Taylor Swift’s Controversial Lyric in New Album Sparks Online Debate

Taylor Swift dropped her new album on Friday, but it was one lyric in particular from her latest track, “I Hate It Here,” that set the internet on fire.

In this song from “The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology,” a bonus track from his latest album, Swift wishes to be part of an era long before she started her career more than a century ago.

Musing over a childhood game where friends would pretend to live in a different decade, Swift puts it this way: “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.”

But speaking of the 1830s, a period when slavery was the norm in the United States, it brought with it a backlash against her.

Some, of course, defended Swift as merely the critical chronicler of others’ historical romanticizations, while others criticized the lyric for pointing out the thorny issue of idealizing past epochs while ignoring the darker elements of human nature. Swift’s 11th studio album, The Tortured Poets Department, totals 31 tracks that include a 15-song deluxe called The Anthology, where “I Hate It Here” is housed. The song speaks of heartbreak and maturation and features, most notably, rapper and singer Post Malone on the lead single “Fortnight.”