Taylor Swift director on racism accusations: 'It's satirical'

The director of Taylor Swift's new video, 'Shake It Off', has responded after the video was criticised by musicans and the public, some of whom believed it perpetuated cultural stereotypes, and appropriated black culture.

Earl Sweatshirt was one of the video's most vocal critics, despite having not actually watched it.

haven't watched the taylor swift video and I don't need to watch it to tell you that it's inherently offensive and ultimately harmful

perpetuating black stereotypes to the same demographic of white girls who hide their prejudice by proclaiming their love of the culture

for instance, those of you who are afraid of black people but love that in 2014 it's ok for you to be trill or twerk or say nigga

Now the video's director, Mark Romanek, has responded to the criticism, saying that Sweatshirt not having seen the video "sort of invalidates his observations from the get-go."

He said: "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."

Romanek added: "If you look at it carefully, it’s a massively inclusive piece. It’s very, very innocently and positively intentioned. And - let’s remember - it’s a satirical piece. It’s playing with a whole range of music-video tropes and clichés and stereotypes.”

Taylor Swift herself is yet to respond to the controversy.