It is no secret that American songstress Taylor Swift has a plethora of world records under her belt, however, she can now add yet another to her collection as her music video for her smash hit single Blank Space has reached an astounding 2 BILLION views on VEVO. Consequently, this makes her the only female artist to have a video with 2 billion views on the site. Now, if that isn’t girl power, then we don’t know what is.
Blank Space was released as a single back in November 2014, which seems like a century ago, but Taylor’s fans are showing no signs of falling out of love with the track. The fact that the video’s view count has reached such a milestone over two years later, shows that her fans, (colloquially known as Swifties) are still just as obsessed with the catchy pop song.
The video for Blank Space was directed by Joseph Kahn, who said that Taylor approached him with the initial idea for the treatment. She said she was aware of the jokes made about her ex-boyfriends in the press and by the public and how she likes to include them in her songwriting. Therefore, she wanted to address the “maneater” perception people have oof her in the video in a fun way by playing a crazy villain.
Director Kahn explained that the music video was partly inspired by A Clockwork Orange: “There’s a lot of symmetrical framing that’s Kubrickian, which is a really funny way to approach a pop video. But it’s there if you look at the way there’s centre framing and symmetry throughout the whole thing.”
Taylor’s love interest in the video is played by model Sean O’Pry, with whom she shares a loving relationship until he seems to be caught texting another girl, causing Taylor to turn into the possessive girlfriend the media enjoy portraying her as. She throws Sean’s phone into the water fountain, cuts holes in his shirt and smashes up his car with a golf club, ultimately feeling betrayed and paranoid.
The scenes featuring Taylor herself were filmed at Oheka Castle in Huntington, New York and some of the interior scenes were shot at the Woolworth Mansion.
In July 2015, Blank Space was nominated for two VMAs in the categories Best Pop Video and Best Female Video and won both of its nomination at the August ceremony. The song was the second single from Taylor’s fifth studio album 1989, although, the video for the debut single from the record, Shake it Off, is also nearing 2 billion views on VEVO.
Congratulations to Taylor on such a mind blowing achievement! Let us know if you’re still loving Blank Space by Tweeting us @CelebMix.