In the time leading up to the October release of Taylor Swift’s album, we’re going to read a lot of reviews of the country-turned-pop singer’s fifth record. However, most of them are going to be from a load of people – journalists like us – a load older than the target demographic of tween/teen girls. That’s why it's pretty refreshing that the* first* review of the album is from 17-year-old Lorde.
The singer, who is mates with Taylor (that’s how she got to listen to the album first, we guess), explained to New Zealand radio show The Edge, ‘I actually heard it [Shake It Off] a while ago. I love it. What I’m gonna say about it [the album] is… that it is quite simply, as someone who’s a fan of pop music, it is joyous. It is such a great record. Honestly, it’s so good.
READ MORE: Taylor Swift Unveils New Goof-Laden Video And You Can Watch It Here
She's not the only one to back Taylor, though, as the director behind Swifty's new video, Shake It Off, went on the record to defend accusations of perpetuating black stereotypes in the clip. After Odd Future rapper Earl Sweatshirt had written off the parts of the video where Taylor b-boys and twerks, Mark Romanek, who also directed Jay Z’s Picasso Baby and that Fiona Apple video for Criminal, defended his work. ‘[Earl] stated clearly that he hadn’t seen the video and didn't even intend to watch it,’ he told Vulture, adding, ‘So, respectfully, that sort of invalidates his observations from the get-go.’
‘We simply chose styles of dance that we thought would be popular and amusing and cast the best dancers that were presented to us without much regard to race or ethnicity. If you look at it carefully, it's a massively inclusive piece.’
He also added, ‘If Earl Sweatshirt was open-minded enough to take the four minutes to watch it, he might see what the larger, humanistic, and utterly color-blind message was intended to be.’
As for Taylor? We figure, when it comes to this sort of criticism, she’ll Shake It Off…
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.