Troye Sivan made a buzz-worthy return to music this summer with a steamy new single, Rush ― but many felt the song’s accompanying video presented a far-too-limited view of the community it aims to celebrate.
Released last week, the video for Rush finds Troye doing keg stands and frolicking on a crowded dance floor until dawn.
It also puts the Australian singer-songwriter’s queer sexuality front and centre, much like his previous videos for Bloom and Lucky Strike.
However, Rush struck a sour note among same fans, who took note of the fact that the video’s cast consists mainly of thin or muscular men and, hence, lacks diversity in body types.
Watch the Rush music video below:
In an interview with Billboard, Troye spoke about the backlash, acknowledging that the absence of body diversity in the Rush video was an oversight.
“I definitely hear the critique,” he said. “To be honest, it just wasn’t a thought we had — we obviously weren’t saying, ‘We want to have one specific type of person in the video.’ We just made the video, and there wasn’t a ton of thought put behind that.”
At the same time, Troye said some of the criticism that Rush had received was misguided while noting that he, too, had experienced body-shaming in the past.
“There was this article yesterday, and they were talking about [the lack of body diversity], and in the same sentence, this person said ‘Eat something, you stupid twinks,’” he explained, seemingly referring to a Vulture review of the video.
“That really bummed me out to read that — because I’ve had my own insecurities with my body image.”
He went on to note: “I think that everyone’s body is as beautiful as it is, including my own, and it just sucks to see people talking about other people’s bodies.”
Rush is the first single off Troye’s forthcoming third album, Something To Give Each Other. Due out in October, the follow-up to 2018’s Bloom has been billed as a musical “celebration of sex, dance, sweat, community, queerness, love and friendship”.