Textual analysis of "everything has changed' Taylor Swift and Ed Sheer an

Everything has changed- Taylor Swift

Written: Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran

Director: Butch Walker

Genre: Country pop, folk pop

Structure: Narrative

Taylor Swift
All I knew this morning when I woke
Is I know something now, know something now I didn't before
And all I've seen since 18 hours ago is green eyes and freckles and your smile in the back of my mind making me feel right
I just want to know you better know you better know you better now
I just want to know you better know you better know you better now

(Both)
I just want to know you better know you better know you better now
I just want to know you know you know you

Cause all I know is we said hello
And your eyes look like coming home
All I know is a simple name, everything has changed
All I know is you held the door
You'll be mine and I'll be yours
All I know since yesterday is everything has changed

(Ed Sheeran)
And all my walls stood tall, painted blue
But I'll take them down, take them down and open up the door for you

(Taylor Swift)
And all I feel in my stomach is butterflies the beautiful kind
Making up for lost time, taking flight, making me feel right

(Both)
I just want to know you better know you better know you better now
I just want to know you better know you better know you better now
I just want to know you better know you better know you better now
I just want to know you know you know you

Cause all I know is we said hello
And your eyes look like coming home
All I know is a simple name, everything has changed
All I know is you held the door
You'll be mine and I'll be yours
All I know since yesterday is everything has changed

Come back and tell me why
I'm feeling like I've missed you all this time
And meet me there tonight
And let me know that it's not all in my mind

(Taylor Swift)
I just want to know you better know you better know you better now
I just want to know you know you know you

(Both)
Cause all I know is we said hello
And your eyes look like coming home
All I know is a simple name, everything has changed
All I know is you held the door
You'll be mine and I'll be yours
All I know since yesterday is everything has changed

(Taylor Swift with Ed in background)
All I know is we said hello
So dust off your highest hopes
All I know is pouring rain
And everything has changed
All I know is a newfound grace
All my days, I'll know your face
(Both)
All I know since yesterday is everything has changed

Everything has changed is a song written by Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran and then performed by both of them. The song was placed in Taylor’s recent album red and tells a narrative of how children form crushes and young love over a short period of a day and they feel like it is there whole world. It could also be representing the two artists own experiences as children, as the children placed in the music video are specifically chosen to look like former versions of Taylor and Ed. The music video shows their normal school day, filled with children’s activities however it shows the two always together and sneaking off doing things together independently from everyone else.

Cinematography is used to show the narrative developing. The music video starts with an establishing shot of a scenic view with a long road and a typical stereotyped ‘yellow’ American school bus, showing where the music video is set. By seeing the yellow school bus the audience can tell straight away that this is going to be about school children. Editing then uses a fast cut edits-maybe representing the speed of the bus or on the other hand representing the youth of children and how they have a lot of energy and move a lot quicker- to a shot of a girls shoes and then a tilt upwards is used to show a young, blonde girl. A depth of field shot is used to show the girl in focus and the background blurred. This could be representing the age of the girl and how young children are in their own world.  Mise-en-scene is used to show the girl wearing a white floaty dress, a backpack and pink ribbons in her hair. The dress colour of white can be seen as representing her youth and age and her innocence. The ribbons and backpack all show her age of around 7-9 and in pre-school. Non diegetic sound is used of Taylor singing over the top of the music video and so this girl could be representing Taylor swift in how she is dressed, the hair colour and again using them to represent their own experiences.

Once the girl is on the bus she walks toward an empty chair next to a ginger looking boy reading a comics magazine, again showing the age of the children. An over the shoulder shot shows the boy is seen as a ginger haired, young boy, wearing blue jeans and a blue top reading a comics paper and drinking a flask. This could show that he is trying to act older or has gained characteristics from his father, e.g. Ed Sheeran. Him being a mini ed. A two shot shows her looking at him and smiling. This is when the narrative begins to show as the audience are then able to see the crush and friendship begin to develop, and thanks to stereotypes explored by Tessa Perkins, showing that everyone knows what a girl looks like when she is in young love.

Throughout the music video cinematography is used to show the two children always together, doing their own thing and showing their friendship. A close up tilt upwards, shows a lot of children running around a play area having fun with each other, the tilt then shows the two main children (mini ed and Taylor) sat together on top of a play frame eating their sandwich's together and being individual from the rest, which exaggerates their importance in the music video compared to the rest of the children. A similar shot is used again, this time showing an extreme long shot of a football game. The two main children are however at the side of the pitch doing yoga together. This again shows their individuality. 

And how they are representing an older influence. This point is then represented by a sequence of shots placed together with a series of fast cut edits from a zoom out to eventually a zoom in. This shot shows “mini ed and taylor” decorating cakes. Hers are really neat and delicately placed where as his are messy. This could represent the stereotype of how boys are messy and girls are neat or however it could represent the song lyrics of when they both sing “I just want to know you better”, this could be saying that they want to get to know each other better as they are clearly different in some ways. The narrative develops further when the non diegetic sound goes from solo singers to Taylor and ed singing together. This seems to happen when the shots show mini Taylor and ed playing together and being around each other more. Again stating how a stereotypical crush works.

A range of shots show the two together sharing childish activities together showing, the love they have. A range of shots show them, drawing together on eachother’s faces,reading to each other however it’s he notebook which is an older book contradicting the children but again the book I about love and so represents the narrative. It shows them performing in a school play. He is the knight and she is the princess. All of these shots representing the love and developing the narrative.

The narrative comes to an end when the two children run out of school at the end of the day. A shot reverse shot goes from the girl, to Taylor swift, and back to the girl. This is the only time you see Taylor in the whole music video and it shows that she is representing her mum stating that everything was representing Taylor and ed with the two children. It shows mini ed running to ed sheeran, again representing the dad and it brings the whole narrative to the end.