Taylor Swift wasn’t lying when she said she “could show you incredible things”. This is exactly what The Taylor Swift Experience app, a collaboration with American Express, gives Swifties and new fans alike to enjoy the world behind Taylor Swift’s new hit ‘Blank Space’.
It is part of American Express UNSTAGED, which according to its About page is an “innovative music platform” that seeks to use new technologies to “take fans on unexepected, unscripted journeys with some of the world’s most exciting performers”. And true to its word, this app lets you play through the entire music video, except you now get a 360 degrees view of what goes on in the Blank Space story world.
Just pan your phone around to visit the world – like you would look through a magnifying glass to view the world. Just don’t do it in public, or people might think you look very strange.
Easter eggs include a gramophone, a photo of Taylor Swift’s cat Olivia, and a piano you can play… though I don’t know what other tunes you can play since Blank Space never stops in its tracks.
What I found to be a super cool aspect is that you didn’t need to follow Taylor and her beau, played by 25 year old Sean O’Pry, around the entire time. Because you get to explore the story world, you get cool little scenes like the poor butler carrying the portrait of Sean after Taylor’s done with it, or the gardener sneakily reading Taylor’s notebook. So stay in the different rooms even after the two leads have disappeared: you’ll never know what you might find.
These little scenes aren’t seen in the original music video, of course, and is really a treasure for Swifties (such as myself) to discover. The other side characters have their little stories to tell too, like how the gardener drew a moustache on Sean’s portrait, making the butler fume. Besides, how cute is this gardener? Now that’s not something you see everyday.
The only complaints I have is that there’s no chance for users to explore the world outside of the 3 minutes 52 second song. Once the song ends, you have to replay the entire experience to discover more little nuggets, a clunky feature that would drive people who hate replaying games insane.
Features like the piano can only be played during the experience. While the easter eggs you collect are stored in your “collections”, they are only featured as a photo you can share on Facebook. Which is a shame because that piano is gorgeous and I’d love to be able to play it without Blank Space singing, “Boys only want love if it’s torture.”
Swifties can also watch behind the scenes videos and the official music video on the app itself. All in all, the Taylor Swift Experience is a treat for fans despite its flaws. It’s not perfect, but for Swifties, it doesn’t need to be.
The The Taylor Swift Experience App is available for free on the App Store and Google Play. Just make sure you download it over wifi, otherwise the 400mb app will probably put a dent on your data plan.
