At the MTV VMAs last weekend, Taylor Swift launched her new music video for “Wildest Dreams”. The video, which depicts a ’50s on-and-off-camera romance between two people in Africa, has already received over fifteen million views on YouTube but, it has also received a lot of criticism since its debut.
Media outlets and the general public have noted that hardly any black people are shown, despite it being set in Africa, and that it romanticizes colonialism as white people notoriously benefited from colonial rule during the time period and setting that the video depicts.
An NPR article titled ‘Taylor Swift Is Dreaming Of A Very White Africa’ writes that “[c]olonialism was neither romantic nor beautiful. It was exploitative and brutal. The legacy of colonialism still lives quite loudly to this day”. Not everyone is berating the video, but many are. Watch the music video below and see what you think for yourself.
#Peace.Love.WildestDreams
