From start to finish and top to bottom, Taylor Swift’s performance at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards was expertly-crafted.
Swift will never be the music industry’s best technical vocalist, but with powerful lyrics that made direct references to last year’s MTV awards encounter with Kanye West, a dark and dramatic stage setup and impassioned facials, Swift declared that “you’re still an innocent” with more emotion and drama than any of her prior career performances.
An additional contributor to the poignant showing was Swift’s style, which included a lipstick shade and hairstyle not commonly found in her arsenal. Everything felt mature and hard-hitting, a far cry from some of the youthful, lighter songs (“You Belong with Me” and “Our Song” as examples) that accelerated her rise to stardom.
