Megan Golden and Rachel Oliver go Viral on Facebook #OdetoTaylorSwift
It's not often I stop to watchYoutube videos during my work day but I am so glad I stopped to watch these Megan Golden and Rachel Oliver break it down in their version of Taylor Swift Carpool Karaoke. I met Megan this past year while she was interning at a PR Agency in Nashville and I was blown away by their project! With over 3 million facebook views and counting these two gals made us stop, smile and Shake it Off with them!
We chatted with Megan and Rachel read our interview below!
MUC: How did the two of you conceptualize this project?
Rachel: Well Megan makes fun YouTube videos periodically for her fans and to also attract new people to her page. So, she had already asked me to do a funny video with her when I came home from Christmas break and I was totally down. Then she texted me saying she had the greatest idea ever and when she told me the “Evolution Of Taylor Swift” idea, I was like hands down this will be the best video ever.
Megan: Like Rachel said, we had planned to do some kind of video when she got back in town. I was driving down the road blasting the Reputation Taylor Swift CD. I do this car jams thing on my Snapchat almost every time I'm driving somewhere with one of my best friends, and several of my twitter followers ask frequently to see more of that. Plus, I've been watching a lot of Carpool Karaoke, so maybe those two things are part of the reason the idea sparked in my head. My first thought was maybe it would be fun to do a car jam video of clips from all the songs on the new album, and after thinking about it for a second I realized it would be a million times cooler to do an evolution and do some of the big singles off of every album and maybe even dress like Taylor Swift did from each era. The cool thing about Taylor Swift if she changes her style so much with each new album time period, so it made it easy for us put staple looks in the video that most Taylor Swift fans could recognize immediately.
MUC: What scene/song was the most fun to film.
Rachel: The best scene to film for me was either “You Belong with Me” or “We are Never Ever Ever Getting Back Together”. I had a blast getting into those songs.
Megan: "Blank Space" was really fun for me. I love that song and I loved our look and how ridiculous it was! "Love Story" was also fun because I was very excited about the lantern. LOL.
MUC: Do you sing Taylor Swift covers in your performances?
Megan: I do every now and then, but I actually typically try to stay away from it. I am a huge Taylor Swift fan and it tends to come through a lot in my writing, so I get compared to her a lot. I try to avoid covering her just so I don't seem like I'm trying to be her. Even though my whole middle school life I literally did try to be a replica of her. LOL. But, it came in handy that I had so much practice back in the day of recreating that super curly hair and smokey eye look she always had.
MUC: The video went viral, how has this impacted your personal career?
Megan: Although the video really had nothing to do with my own music, so many people have been sending me messages on Facebook saying they saw the video and checked out my music because of it. I more than doubled my likes on my Facebook page as well. It's been really great! Another good thing is that people who liked the video are more than likely a fan of Taylor Swift's music, and since my music is not too far off from the music she creates, it has attracted the type of people that will hopefully be more likely to enjoy my music as well.
Rachel: Well I’m actually a teacher in Hawaii. So I showed my students the video when we went back to school and now they all think I’m famous. So I guess that helped my “cool points” in my teaching career. Haha
MUC: Favorite Taylor Swift Song?
Megan: There are so many great Taylor Songs, but my favorite is hands down "All Too Well" off of Red. That whole album is probably my favorite. That song has some absolutely incredible lyrics. It wasn't a single, so if people haven't heard it, I highly recommend checking it out!
Rachel: How can anyone have only one favorite Taylor Swift song?! This is too tough... hmm. I guess I would say “All to Well” from the Red album. But seriously how can one really choose??
MUC: How long did it take to film and edit this project?
Rachel: Well we were naive and hopeful that we could finish in one day; however it took two full days of Goodwill runs, multiple costume, hair, and makeup changes. Not to mention the actual filming of each song, but that was the easiest part of the video process. Hardest/longest part was definitely the different look changes. We went down to the minute changes because we wanted to do each Taylor era justice.
Megan: Like Rachel said, we seriously thought we could knock it out in one day. We were taking our time getting started. After probably the first two songs, we quickly realized there was no way we were going to finish in time. We spent a ton of time trying to track down a lantern somewhere and getting stuff from Goodwill. Doing the hair and makeup took so long for each look just because we wanted it to look as much as her actual looks as possible. We made the t-shirts for "You Belong With Me" so that look probably ended up taking the longest even though the hair and makeup for that one was easier than most of the other looks. Also the 13 we drew on our hands and the lyrics we wrote down our arms (which was something Taylor Swift did for every show on her "Speak Now" tour) took longer than you would think. It was so crazy because we spend what seemed like forever getting ready and then go film the song or a specific part of the song, which would take maybe five minutes at most. The getting ready definitely took way more time than the actual filming. When I edited the video it really didn't take that long. Maybe an hour so.
MUC: What's next for you in your career? Any new performances or music on the horizon?
Megan: I'm doing a lot of traveling around playing shows this year. I'm always working on new music, so I should have a new single coming out very soon! I'm also actually working on a cool new project with making videos. I can't really discuss details until everything is official, but hopefully people will keep their eyes out for it! I'm pretty excited about what I'm working on and who I'm getting to work with.
Rachel's Social Media:
Instagram: rachel_oliver
Snapchat: racheloliver1
Megan's Social Media:
www.MeganGolden.com
Facebook.com/MeganGoldenMusic
Youtube.com/MeganGolden
Instagram: @MeganAGolden
Twitter: @MeganAGolden
Snapchat: MeganAGolden