Rhetoric is all around us and whether we realize it or not, we are exposed to it all the time. We can find rhetoric in all forms of media from Movies to TV shows from newspaper articles to social media. One piece of media that contains rhetoric is music, more specifically Taylor Swift’s 2012 album Red. Red presents several rhetorical situations including commentary on relationships.
Before analyzing Red’s use of rhetoric, it is important to know the rhetorical elements of ethos, pathos, and logos. Ethos is defined as how the writer expresses their ethics, morals, and credibility to their audience. Ethos heavily revolves around the writer or speaker. The audience wants to know who the author is and what their views on the subject
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In 2012, Taylor Swift had released 3 albums; Taylor Swift (2006), Fearless (2008), and Speak Now (2010). Also at the time of Red’s release, she had won 6 Grammy’s including best country song, best country album, and album of the year. Red was also nominated for three Grammy's but didn’t win. As for her public image, she is seen as a sweet and innocent young girl who dates a lot.
The next element in the rhetorical situation is pathos. Pathos is defined as connecting the author and the reader using emotion. Pathos is more reader dependent than the other elements. Pathos helps the writer know to know their audience and who they are intending to write for. Connecting to the audience using pathos is a strong way to get the support of the reader. The audience needs to be moved by what they’re reading. Without pathos, the writer won’t be able to properly connect to their audience.
Taylor Swift likes to invoke a lot of emotion into her music and includes several things she has experienced in her life. One major recurring theme in her songs is love.
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She does this by using facts like how a specific action made her feel or how a specific event changed her or the relationship she as in. An example of this is in her song “The Lucky One” which tells the story of singer Joni Mitchell. While she didn’t say the song was about her, there are many specific events she experienced that are included in the song such as her using a fake name and her sudan disappearance from the music industry. Another example of logos in Red is in “Starlight” when she writes the song from the perspective of a young couple in 1945 and includes certain details to properly set the mood and be historically
Pathos is used in order to link the essay with the reader’s emotions and ethos is used to show the writers moral character. For example, pathos is used when Kozol speaks to a student of a Bronx high school, “Think of it this way,” said a sixteen-year-old girl. “If people in New York woke up one day and learned that we were gone…how would they feel?...I think they’d be relieved.” (Kozol 205) This part of the essay really made me feel sad for this girl who lives in a society where she has grown up feeling like now one cares about her or others of her race.
Attention material: She is the most popular female artist since 2006 when she started as a country singer; she has won many Grammy Awards, Kids Choice Awards and People’s Choice Awards with her incredible talent. She is generous, creative and successful; this could be no other than our beloved Taylor Swift.
After the record breaking sensation that was “1989”, a three year hiatus, and an explosion of drama that tore her apart, Taylor Swift is back; and she’s not alone. She’s returned with an untouchable attitude and a thirst for revenge- one that we never expected to see from her. In Reputation, Swift’s sixth studio album, you will catch a glimpse of Taylor’s side compared to what the media has said about her in recent years and more. After listening to this album on repeat constantly since its release and analyzing every single second of every single track, I’m here to explain why Reputation is nothing short of phenomenal.
Briefly, the song Red, by Taylor Swift, is about her relationships in her love life. The song uses many colors of words that explains Swift’s feelings, but red symbolizes the strongest feeling of all, as it is embedded in the title. In the song, it follows a specific format, comparing the her action to him, to a similar feeling of another thing. This builds up the foundation of the song and it is easy to understand the meaning of the lyrics in terms of the literal meaning of how it sounds. The lyrics of Red is rich in simile as well in imagery, that describes her love for the guy while reminiscing those memories of him.
Taylor Swift, 25, has only been with Calvin Harris, 31, for four months but the two seem to be taking the fast road in their relationship. The musically inclined couple has not been shy in expressing their love and happiness, and Harris said they are “insanely in love,” Hollywood Life (HL) reports.
Taylor Swift has become a very influential business woman. Over the last few years she has become not only successful in every way but she is changing the face of music. Normally Taylor Swift is often exposed for her social life. She isn't recognized for her acts of kindness.
Taylor Swift possesses great power, and with great power comes great responsibility. She demonstrated this week that she could wield that power for good, when she went against Apple this week, and won. Even Samsung had some trouble accomplishing that.
Taylor Swift has worked long and hard to make her music video an EPIC. Last May it was reported how she intensively prepared for the release of her album, wanting for it to live-up to the standards of the legendary video of Michael's Jackson's 'Thriller'.
In 2008 Swift was nominated for a Grammy in the Best New Artist Category, and many other awards. Around this time she had already released her next album Fearless. By the end of the year she was already the highest selling country
Even though records sales were depressed, Taylor Swift was selling millions. One of the main reasons she keeps sales so high is by appealing to her fans. She uses social media to her advantage by creating relationships with her fans. She is known to connect with fans over instagram by giving encouraging and congratulating messages to her fans. Her unique reputation for caring and embracing the haters makes her more popular. Swift does not use ghostwriters and personally communicates with her fans. She has lunches and private concerts with children and teenagers who have terminal illnesses like cancer.
In the year of 2014, Taylor Swift decided to cross genres and release a pop album, after starting her career as a country artist. Not only
Here is a little bit of background on the song itself. During the 2009 VMAs Taylor Swift won the award for “Best Female Video” over Beyonce who was also nominated for the same category. As Taylor was giving her acceptance speech, Kanye came onto the stage and interrupted her by saying that “Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time.” Because of this “historical moment” (if you will) Kanye claims that Taylor Swift is only famous because of him. A popular line from the song “Famous” is “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex why?/ I made that b**ch famous.” Taylor of course did not like this and even talked about this in her Grammy acceptance speech basically saying that she worked hard to get to where she is. Since then there’s been drama between Taylor and The Wests (Kim and Kanye). So when I saw Taylor in Kanye’s video I was very shocked because I knew she wasn’t okay with the song so she definitely wouldn’t participate in such a
The three most downloaded songs from each of Taylor Swift’s six albums, a total of 18 songs, will be coded to identify the most commonly expressed themes that fans are likely to internalize. In order to determine the top songs, sample selections were crosschecked between various music services (iTunes, Billboard, VEVO, Spotify). Songs under analysis include: - Taylor Swift (2006): “Our Song,” “Picture to Burn,” and “Teardrops on my Guitar” - Fearless (2008): “Love Story,” “You Belong With Me,” and “White Horse” - Speak Now (2010): “Mean,” “Back to December,” and “Mine” - Red (2012): “I Knew You Were Trouble,” “22,” and “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” - 1989 (2014): “Shake It Off,” “Blank Space,” and “Style” - reputation (2017):
Unlike Kanye West and Miley Cyrus, Taylor uses her social media to brand herself as a sweet girl. Her image that she has built up through twitter and Instagram is the loving, kind, innocent, and friendly girl. She uses social media accounts to show that she is all for girl power. This works for her image because people feel like they can connect with her. Another type of media that Taylor Swift uses to connect with her fans are her music videos. Her Bad Blood music video sent her fans through the roof of obsession. Their infatuation with her quadrupled after the music video of her and her girls came out. Her brand that she created with her various social media accounts, makes Taylor Swift so appealing because she makes herself relatable. That is how Taylor Swift uses social media and other types of media to her
Today’s music has also helped many go through the hardships of life. For example, Taylor Swift has help us all with the songs of her breakups. After seeing how she writes a song for every breakup she has had, makes the audience feel asure that they are those who have worse experience with relationships.