The evolution of music can be considered a key contributor in how music shapes societies everchanging norms and values. Music from the late 1960’s is considerable different to music of the 21st century. This is because society is everchanging and music produced now reflects what is happening around the world, however there are still cases today in which artists have been found to misuse or misinterpret elements of minorities culture.
Take Eminem one the world’s most successful artists in the early to late 2000’s, after over four years off, his 2nd newly released 2019 album “Kamikaze” didn’t get as much media attention as the ‘Shady Records’ label would like. Eminem has always been known to start controversial conversation in relation to his music and lyrics and this has often stirred up negative judgements that affected the way he was viewed not only as an individual but also as an artist. Taking a look at some of his earlier lyrics from the song ‘Criminal’:
“My words are like a dagger with a jagged edge/That’ll stab you in the head whether you’re a fag or lez/Or the homosex, hermaph or a trans-a-vest/Pants or dress, hate fags? The answer’s, “Yes”
Although this line was normalized back in it release in 2000, the shift to more empowering compositions and the progression of gender equality has put a greater emphasis and need for women rights and LGBTQ acceptance. Many argued that an element Eminem forgot to consider is how his lyrics contradict societal norms today, with many movements like the ‘Me too’ and ‘Pride’ taking a front row seat in global affairs. This isn’t the only way; music artists are undermining minority groups through the misuse and interpretation of their cultures.
Cultural appropriation is the adoption of elements of one culture by members of another culture (Scafidi 2005), this can become problematic when minority groups don’t have the platform and ability to educate us about their culture and heritage before majorities with power marginalize these cultures. An example of a celebrity being accused of cultural appropriation is Gwen Stefani and the ‘Harajuku Girls’ during 2005. The ‘Harajuku Girls’ were 4 Asian-American women hired by Stefani as her back-up dancers and later used as a marketing campaign to sell Stefani’s Harajuku fragrances and fashion line (Sadeque, Martinez, 2019). Some controversial arose after comedian Margret Cho commented that “A Japanese schoolgirl uniform is kind of like blackface” to describe Stefani’s admiration with the girls. Stefani however didn’t find the severity in her actions and later stated “I was just appreciating you! I just love how beautiful your culture is!” (G. Stefani, 2016). Another example of a music artist who was accused of culture appropriation was Selena Gomez during her 2013 MTV awards ‘Come and get it’ performance fashioning a Bollywood garb, critics noted that she was enjoying the benefits of a culture without acknowledging or having to dealt with the downsides of inhabiting it and even though ‘it purports to be appreciative and reverent, it silences the very real damage done to the critics of her appropriation’ (Suhas, 2019).
To summarise, cultural appropriation is still a major issue today especially in music when the importance held in that culture is overlook. A big step forward would be to utilize their powers and platforms as well-established artists to inform their audiences around the history of that culture.
Reference list
Sadeque, S. and Martinez, I. (2019). Gwen Stefani still doesn’t know what racism is | The Daily Dot.
Suhas, M. (2019). Gwen Stefani Doesn’t Know What Appropriation Means. [online] Bustle.
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