Genre:
Country
Interest Level:
Ages 9 and up
Video Theme:
Bullying, self-esteem
Music videos with similar themes:
"Never Say Never" by Justin Bieber, "Who Says" by Selena Gomez and The Scene
Bibliographic Information: "Mean" by Taylor Swift from the Taylor Swift album Speak Now
Plot:
The video for Taylor Swift’s “Mean” focuses on the theme of bullying. The video highlights the struggles of a young boy who is bullied by the football team because he is gay, a girl who is made fun of because she has to work at a restaurant to pay for college, and a young girl around thirteen who tries to sit down with a group of girls who ignore her. Taylor is also shown sitting on a railroad track tied up while an villain taunts her. Toward the end of the video the boy has grown up and is a famous fashion designer. The girl working in the restaurant is grown up and looking very happy working in her own office with her college diploma on the wall. Taylor sees the villain and his friend passed out drunk so she gets up to untie herself and walks off. At the end of the video Taylor is shown dressed up singing on stage and the thirteen year old girl sits in awe watching her and applauds enthusiastically at the end.
The video for Taylor Swift’s “Mean” focuses on the theme of bullying. The video highlights the struggles of a young boy who is bullied by the football team because he is gay, a girl who is made fun of because she has to work at a restaurant to pay for college, and a young girl around thirteen who tries to sit down with a group of girls who ignore her. Taylor is also shown sitting on a railroad track tied up while an villain taunts her. Toward the end of the video the boy has grown up and is a famous fashion designer. The girl working in the restaurant is grown up and looking very happy working in her own office with her college diploma on the wall. Taylor sees the villain and his friend passed out drunk so she gets up to untie herself and walks off. At the end of the video Taylor is shown dressed up singing on stage and the thirteen year old girl sits in awe watching her and applauds enthusiastically at the end.
Review:
This delightful video is a beacon of hope for any tween who has been bullied and feels like life will never change. It touches on several bullying issues that tweens are faced with today and offers them a reminder that even though people are mean now someday life will improve and the mean people won’t matter anymore. There has been criticism of the video that says it doesn’t explain that sometimes mean people turn out to be successful anyway, but I think the real point of the video is to remind tweens and young adults to have hope for their lives to turn around one day. I highly recommend this video to anyone of any age group who might feel stuck in life and need an uplifting reminder than things will get better!
Video Awards: 2011 MTA Video Music Award Nominee in the category of Best Video with a Message.
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