Pete.
03-09-2015, 03:04 PM
Taylor Swift's latest music video is being battered by critics who claim it is racist and pandering to 'rich white fantasies' from a colonial era.
The video for Wildest Dreams, which was revealed during the MTV VMA Awards coverage on Sunday, has a mainly white cast and revolves around two 1950s-era movie stars - played by Swift and Gran Torino actor Scott Eastwood - filming in Africa.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/09/02/18/2BD2C2C700000578-3220003-image-m-19_1441215281394.jpg
There are only two black actors, who play soldiers, and they appear in the background. The mock film crew are white.
Director Joseph Khan insists the video is a 'love story' and has no political agenda. But music fans have rushed to Twitter to describe it as 'colonial garbage'.
The footage was also also slammed by a number of editorials.
NPR's Viviane Rutabingwa, who has an African heritage, said: 'We are shocked to think that in 2015, Taylor Swift, her record label and her video production group would think it was OK to film a video that presents a glamorous version of the white colonial fantasy of Africa.'
She added: 'Swift's music is entertaining for many. She should absolutely be able to use any location as a backdrop. But she packages our continent as the backdrop for her romantic songs devoid of any African person or storyline, and she sets the video in a time when the people depicted by Swift and her co-stars killed, dehumanized and traumatized millions of Africans.
'That is beyond problematic.'
The Daily Dot's Nico Lang wrote: 'An homage to a love triangle about white colonialists is going to present some, uh, challenges to an artist who just wants to make a three-minute music video to put on her VEVO page - and Taylor Swift found that out the hard way.
'Even the most casual observer would have noticed that - for a clip that's set in Africa - it's about as white as a Sunday morning farmer's market.
'The video wants to have its old-school Hollywood romance but ends up eating some old-school Hollywood racism, too.'
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/09/02/18/2BD2C16200000578-3220003-Music_fans_rushed_to_Twitter_with_one_describing_i t_as_colonial_-m-32_1441215671371.jpg
The video's director, Joseph Khan, released a statement to Daily mail Online, saying: 'Wildest Dreams is a song about a relationship that was doomed, and the music video concept was that they were having a love affair on location away from their normal lives. This is not a video about colonialism but a love story on the set of a period film crew in Africa, 1950.
'There are black Africans in the video in a number of shots, but I rarely cut to crew faces outside of the director as the vast majority of screentime is Taylor and Scott.
'The video is based on classic Hollywood romances like Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, as well as classic movies like The African Queen, Out of Africa and The English Patient, to name a few.
'The reality is not only were there people of color in the video, but the key creatives who worked on this video are people of color. I am Asian American, the producer Jil Hardin is an African American woman, and the editor Chancler Haynes is an African American man.
'We cast and edited this video. We collectively decided it would have been historicially inaccurate to load the crew with more black actors as the video would have been accused of rewriting history. This video is set in the past by a crew set in the present and we are all proud of our work.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/09/02/19/2BEA615700000578-3220003-image-m-2_1441220238301.jpg
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/09/02/19/2BEA616200000578-3220003-One_of_them_then_appears_on_the_left_of_the_screen _during_a_clos-m-4_1441220295365.jpg
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/09/02/18/2BE95E4400000578-3220003-image-m-7_1441214876306.jpg
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/09/02/18/2BE95E3E00000578-3220003-image-m-6_1441214867608.jpg
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/09/02/18/2BE95E3900000578-3220003-image-m-8_1441214883314.jpg
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/09/02/18/2BE95E3300000578-3220003-image-m-9_1441214896550.jpg
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/09/02/18/2BE95E2D00000578-3220003-image-m-10_1441214907196.jpg
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/09/02/20/2BEA8A9700000578-3220003-image-m-8_1441221563840.jpg
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/09/02/20/2BEA8A9300000578-3220003-image-m-10_1441221600184.jpg
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3220003/Taylor-Swift-s-Wildest-Dreams-video-slammed-racist-based-glamorous-white-colonial-fantasy.html
Taylor, what's good?
The video for Wildest Dreams, which was revealed during the MTV VMA Awards coverage on Sunday, has a mainly white cast and revolves around two 1950s-era movie stars - played by Swift and Gran Torino actor Scott Eastwood - filming in Africa.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/09/02/18/2BD2C2C700000578-3220003-image-m-19_1441215281394.jpg
There are only two black actors, who play soldiers, and they appear in the background. The mock film crew are white.
Director Joseph Khan insists the video is a 'love story' and has no political agenda. But music fans have rushed to Twitter to describe it as 'colonial garbage'.
The footage was also also slammed by a number of editorials.
NPR's Viviane Rutabingwa, who has an African heritage, said: 'We are shocked to think that in 2015, Taylor Swift, her record label and her video production group would think it was OK to film a video that presents a glamorous version of the white colonial fantasy of Africa.'
She added: 'Swift's music is entertaining for many. She should absolutely be able to use any location as a backdrop. But she packages our continent as the backdrop for her romantic songs devoid of any African person or storyline, and she sets the video in a time when the people depicted by Swift and her co-stars killed, dehumanized and traumatized millions of Africans.
'That is beyond problematic.'
The Daily Dot's Nico Lang wrote: 'An homage to a love triangle about white colonialists is going to present some, uh, challenges to an artist who just wants to make a three-minute music video to put on her VEVO page - and Taylor Swift found that out the hard way.
'Even the most casual observer would have noticed that - for a clip that's set in Africa - it's about as white as a Sunday morning farmer's market.
'The video wants to have its old-school Hollywood romance but ends up eating some old-school Hollywood racism, too.'
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/09/02/18/2BD2C16200000578-3220003-Music_fans_rushed_to_Twitter_with_one_describing_i t_as_colonial_-m-32_1441215671371.jpg
The video's director, Joseph Khan, released a statement to Daily mail Online, saying: 'Wildest Dreams is a song about a relationship that was doomed, and the music video concept was that they were having a love affair on location away from their normal lives. This is not a video about colonialism but a love story on the set of a period film crew in Africa, 1950.
'There are black Africans in the video in a number of shots, but I rarely cut to crew faces outside of the director as the vast majority of screentime is Taylor and Scott.
'The video is based on classic Hollywood romances like Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, as well as classic movies like The African Queen, Out of Africa and The English Patient, to name a few.
'The reality is not only were there people of color in the video, but the key creatives who worked on this video are people of color. I am Asian American, the producer Jil Hardin is an African American woman, and the editor Chancler Haynes is an African American man.
'We cast and edited this video. We collectively decided it would have been historicially inaccurate to load the crew with more black actors as the video would have been accused of rewriting history. This video is set in the past by a crew set in the present and we are all proud of our work.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/09/02/19/2BEA615700000578-3220003-image-m-2_1441220238301.jpg
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/09/02/19/2BEA616200000578-3220003-One_of_them_then_appears_on_the_left_of_the_screen _during_a_clos-m-4_1441220295365.jpg
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/09/02/18/2BE95E4400000578-3220003-image-m-7_1441214876306.jpg
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/09/02/18/2BE95E3E00000578-3220003-image-m-6_1441214867608.jpg
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/09/02/18/2BE95E3900000578-3220003-image-m-8_1441214883314.jpg
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/09/02/18/2BE95E3300000578-3220003-image-m-9_1441214896550.jpg
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/09/02/18/2BE95E2D00000578-3220003-image-m-10_1441214907196.jpg
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/09/02/20/2BEA8A9700000578-3220003-image-m-8_1441221563840.jpg
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/09/02/20/2BEA8A9300000578-3220003-image-m-10_1441221600184.jpg
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3220003/Taylor-Swift-s-Wildest-Dreams-video-slammed-racist-based-glamorous-white-colonial-fantasy.html
Taylor, what's good?