Taylor Swift: Journey to Fearless
Year: 2010
Created by: Don Mischer & Ryan Polito
Starring: Taylor Swift
Episodes: 3
BBFC: N/A
Published: 20/02/24
Created by: Don Mischer & Ryan Polito
Starring: Taylor Swift
Episodes: 3
BBFC: N/A
Published: 20/02/24
Taylor Swift recently made history by winning her fourth ‘Album of the Year’ Grammy award for her tenth studio album, Midnights, being the first artist in history to do so. The very same night she announced her eleventh studio album, The Tortured Poets Department, and started the Asia leg of her record-breaking Eras Tour, the film of which I gave a glowing review last year following one of the best cinema going experiences of my life.
All of this made me want to go back and look at the pop star’s filmography over the past few years, starting with the Discovery documentary miniseries, Journey to Fearless.
Journey to Fearless gives us behind the scenes access to the at the time nineteen-year-old pop star’s creative process when constructing and performing her first world tour that supported her sophomore album, 2008’s Fearless.
Split across three episodes, the docuseries takes a look back at Swift’s introduction to the music scene, producing her debut album, and creating the Fearless album, before moving onto the creation of the tour and in-depth breakdowns of some of the show’s songs.
Even as a big Swiftie, I don’t think I’m the target audience for Journey to Fearless. This series is very clearly aimed at late 00’s teenage girls, reminiscent of celeb gossip reality TV that would air on the likes of MTV back in the day.
There’s a lot of time spent exploring Swift’s friendship with high school bestie, Abigail Anderson, as well as the close-knit family style relationship she shares with her dancers and musicians on the tour.
Swift’s mother, Andrea also plays a large role as well get to see how she supports the show in a parental way (toning down some vaguely raunchy dance moves for one).
All of this made me want to go back and look at the pop star’s filmography over the past few years, starting with the Discovery documentary miniseries, Journey to Fearless.
Journey to Fearless gives us behind the scenes access to the at the time nineteen-year-old pop star’s creative process when constructing and performing her first world tour that supported her sophomore album, 2008’s Fearless.
Split across three episodes, the docuseries takes a look back at Swift’s introduction to the music scene, producing her debut album, and creating the Fearless album, before moving onto the creation of the tour and in-depth breakdowns of some of the show’s songs.
Even as a big Swiftie, I don’t think I’m the target audience for Journey to Fearless. This series is very clearly aimed at late 00’s teenage girls, reminiscent of celeb gossip reality TV that would air on the likes of MTV back in the day.
There’s a lot of time spent exploring Swift’s friendship with high school bestie, Abigail Anderson, as well as the close-knit family style relationship she shares with her dancers and musicians on the tour.
Swift’s mother, Andrea also plays a large role as well get to see how she supports the show in a parental way (toning down some vaguely raunchy dance moves for one).
Where Journey to Fearless shines really is in presenting clips from the actual tour performance. It gives an intimate presentation of some of the show’s biggest numbers, and the accompanying snippets of info from Swift into why that section was designed that way are insightful.
Unfortunately, the docuseries seems determined to pull us away from that stuff as often as possible to show us Swift and some friends baking a cake or something equally as irrelevant.
Swift’s performance capabilities here are something of a mixed bag. Her singing ability is strong and carries well in a live environment. There’s no doubt that it’s improved over the years, but for a nineteen-year-old she does deliver a very powerful vocal performance. But despite being a skilled musician she has absolutely no rhythm in her body. It was a long running joke that Swift couldn’t dance, one that she herself made fun off with her 2014 song ‘Shake It Off’, and watching Journey to Fearless it’s painfully obvious how much the show has been crafted around her inability to move naturally whilst she’s singing. Most of the time she’ll be stood totally still, but the few times where she is moving it’s unfortunately hilarious, like watching Bambi on ice as she wobbles on her legs and flails her arms around, never once hitting the beat she’s supposed to.
There is something rather endearing about it, and despite her unflattering movement she is a delight to watch as she belts her heart out to her biggest hits and interacts well with the fans.
I don’t think that Journey to Fearless will appeal to many people. Once you narrow yourself down to Taylor Swift fans you then need to narrow down even further to those that enjoy MTV style behind the scenes exposures. I love Taylor Swift and her music, but I really don’t care for the way Journey to Fearless is constructed. Whilst some of the behind-the-scenes stuff is interesting, I’d much rather have had a straightforward filming of the concert. I had a good time with it, but as I said much earlier on in my review, I was never going to be the target audience for this.
Unfortunately, the docuseries seems determined to pull us away from that stuff as often as possible to show us Swift and some friends baking a cake or something equally as irrelevant.
Swift’s performance capabilities here are something of a mixed bag. Her singing ability is strong and carries well in a live environment. There’s no doubt that it’s improved over the years, but for a nineteen-year-old she does deliver a very powerful vocal performance. But despite being a skilled musician she has absolutely no rhythm in her body. It was a long running joke that Swift couldn’t dance, one that she herself made fun off with her 2014 song ‘Shake It Off’, and watching Journey to Fearless it’s painfully obvious how much the show has been crafted around her inability to move naturally whilst she’s singing. Most of the time she’ll be stood totally still, but the few times where she is moving it’s unfortunately hilarious, like watching Bambi on ice as she wobbles on her legs and flails her arms around, never once hitting the beat she’s supposed to.
There is something rather endearing about it, and despite her unflattering movement she is a delight to watch as she belts her heart out to her biggest hits and interacts well with the fans.
I don’t think that Journey to Fearless will appeal to many people. Once you narrow yourself down to Taylor Swift fans you then need to narrow down even further to those that enjoy MTV style behind the scenes exposures. I love Taylor Swift and her music, but I really don’t care for the way Journey to Fearless is constructed. Whilst some of the behind-the-scenes stuff is interesting, I’d much rather have had a straightforward filming of the concert. I had a good time with it, but as I said much earlier on in my review, I was never going to be the target audience for this.