Photo by Virgil Solis

Taylor Swift, the songstress forever linked to Kanye West following the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, has had quite the career before and after K.W. Despite all of the awards, fame, and success, a real artist will want to continually change their art, showcasing growth and evolution in ways that are entertaining, inspiring, and above all else, interesting. Using the aforementioned Kanye as an example, he’s not the same artist now that he was back during The College Dropout, showing major growth over his past three albums alone (808s and Heartbreaks, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, and Yeezus), but can you blame him? Taylor, meanwhile, has lined up the ex-boyfriends and break-up songs alongside her plentiful awards while still sticking to the same formula that found her her success. It’s about time she evolved, no?

Earlier this week, Taylor Swift released the music video for her new song, “Take It Off,” which you can watch below. The fallout has been widespread following the video’s release thanks to many claiming the video and singer as racist and appropriating black culture in some of the scenes. If you haven’t watched the video yet, Swift takes part in and dresses up in different types of dance cultures (ballet, break, cheerleading, etc.) while she sings about dancing/shaking off any problems that come her way. It’s a cheesy, yet positive song about being able to overcome differences and issues that may arise. The controversy comes from Swift’s representation of “black culture” with some questionable stereotypes being portrayed in some of the scenes.

However, is this inherently racist, or just woefully ignorant? The song’s theme, as I stated, is a positive message about facing adversity no matter the situation, as illustrated in the video with the various subcultures represented. Detractors are angry of the portrayals of twerking consisting of predominantly black dancers. Realistically, though, wouldn’t there be detraction if the majority of the twerkers were white (or even a different culture)? I don’t think the “Shake It Off” video appropriates black culture, but rather misrepresents all of the dancing cultures to a bare minimum.

In saying that, I find issue with the change in Swift’s song and its appropriation of modern Top 40 songs. I’m not a Taylor Swift fan, nor do I listen to (or care about) Top 40. What I find alarming is Swift’s attempt to expand upon her music career with this song in which she raps, very poorly at that, to fit into a current sound that is anything but what she’s known for. There’s a break in the middle of the song in which Swift says:

Hey, hey, hey
Just think while you been getting down and out about the liars
And the dirty dirty cheats of the world
You could have been getting down to this sick beat

Yes, Taylor, “Shake It Off” features one of the sickest beats to ever hit Radio Disney. Thanks for pointing it out to us. What follows after the break an awkward sounding Swift talk-rapping about seeing an ex-boyfriend and wanting to dance with another guy with nice hair. What? In an attempt to evolve her music from its country-pop roots to a more contemporary sound, Swift stumbles with a generic-sounding “rap” that is completely out of place and character. I understand risks and going outside of your comfort zone, especially in art, but when it’s something as misguided and blatantly wrong like this, it’s infuriating.

And please, don’t even get me started on Swift’s attempts at dancing in this video… If any accusations of cultural appropriations are being levied against Swift, it’s the appropriation of the current pop sound and her attempts to fit into that dynamic with her own music. Misguided? Definitely. Racist? Hardly. Watch the video below and let us know what you think.

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