What is cultural appropriation and can we claim certain aspects of other people’s cultures without any knowledge of those cultures and capitalize on them? Or is it an appreciation of a certain culture and paying respects? Cultural appropriation is the exploitation of a minority group’s beliefs, cultures, dialect, customs and traditions by a dominant group in a society.
There are many incidences of cultural appropriation that have occurred. Let’s take a look at a few within one entertainment industry: K-POP (Korean Pop Industry). This is not to say the whole industry does this, however, a great amount of the industry capitalizes on other people’s cultures. Yes, they are trying to appeal to their international audience and want them to relate to the music, however, some of the things that do occur within their music videos or live performances end up offending and insulting their international audiences or international fans.
T-ara’s 2010 release of YaYaYa
In 2010, the girl group T-ara released a music video titled YaYaYa where a guy was in an aircraft and crashed on an island where the girls of T-ara appeared wearing Native American ‘inspired’ attire and makeup. The girls then took the guy and placed him on some wooden stake and tied a rope around him suggesting they were either going to burn him (as a sacrifice) or they were going to cook him… These women then spent the entire video dancing around this guy chanting and yelling YA YA YA which made absolutely no sense, and it was also offensive to Native Americans, suggesting that they are cannibals and just go around chanting whatever comes out of their mouths for the sake of it. This video, in T-ara’s eyes, was supposed to be entertaining, fun and showing a flirty side of them. But it is just distasteful and offensive. Check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLfRdyqxXJk
(G) I-DLE and their Latata music video
Recently the girl group (G)I-DLE released a music video for their song Latata. In the music video, particularly towards the chorus, the girls are seen wearing henna on their hands and dancing some Indian or Middle Eastern types of dances but in a very provocative manner. While the song is catchy and the music video is amazingly well-produced and directed, one cannot oversee or overlook the blatant use of henna as a way for them to look ‘cool’ or sexy’. In certain cultures, henna is a religious body modification used for certain religious reasons. For it to be oversimplified and used in a music video for entertainment purposes is concerning. There is also a stereotype in today’s society of Indian women and some Arabic women being sexual beings or belly dancing for sexual purposes. (G)I-DLE’s music video uses the belly dancing and Bollywood dance moves to appear sexy and seductive in the music video – this adds to the stereotype mentioned a few sentences above. This is where you can find the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mQk7Evt6Vs
EXO Kai’s hair
Over the past few years, Kai, a member of the well-known boy group EXO, had been experiencing a lot of backlash not only from some of his band members but from some people within his society about the colour of his skin. Since he is a little bronze-coloured compared to the rest of the group, members who are pale-skinned, he is often met with a lot of colourist remarks which have in the past negativity affected him. His entertainment company, upon him debuting, had styled his hair in conrows (braids) and added the caption ‘the foreigner’ at the bottom of the picture. This is not only colourist and steals off American Hip-hop cultures, but it also solidifies the racial stereotypes that all black people dress like they are rappers and wear conrows all the time. It also shows how Kai’s skin colour is compared to black people and is often seen as unattractive which in turns makes it seem that black people and their skin colours are unattractive as well. Don’t get me started on Kai in the EXO music video Wolf, I think I nearly fell out my chair. Here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAal8xHfV0c
The KPOP industry is trying to appeal to their international markets. While that is a great thing to do in order to relate with their international fans, they are going about it in the wrong way. Yes, one can appreciate another’s culture and even use it in their music videos if it is done in an appropriate way. Cultural appreciation should not reinforce or establish any racial or cultural stereotypes and it should also not exploit any minority racial and cultural groups because it will no longer be cultural appreciation but cultural appropriation, which is what the three above music videos have demonstrated.