Although Taylor Swift‘s new album was launched on Friday, not everyone is enjoying a contentious passage from the song “I Hate It Here.”
The Eras Tour singer sings about unhappiness and how nostalgia distorts our memories in the song from “The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology,” a deluxe edition of her new album. She states in it that she longs to go back to a time when her career ended more than a century ago.
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“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 song.
More than 30 years after the decade Swift alludes to in the song, the Civil War broke out in 1861. During this period, slavery was still practiced in the United States.
“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 croons. “It was freezing in the palace.”
“There are so many things wrong with this” Reactions on social media to Taylor Swift’s “I Hate It Here” lyrics
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The contentious sentence has incited outrage on the internet and sparked discussions about Swift’s lyrical content. Swift’s “I Hate It Here” lyrics sparked reactions from users on X, formerly known as Twitter.
One user shared a screenshot of the song’s Genius lyrics and commented, “Y’all, there are so many wrong things about this.”
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Another person wrote, “‘I’d say the 1830s but without all the racists’ now Taylor…”
Swift’s songwriting abilities were supported by other X fans as historical analysis.
“It’s an interesting commentary on how we sometimes idealize certain eras without fully considering the realities of living in them,” a reader wrote.
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Thirteen tracks make up “The Tortured Poets Department”
When the 15-song deluxe version of Swift’s 11th album, “The Tortured Poets Department,” is taken into account, you get 31 songs total, including “I Hate It Here.” The album explores themes of coming of age and heartbreak, which are common to one of the most well-known individuals and composers in the world.
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