When it comes to international pop star Taylor Swift, opinions usually fall in a polarizing “love her or hate her” dichotomy. Those who love her believe she can do no wrong, and those in the opposite camp tend to think she can do nothing but. However, even some diehard Swifties struggled to rally around one particular lyric on her April 2024 release, ‘The Tortured Poets Department.’
Internet users were quick to share their reactions to the eyebrow-raising line, and surprisingly, this wasn’t the first time social media has discussed Swift in relation to this sensitive topic.
Some Considered Taylor Swift’s Divisive Lyric Tone Deaf
Taylor Swift’s ‘The Tortured Poets Department” features a whopping 31-song set list, including 16 main tracks and 25 additional songs on ‘The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology.’ Swift tucked this divisive song neatly in the middle of the latter extended edition, placing “I Hate It Here” at No. 23.
In the second verse, Swift sings, My friends used to play a game where we would pick a decade we wished we could live in instead of this. I’d say the 1830s but without all the racists and getting married off for the highest bid. The lyrics marked the first time Swift ever directly referenced race in her music, and the internet’s reactions were expectedly hot and cold, given the sensitive topic.
Many online users argued that the line was out of touch, citing that the Civil War didn’t occur until three decades after Swift’s “ideal decade.” Writer Ola Ojewumi shared her thoughts on X: “When white women are congratulated for the “work” of no longer feeling nostalgic about wanting to live in the 1830s. That’s not work, lol. Only white people fantasize about going back in time.”
However, other listeners pushed back against the Swift critique. X user @taytured wrote, “The 1830s line is not racist. She literally said if she had been there, she’d hate it a few lines later. It’s about her ruining the decade game they were playing. Context matters!”
The added lyrical context the fan is referring to is as follows:
Everyone would look down
Cause it wasn’t fun now
Seems like it was never even fun back then
Nostalgia is a mind’s trick
If I’d been there, I’d hate it
It was freezing in the palace
Critics Faced Backlash a Decade Earlier
Ten years before Taylor Swift released ‘The Tortured Poets Department,’ when she was deep in her ‘1989’ era, Swift once again found herself at the center of some debate. The notable difference, however, was that the 2014 outcry centered around her music video for her ubiquitous song “Shake It Off.”
The “Shake It Off” music video shows Swift dancing and, well, shaking with ballerinas, cheerleaders, and lyrical dancers. At one point, Swift, clad in gold hoops, large gold chains, a leopard jacket, and a bumped-up hairdo, crawls through a line of dancing Black women.
Rapper Earl Sweatshirt tweeted about the music video, calling it “inherently offensive and ultimately harmful. [It is] perpetuating black stereotypes to the same demographic of white girls who hide their prejudice by proclaiming their love of the culture.” Much like the discussions on her divisive lyrics in “I Hate It Here,” Swift listeners separated into two camps. One side argued she was being satirically outrageous; others argued tone-deafness and white privilege.
“It’s a satirical piece,” music video director Mark Romanek told Vulture. “It’s playing with a whole range of music video tropes and clichés and stereotypes.” Nonetheless, both instances have churned controversy. But who knows, maybe her lyrics’ controversy is proof that her attempts at satire did work after all.
Photo by Sarah Yenesel/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
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