EDHS Contemporary World Affairs

DyllanS · Senior Member

Is Lorde's 'Royals,' the top song on the Billboard Hot 100, racist?

Zoe Kline-Koenig · Senior Member

I really don't see this song as being racist. I think people are being too sensitive and critical. I think Lorde is saying she doesn't have "gold teeth" and "maybach" because she is not made of money like a lot of rappers and pop stars. I don't think that she is targeting people who do sing and rap about these things because of their race.

Lia_Love522 · Senior Member

First of all I LOVE this song. The message, I find, is even better. Consumerism is an issue thats pretty disheartening, I mean we do tend to put more value on things versus people, maybe these people are upset because it took a SIXTEEN year old and a catchy song to finally draw real attention to it...Plus it's not like the song is freakishly popular because everyone hates it...people need to stop getting so butt hurt over silly things...

Partysquid · Senior Member

I find the song to be very entertaining, because i thought it was making fun of all of the modern music and how cliche every music video has to be. Let's face it, all of the music videos have pretty close to the same thing that the others do of the same genre. (i.e. the party songs being filled with a bunch of random junk. The "romantic" songs having to do with some girl undergoing a huge transformation and showing up to a huge dance. Then most modern rap being filled with nice cars, bragging of wealth, and bouncing butts.)

Russizzle · Veteran Member

The song is simply saying she doesn't need those possessions to be who she is. It's more like a statement, and she's just saying that she doesn't need things like "jet planes," "islands," and "tigers on a gold leesh" like how other pop artists have. I personally think the song is pretty awesome too haha so whatever, still good to me :p

luigy47 · Veteran Member

first of all she's not american shes from the netherlands. so im pretty sure she doesn't know about the history of hip-hop/rap culture. she's only 16, people are just finding ways to stir up controversy and hate on silly catchy song. thats just stupid.

Partysquid · Senior Member

luigy47 wrote:
first of all she's not american shes from the netherlands. so im pretty sure she doesn't know about the history of hip-hop/rap culture. she's only 16, people are just finding ways to stir up controversy and hate on silly catchy song. thats just stupid.

She is from New Zealand... She is a kiwi.

Teddy Bear · Veteran Member

i LOVEE this song

why do people have to find every single thing offensive and worry about EVERYTHING

Dane Ransom · Veteran Member

Whoever made the comment that the song is racist is probably just trying to gain some attention, or mabye they are just trying to bring down the young artist. I believe the song isnt racist and dosent have anything in the song that even be related to race.

kikilyons · Member

i dont think the song is racist at all. I think Lorde is just putting out the truth, most rappers rap about their possessions and come across as they only care about material items. You dont have to just rap or sing about that stuff to make good music, and Lorde is a perfect example of that.

cjfreddi · Veteran Member

This song is not racist at all. The people who are claiming that this is racist are the same people who claim that everything is racist because they want attention and pity.

Mary Sanchez · Veteran Member

I love this song. I dont think it's racist at all. i think she's just saying that she doesn't have a lot of money to buy all these material things that all these celebrities have and that she doesnt need those things.

BMX33 · Veteran Member

its not racist. shes just saying you dont need alot of jewelry and cars to have some fun. a song for average people.

SpaceNate · Veteran Member

I don't understand why everything has to be racist, the song just talks about having fun without money.

Riley Harris · Veteran Member

It's a song saying that you don't need all these fancy cars and diamond rings to be happy and have fun in life.

sheilasey · Senior Member

This criticism was likely created by the writer to simply evoke controversy in this young artist's career. I feel like the excerpts of lyrics the writer uses is way too overanalyzed. Also, Lorde clearly stated the purpose of her song is to criticize the overall pop music industry such as record companies and the media.

luigy47 · Veteran Member

wouldn't the girl who wrote the accusation be considered racist? she is "taking shots" at Lorde and assuming all hip hop/rap is for "blacks"? like come on, she forgot theres white rappers.

kyliemoore · Veteran Member

i dont think this is racist at all

SassySmith · Veteran Member

This is not racist at all. It is a cute song written by a 16 year old. We should be worrying about our bees dying at a rapid pace, without bees this world can't survive. Pop music is not important news!