Current:Home > ScamsTaylor Swift draws backlash for 'all the racists' lyrics on new 'Tortured Poets' album -ValueCore
Taylor Swift draws backlash for 'all the racists' lyrics on new 'Tortured Poets' album
View
Date:2025-04-13 19:56:33
Taylor Swift released a new album Friday, but not all listeners are loving a controversial line from her new song, "I Hate It Here."
In the track off of "The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology," a deluxe version of her new album, the Eras Tour singer sings about discontent and the way our recollections are distorted by nostalgia. In it, she says she wants to return to an era that ended more than a century before her career began.
"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," Swift sings in the track.
What we know about Taylor Swift's'The Tortured Poets Department' album so far
The Civil War began in 1861, more than 30 years after the decade Swift references in the song. Slavery was still active in the United States during this time.
"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," she sings. "It was freezing in the palace."
'So many wrong things about this:' Social media users react to Taylor Swift's 'I Hate It Here' lyrics
The controversial line has drawn the ire of the internet and fueled conversations around Swift's lyricism. Users on X, formerly known as Twitter, reacted to Swift's "I Hate It Here" lyrics.
"y’all .. there are so many wrong things about this," one user wrote, while posting a screenshot of the song's lyrics from Genius.
Slavery's explosive growth, in charts:How '20 and odd' became millions
"'I'd say the 1830s but without all the racists' now Taylor …" another user commented.
Other fans on X defended Swift's songwriting capabilities as historical analysis.
"It's an interesting commentary on how we sometimes idealize certain eras without fully considering the realities of living in them," one commenter said.
'The Tortured Poets Department' features 31 songs
Swift's 11th album "The Tortured Poets Department" features 31 songs, when you add in the 15-song deluxe version "The Anthology," which includes "I Hate It Here." The album draws on heartbreak and coming of age, traditional themes for one of the world's most famous people and songwriters.
Lead single "Fortnight" features rapper and singer Post Malone.
veryGood! (24)
Related
- Why Sean "Diddy" Combs Is Being Given a Laptop in Jail Amid Witness Intimidation Fears
- 1 killed, 6 injured in overnight shooting at a gathering in Massachusetts
- Businessman Mohamed Al-Fayed, Father of Princess Diana's Partner Dodi Fayed, Dead at 94
- F. Murray Abraham: My work is my salvation
- $73.5M beach replenishment project starts in January at Jersey Shore
- 'Senseless act of gun violence': College student fatally shot by stranger, police say
- More than 85,000 highchairs are under recall after two dozen reports of falls
- What is compassion fatigue? Experts say taking care of others can hurt your mental health.
- Finally, good retirement news! Southwest pilots' plan is a bright spot, experts say
- Pentagon launches website for declassified UFO information, including videos and photos
Ranking
- Tree trimmer dead after getting caught in wood chipper at Florida town hall
- Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers says Giants' Jihad Ward is 'making (expletive) up'
- Pro-Kremlin rapper who calls Putin a die-hard superhero takes over Domino's Pizza outlets in Russia
- Trader Joe's keeps issuing recalls. Rocks, insects, metal in our food. Is it time to worry?
- All That You Wanted to Know About She’s All That
- Burning Man 2023: With no estimate of reopening time, Burners party in the rain and mud
- New details revealed about woman, sister and teen found dead at remote Colorado campsite
- Nevada assemblywoman won’t seek re-election in swing district after scrutiny over her nonprofit job
Recommendation
Nevada attorney general revives 2020 fake electors case
Paris' rental electric scooter ban has taken effect
Kevin Costner breaks silence on 'Yellowstone' feud, says he fought for return to hit series
In Idalia's wake, a path of destruction and the start of cleanup
Meet first time Grammy nominee Charley Crockett
Pakistani traders strike countrywide against high inflation and utility bills
Want to live to 100? Blue Zones expert shares longevity lessons in new Netflix series
Lionel Messi, Inter Miami face Los Angeles FC in MLS game: How to watch