/

Taylor Swift’s “Ours” Video: Nothing Exciting About It

  • In her music videos, Taylor Swift has a tendency to act out normal situations she’s never been in. “Ours” may be the best example of this. She has never been an office drone, and she never will be. The fact that she used that as a backdrop for this song’s love story (which is SOOO much different from the love stories in all her other songs) is indicative of her thirst for knowledge and for life. She wants to experience even life’s most mundane events. Regrettably, mundane life events generally don’t make for good music videos.

    The video begins with a slightly-harried Swift walking into her office building and enduring a surprisingly hostile elevator ride. Why is everyone staring at her so intently? Why do they push past her so aggressively? They work in the same building, haven’t many of these people seen each other before?

    This gives way to her office, which displays all of the classically terrible things about cubicle farms – drab colors, annoying co-workers, mysterious spills and sounds, even faulty lighting. There are other annoyances as well, but none as bad as the strangely confrontational guy at the water cooler. Why did he need to drink multiple cups while she waited? Couldn’t he step aside? Aren’t water coolers supposed to be sociable places? After that, she eats lunch alone while two gossipy female co-workers obviously gossip about her two tables over.

    She returns to her desk and watches a heartwarming video of the love of her life, revealing that he is played by Zach Gilford. The Friday Night Lights fan in me was elated. Just after, Taylor realizes it’s time to leave (to see him!), and she shares an elevator ride with a guy who is holding a banana. Obviously. She rushes out the door, high fives the janitor, and gets on the bus where she watches more videos. The bus pulls up to the airport, and we learn that Gilford (er, “Jones”) is a soldier.

    This video is really sweet, and I don’t know what to make of that. It is rare for music videos to be so earnest. There needs to be a conflict, and the best this video can offer is “jobs are boring.” That’s fine I suppose, but there’s no reason to watch it again. There’s nothing exciting about it. I suppose I’m happy that fictional Taylor found love, but more than anything the video strikes me as inconsequential.

    - Dan Spritz

    Share on TwitterShareShare on LinkedInShare on Tumblr

    Related posts:

    Comments



    December 19th, 2011 | Mara | Comments Off |

Comments are closed.