With its pastel colours and fluffy clouds, Swift’s video feels out of step with the online shift back to reality
Nearly 10 years into a world with Instagram, its cutesy, kooky perfection is now a mainstream aesthetic. Take Taylor Swift’s ME! video, for example, which manages to pack in pastel colours, butterflies, cats, rainbows, fluffy emoji clouds, rainbows, mermaid dresses, unicorn horns, a lot of pink and the lyric “You can’t spell ‘awesome’ without ‘me’”. Like a long scrolling session, the effect is slightly queasy – and that’s even without the avocado on toast, #livingyourbestlife cliches.
It is also in Brie Larson’s Netflix series Unicorn Store, the notebook aisle of your local Paperchase and the walls of your average tween bedroom. This also means – sorry, TayTay – that it’s kind of over. “This is a sign of approval [of this type of Instagram aesthetic] by mainstream culture,” says Lev Manovich, author of Instagram and Contemporary Image. “But one of the biggest stars in the world is using it in their video – that might mean it’s reached its peak.”
Continue reading...from The Guardian http://bit.ly/2w5W0ol
