Taylor Swift's "September" Cover

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Overview

Taylor Swift's "September" Cover refers to an acoustic cover of the Earth, Wind & Fire song September by pop-country music artist Taylor Swift that was heavily criticized by the black community and music fans.

Background

On April 13th, 2018, Taylor Swift debuted her "September" cover on Spotify along with an acoustic version of her song "Delicate" from her album Reputation (YouTube upload shown below). Swift's interpretation of the song is softer and more melancholy than the original and heavily features banjo. Also of note, she changed the first lyric of the song from "21st night of September" to "28th night of September" to reference her current boyfriend, Joe Alwyn.^[5]

[This video has been removed]

Developments

The track was quickly panned by critics the day of release. Spin^[1] called it "completely joyless." The Root^[2] hated the song, stating "(late Earth, Wind & Fire member) Maurice White did not die for this" and "Taylor Swift needs her ass whooped." Writing in The Chicago Tribune,^[3] critic Kevin Williams wrote "Swift’s assault of 'September' is singularly bereft of joy, rhythm, syncopation -- everything except bombast." Surviving Earth, Wind & Fire member Allee Willis gave the cover her blessing, stating "Taylor Swift is the absolute cherry on top of a very soulful and happy sundae."^[4]

Online, the cover split Twitter users. Many were vehemently opposed to the cover. Twitter user @SopanDeb posted about the cover with an image of Captain Picard from Star Trek, gaining over 50 retweets and 240 likes (shown below, left). Twitter user @_MissLeandra posted about the cover with a GIF from Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt which reads "What white nonsense is this?" (shown below, right).

Other Twitter users defended the cover. Twitter user @zainubamir stated the song "makes me wish I was in love," gaining 250 retweets and over 1,300 likes (shown below, left). User Carlyylalaa said the cover transported her to an idyllic scene, gaining over 530 retweets (shown below, right).

Black Women Listening to "September" Video

One reaction that went viral showed several older black women listening to the cover with various negative reactions, including one looking stone-faced and angry while another cracked up with laughter. The video was tweeted by @_TheRealKareem_, and gained over 85,000 retweets and 206,000 likes (shown below).

The video was covered by The Daily Dot,^[6] Blavity,^[7] and Vibe.^[8]