When I was in the 8th grade, I bought my very first Taylor Swift album. From that day on, I was hooked. Anyone who knows me knows how crazy obsessed I am with this girl's music, tours, life, basically anything about her; I'll be the first to admit it. With that being said, I'll also be the first to admit that I didn't love Taylor's new video for "Out of the Woods" which was released at midnight on New Year's Eve.
Just because I didn't "love" it, doesn't mean I didn't like it. It was fine. And not fine in a 'when you ask your girl how she is and she snaps "fine" back at you' way;- I mean it in a 'it wasn't her best, it wasn't her worst, it was fine' type of thing. When 1989 was released in October 2014 "Out of the Woods" was one of my favorite songs from the album. It was such an honest song written about such a public relationship (hey Harry Styles) and I admired it for not being catty and derogatory towards him but being true and open. When I saw her tour this summer, I cried my eyes out like a baby when she performed it and a few months ago she released the acoustic version and again, fangirl tears. So I'm sure you can imagine my excitement when she announced the video would be released on NYE (all my fellow fangirls understand the irony of this release date too-not even going to get into that right now....) but after watching it I found myself a little disappointed and slightly confused.
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So it starts off with the text "She Lost Him" and then flashes to her standing on a beach. The first cords of the song start and immediately vines are shooting out of the sand. Now she's walking through the woods, dodging vines every which way with a bunch of menacing wolves looking at her like her next meal. Her whispy blonde hair and pale blue dress are the epitome of innocence and the symbolism of the first 45 seconds of this video is already super prominent. As the refrain starts so does the wolf chase. Taylor is a naturally clumsy person, but her dramatic fall to the ground looked more fake than her brown hair in "Wildest Dreams". A wolf finally catches the tail of her dress and sends her flying onto...a patch of snow?
Now she's laying in the mountains? Now shes's hiking the mountain? Now the wolves followed her to the mountain? Now she whips off the symbolic paper airplane necklace and tosses it of the side of the mountain...but wait, now she watches it fall with remorse? Even I'm starting to cringe at the corniness of it all. She barely escapes the teeth of the next wolf by propelling herself off the mountain into water. Before she can drown, she's on a desert-and of course there's a tree. Can't forget to "woods" theme we've got going on here. The video continues as she battles the elements and clings to trees at every winding corner.
As she starts belting out "REMEMBER WHEN" she gets a sudden outfit change and is now thrashing around in a pile of mud. The vines are twisting around her...will she make it out of the woods? Now the vines have grown her into a tree and she's battling all these elements and I'm just getting total whiplash from the snow, the lightening, the rain, the ice, the dirt, the rocks, the water, the fire? Wait why is everything on fire now? Ooooh I get it the woods are burning! The trees are falling, the wolf pack is posed behind her like #squadgoals, and the vines are snapping. She's finally out of the woods!! Phew I was starting to sweat it for a minute. At the end she walks back onto the beach, the woods are shrinking and falling behind her, and she starts approaching...herself? She walks up behind herself from the opening scene, taps herself on the shoulder, and then a black screen. The following sentence flashes "She lost him, but she found herself, and somehow that was everything."
Okay so the ending gave me a few chills, but overall, I honestly thought the video distracted from the strength of the song. I understand the whole nature theme, but I think it was a little too unrealistic and over the top. And that's coming from one of her biggest fans, I barely ever have anything to criticize regarding her music or videos or anything really. Regardless, the video didn't make me like the song any less, or change my opinions of her as an artist. Perhaps I should give up my expectations of any video ever topping "Blank Space"....
