Music Videos into Stories: "Blank Space" by Taylor Swift
Music video storyline reimagining? Take two!
If you enjoyed my last meandering with Music Videos into Stories about RM’s “Wild Flower”—then I’ve got a treat for you.
Are there any Swifties out there? I hope so.
If not, let me clue you in: “Blank Space,” the second single off the pop star’s 2014 album 1989, is one of those songs that followed after people when it came out. You heard it everywhere—and even the music video was pervasive in its own way. The 1989 album became iconic for a reason due to this song (as well as ear worm “Shake It Off”).
I probably don’t need to link the video (it’s been viewed on YouTube almost 3.5 billion times since its release in 2014), but I will just in case you’re one of the few that hasn’t seen it:
Here are lyrics from the song (if, again, you’ve been living under a rock and haven’t heard it):
Cherry lips, crystal skies
I could show you incredible things
Stolen kisses, pretty lies
You're the king, baby, I'm your queen
Find out what you want
Be that girl for a month
Wait, the worst is yet to come, oh no
Screaming, crying, perfect storms
I can make all the tables turn
Rose garden filled with thorns
Keep you second guessin' like
"Oh my God, who is she?"
I get drunk on jealousy
But you'll come back each time you leave
'Cause darling, I'm a nightmare dressed like a daydream
What story are we treading today?
Let’s start with a modern-day Snow White retelling—except Snow White isn’t our protagonist.
The evil queen is.
She’s got red lips, fair skin, and tumbling locks of gold. Every man imagines she’s the princess in their fairy tale as soon as he meets her. She can be anyone—Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Snow White, Little Red Riding Hood, what have you—and she knows she has the power all at the end of her palm. In a way, she’s a shapeshifter of a kind, always reinventing herself for the moment. She’s even played the part of men when she’s been particularly bored.
It’s not about attention, though.
It’s about teaching men a lesson.
And she’s here to teach Snow White a lesson too.
In a mansion not far from the trappings of a metropolis, the evil queen invites eight people—five men and three women—to engage in a game of passions and ill intent for seven days. She’s the mastermind behind it all, tugging at the strings like a puppeteer as she makes every one of the men and women fall in love with her over the course of their time at the mansion.
Every one, that is, except for the Snow White stand-in—a girl who’s been invited by accident because of mistaken identity. Everyone thinks she has powers like they do, these powers that can change the world, but the truth is that she’s just a girl—a far too ordinary girl who is tripping over herself to get at the heart of the true mystery in the mansion.
The queen’s beating heart that keeps her immortal is living somewhere within the mansion.
Told in alternating perspectives between the queen and the Snow White character, it’s a cat-and-mouse game as the queen seduces each of the people in the mansion while the clock ticks down, the Snow White girl trying to find a way to free them all from these games and trickery. The only way to do so is to own the queen’s heart and grasp it.
But how can you hope to win against someone whose heart is blocked off?
And what if you can’t save the devil at the end of the day?
Our Snow White character is haunted, and so is the queen character. They’ve both been hurt.
It’s time for a new era, though. An era of beginnings.
An era for an orange door to flame alive with purpose, ready to be opened on a brand new day.
The Evil Queen Meets Her Match—coming to a bookshelf near you.
Did you enjoy this Music Videos into Stories take? Then please consider following along for more adventures through stories and music over time.