Music Analysis Of Taylor Swift's 'Santa Baby'

Christmas, a time of the year to cherish with loved ones where one will search for perfect gifts and hope to receive the same amount of thought back. Some may ask for more extravagant items such as a yacht, decorations from Tiffany’s, and a ring. The catchy tune, “Santa Baby” originally sung by Eartha Kitt requests for these and more in a short, light hearted tune. Other singers such as Taylor Swift and Ariana Grande created covers of the song and, while generally sing the same tune change the tempo and some lyrics to fit their style. In my opinion Taylor Swift blew Kitt and Grande out of the water with her rendition. The usage of honky-tonk style, change of a few words, and tone of her voice surpass the original and other cover. Each version represented itself differently, all while maintaining the same message however, I feel Swift’s performance stood out the best. To start, the song, “Santa Baby” first hit airwaves in 1953 so the hush voice and slow tempo are expected. During the 1950’s strong beats and loud voices were not common. The video recorded in black and white started the artist staring out the window as it snowed in a sleeveless fur coat. Very minuscule movement happens throughout the video as the singer goes back and forth singing. Kitt, the singer, sang

Once the singing began the singer carried the song along perfectly. The playful voice and laughter change the original sexual meaning to more a joke. Around the fifty seconds mark instead of singing the original, “…think of all the fellas I haven’t kissed…” the artists changed it to, “…think of all the boys I haven’t kissed.” Another line where the lyrics changed are, “…next year I could be oh so good…” and, “…next year I could be just as good…” I feel the, “oh so good/just as good” represents the decade. No one used oh in that manner during the 2000’s, but they did so in the