Whether in her hit single "Royals" or in her interviews, New Zealand singer Lorde has been known to offer up the occasional critique of pop music, and her remarks often touch on other pop stars. For instance, in July she told MTV News, "I feel like the influences that are there in the industry for people my age, like Justin Bieber or whatever, are just maybe not a very real depiction of what it's like to be a young person." And um, one time, she totally, uh, said a thing about One Direction. Seriously, it's out there. Oh yeah, earlier this year she went to a One Direction concert, and she seemed into it.
Okay, so Lorde didn't say anything mean about One Direction, and she also has thoughts for people who twist her critiques in general. "I think there's a funny culture in music that's only happened over the last 15 years, that if you have an opinion about something in music that isn't 100-percent good, you're a 'hater,' even if you have perfectly reasonable grounds for that critique," she told MTV News in a different interview.
For whatever reason, though, a bunch of One Direction and Justin Bieber fans have apparently determined that Lorde called their favorite artists ugly, and they've chosen to lash out on Twitter by turning the insult around on her boyfriend, 24-year-old James Lowe, in many cases highlighting his Asian heritage. The remarks range from brazen racism to simple derision that some could see and have seen as reinforcing stereotypes of Asian men as sexless. The story was picked up by Jezebel and BuzzFeed, presumably causing some of the most flagrant tweets to get deleted out of shame. However, a sampling can be seen below:
Lorde called one direction and justin bieber ugly And then this is her boyfriend Not ugly at all pic.twitter.com/bE1tJJPw3G
why is lorde's boyfriend look like a Chinese old fart seriously #mtvstars One Direction
what the fuck is lorde and that chinese sort of ostrich boyfriend anyway
lorde's boyfriend looks like the chinese exchange student from sixteen candles
Remember when harry and lorde's boyfriend took a picture together pic.twitter.com/hZ3RbOV6i8
Piling onto the wave of derision (although presumably for unrelated reasons) appeared to be Tyler, the Creator, who Instagrammed a tabloid picture of Lorde and Lowe last week with the caption "Hhahahahahah" and had a tense exchange with Lorde before deleting the tweets:
On the other hand, while some One Directioners and Beliebers have been critical of the relationship, others have taken it as a sign of hope. See, Lowe is 24 and Lorde just turned 17—an age difference that might strike some as inappropriate, but, if you happen to be 16 or 17 yourself, might seem like pretty much the great pop dream. If you crunch those numbers right, you might determine that you, too, could date the comparatively young Bieber or Harry Styles. Not even Barack Obama can tell you no:
lorde is 16 and her boyfriend is 24 dear parents, friends, obama dont you dare tell me that im too young to date justin again
"lorde is 16 and her boyfriend is 24" GUYS THERES STILL A CHANCE FOR US pic.twitter.com/0kfYB5GqNb
"lorde is 16 yet her boyfriend is 24" dear justin bieber pic.twitter.com/VzAcmd1WeB
The bottom line? Lay off Lorde, kids, and stop being racist. And never stop Beliebing in romance, of course.
RELATED: No, No, No: For the Last Time, Lorde's "Royals" Is Not Racist
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