Speak Now World Tour Live (2011)

It's easy to poke fun at Taylor's less-than-spectacular live vocals, cheesy lyrics but as i watched a segment on her on 60 Minutes, her manager made a specacular pointIf Taylor wasn't pretty, blond, young, and appealing to young girls and their moms, he lyrical compositions would be praised and looked at a higher level than she is. Instead, she was classified as a pop/country bubblegum singer with no depth.

When I first heard of Taylor Swift, my initial reaction was repulsion. I wasn't a country fan, and her association with the genre never really allowed me to give her a chance. Then, being forced to listen to her, as I have 4-10yo nieces, her catchy tunes actually had feeling, innocence, and truth to them. She describes her own music as being autobiographical; writing about famous ex boyfriends (Joe Jonas and John Mayer) and the tabloids who launch you into stardom, only to try to tear you down ("Mean"). This girl is level-headed, smart, and knows how to put on a production.

You can see what a hard worker she is. If you watched Taylor Swift: Journey To Fearless, you can see that she is involved in every aspect of her spectacle: Lighting, dancer auditions, staging, projection, video montages, etc. The Speak Now World Tour, which sold out venues almost instantly, was wonderful. I got a chance to see her in Los Angeles (Where she sold out 4 shows in a matter of minutes) and she even brought Justin Bieber onstage.

Although not having a specific theme unlike her last tour, She still played with the "fairy tale" illusion where it is clear that she is enjoy being what she isa girly girl who loves sparkle and playing dress up.

I recommend this show to anyone who isn't caught up on searching "perfect live vocal" and just wants to sit back and have a blast (and wave their hands back and forth and shrieking like a little girl).

This DVD captures the magic of the Speak Now live convert experience perfectly. The image quality is superb. Colors are vibrant, and the details are crisp and well defined, despite the harsh lighting in the concert environment. The only minor complaint is that colors sometimes tend to favor yellow tones a bit more than ideal. But again, that's mostly attributed to the non optimal lighting conditions. The videography strikes a nice balance between intimate close ups of Taylor and her various bandmates and wide angle shots that really convey the grand scale of her concert stage and the production value. And that's the real value of this DVD. It gives you the kind of close up look at the concert you just can't get from the live thing, no matter how good your seats are. I was lucky enough to get 7th row seats when I attended her concert. While I was super close to the stage, my head barely rose above the floor of the stage. So the whole time I was craning my neck to maintain my view of the stage. At the concert I was so busy keeping my eye on Taylor, I paid almost no heed to her background dancers and other band members. Now I get a chance to go back and relive the experience and focus on the details that I missed the first time around. I particularly enjoyed being able to see the expression on her face while she say "Dear John".

The footage on the DVD is put together from multiple concerts. Taylor took the best of her performances for each song and stitched everything together seamlessly. You'd be hard pressed to know it's not from a single concert, if you weren't paying attention to the lyrics written on her arm, which varies from concert to concert. The audio mix on the DVD is also pretty close to perfect. The nonstop cheering of the crowd adds just the right amount of ambiance to really bring the concert experience home, without being overpowering, and muddying her vocals. Sadly, that cannot be said for the audio quality on the accompanying CD. For some of the songs on the CD, the crowd noise completely overshadows the singing, and makes her vocals sound dull. The worst offenders seems to be Sparks Fly and Mine, which is a shame, as those are two of my favorite tracks. Personally, I plan to rip the audio track off the DVD and make high bit rate MP3s out of them to solve this problem.

The other minor point to be aware of is that the CD doesn't contain every song that's on the DVD. Specifically, the following are missing:

1) Our Song

2) Fearless (under the tree)

3) You Belong With Me (under the tree)

4) FIfteen

5) Love Story

Despite these minor flaws, the overall experience is fantastic and absolutely enchanting. I recommend this to any taylor swift fan without reservation. From this DVD, it's easy to see why Taylor defines the voice of a generation.

Buy Speak Now World Tour Live (2011) Now

This woman never stops topping herself. She is such an exceptional artist. All her songs have such strong meanings and easily relatable topics. This year alone she has been named Entertainer of the Year for the second time, Billboard Woman of the Year for 2011, and Top Artist of 2011 by the American Music Awards. These awards just go to show how much her fans love her because of all her hard work and dedication. This album is a wonderful addition to any Taylor Swift's collection. This is a great subsitute for not being able to see the concert in person, as well as a great item to keep those memories for those who went. She never fails to amaze me. She is so perfect and the most deserving entertainer. I love Taylor Swift with all my heart, and this is just another great gift she's given to us fans. Talk about an early Christmas present

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