Thuggification of Country Music Redux: Taylor Swift Tries To "Shake It Off"
08/20/2014
A+
|
a-
Print Friendly and PDF

Just as mainstream country is increasingly devolving into a pathetic attempt to ape rap, former Country Music Association award winner Taylor Swift decided to pull a Miley Cyrus and twerk for the masses in her new single Shake It Off.

Some progressives are gleeful that she is turning against "the safe, albeit limiting world of country music."  [Pour One Out For Country Music, It Got Dumped By Taylor Swift Last Night, by Jessica Goldstein, ThinkProgress, August 19, 2014]

Unfortunately, this noble attempt at diversity has actually opened her to charges of cultural appropriation and racism.  And while the "haters gonna hate, hate, hate" in Miss Swift's phrase, racism is still the one unforgivable charge, especially when it's "perpetuating black stereotypes to the same demographic of white girls who hide their prejudice by proclaiming their love of the culture."  [Taylor Swift: 'Shake It Off' video under fire from Earl Sweatshirt for 'perpetuating black stereotypes," by Jess Denham, UK Independent, August 19, 2014]

Sorry Taylor.  Like the white residents of Ferguson, you just can't win no matter what you do.

 

Taylor Swift Shake it Off Still - H 2014

 

"Culture"

 

Print Friendly and PDF