are four but reflected in the mirrors (mirrored door the mirror in the cabinet) there are 8 men and 2 Taylors.
Every step forward means a few steps backwards if Taylor decides it so and we see Taylor testing her ability to control them by moving this way and that while they do the same thing each time. Eventually we see Taylor sigh upwards in resignation again. Taylor also stops right in front of a large bouquet of white flowers including lilies.
We next see Taylor examining herself in a mirror at the Los Angeles Theater's ladies room. We are shown that she feels like a puppet with strings
(In Pinocchio we have Geppeto wish on a fallen star to have his puppet be real and come to life. The blue fairy helps him grant this wish and Pinocchio becomes real. Pinocchio ends up at a pleasure island after being lead astray by Honest John.
When Taylor gets "pulled" like a puppet into looking foolish it doesn't quickly go away as seen with the same expression no matter how she's moving her head.
Knocked out of her focus she sees three pretty women and coyly smiles - they weren't there to see her faces in the mirror she's relieved but doesn't realize yet that they can't see her. Even though she's alone and it's not a work thing she'd hope that they'd at least say hi.
After she sees the women is when she becomes invisible but she's in disbelief. She looks at the sparkling note but leaves it on the dressing room counter.
Taylor gets up and motions her arms in front of the women but they don't respond, they aren't seeing her so she exits the dressing room and appears back at the Millennium Baltimore Hotel carrying her shoes down to the lobby she flings them away.
Snapping her fingers and waving in front of the four guards she discovers that not even the four men can't see her and her motions get larger and more dramatic with less inhibition.
After seeing that the guys are more interested in looking forward and or talking intimately with each other, Taylor finally smiles.
Taylor realizes she's finally in charge of all of her actions and rips off the bottom of her dress so she can not be confined anymore (Dress vibes) and starts to dance but before she exits the area she makes sure to check left and right just one more time.
We see Taylor quickly move past two men and one women to dance between two women for "do the girls back home touch you like I do." During this dance between the two women Taylor shimmys and touches her body including her breasts. (In January 2017, protesters took to Mike Pence's neighborhood:
‘Queer Dance Party’ shakes and shimmies to send a message to Mike Pence “We want to send a strong message to Pence that we’re a united queer community,” Firas Nasr, an organizer, told the Washington Post. “We’ve always stood united. There’s always space to dance.”)
Then we see Taylor dancing more elaborately and she shows the camera her left hand with a ring on her ring finger.
she is reaching out to someone and her expression is showing loss and like that she's suddenly in another room. (I feel like this is a pattern symbolizing Taylor's tendency of running after she starts to have feelings.)
Taylor walks backwards and then we see her try to shake off her bad mood she sashays (chases) and pivots (changes directions) but she's in the same 3 feet of space.
(This is another pattern of Taylor being able to shake off her angry or sad emotions but being able to do that doesn't mean she's not feeling the negative emotions.)
As the song continues about her bad reputation Taylor is seen grabbing her head in distress, again she's showcasing her hurt feelings.
It should be noted that again we see the same people from the beginning scene.
Hopping up to be in ballet fifth position arms (without first in preparatory) we see her legs in passe/retire positions interchanging and then again (after frustration) we see Taylor happy again in front of an island themed mural.
Next she quickly bourrees (double-time) off screen.
As Taylor pops up on top of the check-in counter to march, the first thing seen is her knee (CIWYW gif from on the roof vibes) seemingly to her own beat and then she hops left and right. The front desk clerk seems to be checking-in a man with a closed duffel bag.(Getaway Car vibes)
Quickly she's seen hopping again side to side in front of a stone fountain when she shakes her fist at the bellboy who is seen being carried off by one of her security guards. The bellboy is seen shouting as the guard carries him off stage. It should be noted that he does not move his legs at all while he's yelling (CH Twitter rant symbolism?)
After the bellboy is off screen we see Taylor fouetté pivot into miming drinking tea with a saucer for a quick moment until again we see Taylor's emotions changing suddenly ("so happy then I turn back to sad" -Gorgeous) Taylor seems annoyed when a couple walks past and then holds her head with one hand and walks away grudgingly pushing against an invisible wall.
The invisible wall manifests into a real wall (wooden toy puppet into a real boy symbolism?) of the Millennium Biltmore ballroom and we see Taylor disoriented and giving into feeling sorry for herself for a beat. Falling against and sliding slightly down the dark mahogany paneling she pauses and then realizes that it's useless to just mope we see a resolute Taylor shrugging off the wall and pushing away to get back up and dance.
The next scene we see Taylor dancing with a Latin flare leading with her hips and heels as she playfully circles her arms and fingers around her body.
She's shown feeling free and smiling when suddenly she's tied down again with her arms behind her and her legs again in more reserved choreography and then she screams.
After she screams she looks like she's shocked that the confinement bothered her so much and her expression shows that she's not sure how she feels about any of it. Taylor runs forward off camera.
Next we see Taylor sprinting in the elevator lobby to leap into an open elevator where there is a woman Taylor thinks can see her.
We see Taylor smiling at a smiling woman and then realizing that the other woman is actually using the elevator mirror to apply her lipstick and doesn't actually see Taylor even though Taylor seems to be coming to terms with her emotions.
The next scene Taylor stays in the elevator and is genuinely sad and then she looks like she's made a decision to get out of the hotel and go somewhere, anywhere. (Running away again seems to be her MO)
We see Taylor at crossroads inside the 7th Street Metro center where she seems to switch between hip-hop and power-step dancing and then again loses the hold onto her distraction and holds her head but this time it's with both hands.
Next we see Taylor choosing a direction by instinct (with her eyes covered by her hands) we see Taylor enter an open Metro Rail car.
Taylor falls into the open rail car which considering her destination to 417 W 8th St Los Angeles, she shouldn't actually take the rail but the bus.
We see Taylor fall to her knees on the floor of the rail car and then as she's slowly rising we see her walk her fingers suggestively from her hips over her chest to her shoulder and then finally we see that she's pretending someone else is doing the touching. With one hand on her shoulder and her other covering the hand again in fantasy we see a satisfied smile.
When Taylor inhales/gasps quickly we see the rail line door close.
After Taylor mimed being physically satiated in the rail car she's shown in the next scene soaking wet in an alley hopping over obstacles. I feel like Taylor taking the rail line (which has a map of its lines in a dot of rainbow colors) and not the rail bus (which was the direct route to her final destination) shows that Taylor has had to go out of her way to get where she is now.
After hopping over the obstacles she has her feet in the air and then when she's past the obstruction signs she leaped over she gives herself a "well-done" bow.
Next we see Taylor playfully dancing with no regard to style, hand poses, or beat and she hops from the sidewalk to the street over puddles in front of graffiti writing out "Reputation" (with a capital letter) and she bows more deeply, showing her back, letting the camera focus on the phrase "Choose Your Pitstops." (Karlie has used 2x the word pitstop in her insta of the girls' road trip as well as the word pit 1x in the tweet she wrote defending Taylor saying she'd always have her back.)
We then see Taylor dancing a bit similar to the beginning of this adventure but this time including he her signature flamingo poses as she makes her way forward. We never see Taylor's expression change back to sad (Gorgeous) like we have for this entire music video.
She's seems ready to take on the world and follow through with her decisions. She dances now on top of the roof of a stopped car with its headlights on on, reaching for the stars. Next we see Taylor sliding down from the roof into the splits and seems to emphasize that Taylor still feels happy with this journey even though she's not as high up.
The next scene shows Taylor calmly walking into the Golden Gopher, a gay bar in Los Angeles that survived the prohibition and was once owned by former president, Teddy Roosevelt. (Taylor's a history nerd)
We see that Taylor has arrived inside the bar and is somehow holding the note again showing us that not every action of hers is on display even if recorded you will not know all the facts.(Making Of A Song)
Out of breath and slightly shivering Taylor stops focusing on the magical note and as soon as she does it changes to a regular piece of paper with no magic.(Dumbo vibes where Dumbo feels like he needs the feather in order to make it across the tightrope but he realizes that he doesn't; his strength and talent is within himself and has been all along.)
Now we see the patrons and bartender looking back at Taylor but they don't have their phones out and they aren't looking at her like she's something but someone; someone regular, in fact.
She seems to look around past the first four, the fourth patron seems to be blocking the fifth patron from Taylor's eyeline at first, she continues to search until she looks in recognition and smiles the genuine smile of knowing (Dress vibes "I know what you know") .
The final shot shows Taylor smiling with brightest of lights behind her with soft diffused light on her face as she looks forward. (Are we seeing her last big hurrah?)
And then the screen is black with "delicate" the only thing on display, just like the beginning. The beginning and ending also parallel with close-up shots of Taylor with three different expressions on her face.
