A Display of White Privilege and Ignorance in Pop Music
In the midst of a search for something to write about this week, I decided to Google, âculturally insensitive musicâ. I expected nothing more than articles about older songs that simply aged poorly in today's world of progressivity. I found a number of articles of this nature; â11 Popular Songs You Didnât Realize Are Actually Racistâ or â16 songs that havenât aged wellâ. I wasnât surprised to find these lists contained songs with titles that pretty much wrote the articles in and of themselves (i.e. âBrown Sugarâ, by the Rolling Stones or âIsland Girlâ by Elton John). While these songs deserve the criticism theyâre getting in todayâs social climate, I was looking for something a little fresherâŚ
The second strain of articles were directed more toward modern pop music. After reading, there is a clear trend of white pop artists whose lyrical commentary pertains to every culture except for their own⌠Frankly, discussion of the artist's own whiteness might be a difficult topic to discuss because there isnât much to discuss- or rather- thereâs so much to discuss, especially in the context of their vital errors in content creation.Â
Meghan Trainor is known for her hit song âAll About That Bassâ, and itâs been promoted as a song promoting body positivity. When you take a closer look at the lyrics, it becomes pretty shaky. The music video encompasses the full spectrum of content-creation error. Jenny Trout wrote a fantastic analysis of Meghan Trainorâs song, highlighting every contradiction between what the song was meant to be and what it is. The article that Trout wrote truly covers every detail that is needed to understand what's wrong with âAll About That Bass,â so if you want a more full dissection, I invite you to visit her website. In summary, Trainor perpetuates a female desire to fit the male gaze, her song attempts to shift the body standard from barbie-slim to âall the right junk in all the right placesâ (thus, eliminating a feeling of all-encompassing body positivity), and perpetuates stereotypes surrounding âthicknessâ and âbootyâ placed on black womenâs bodies. One of the standout issues, however, is that Trainor is the center of it all when she is ânot fat or âplus-sizeâ by any meansâ (Trout, 2014). The sexualization and objectification around having âbootyâ isnât one applied to white women of Trainorâs size, but to black women. ALSO, the sexualization of bodies in general (but specifically the bodies of black women) throughout the song and music video is cringe-worthy to say the least.
Avril Lavigneâs âHello Kittyâ music video is another example of blatant cultural appropriation. Might I add, first that this song is as annoying as any of the appropriation going on in it. She made the trip to Japan to shoot the video and is surrounded by asian backup dancers, though sheâs the only white girl shown throughout the video. Her response to the backlash around the video is equally as naive as the video itself. According to Vulture.com, Lavigne tweeted, âRACIST??? LOLOLOL!!! I love Japanese culture and I spend half of my time in Japanâ in response to the outrage. This is on-par with the overused defense of racist actions or statements, âWait- no- but I have black friends!â. I donât doubt that Lavigne thought she really was paying homage to Japan and its culture- but that means it had to have been ignorance and naivety that drove the creation of the song and its accompanying video⌠that makes it worse if you ask me.Â
âBirthdayâ by Katy Perry is another song (and music video) that sparked uproar as she plays a number of characters who show up to different birthday parties. She creates a spoof âBar Mitzvah'' scene in which she plays a B-Mitzvah entertainer, dressed in a suit, wig, and facial prosthetics. Itâs implied that she's attempting to fulfill the Jewish Man stereotype; thick, black mustache and eyebrows, larger nose, curly black hair, etc. Itâs crass to say the least. When I discovered Perryâs devout Christianity, it didnât require much thinking to determine the problem with the song, video, and source. The songs lyrics, which contain numerous sexual inuendos and references, are increasingly problematic when paired with the mockery of Jewish culture in the video. The song lyrics are essentially a booty call wrapped in cultural mockery found in the video. Yet again, it seems like ignorance was seated in the driver's seat on this oneâŚ
Reviewing these videos, I asked myself, âwhat gave these white, pop icons the license to comment and use cultures, estranged to their own, in their music?â. The trend around the source of the music is âwhite artists,â which doesnât surprise me; the root of cultural insensitivity seems to be privilege. Why would one think twice about their song lyrics when they don't know what it feels like for someone to use and profit off of their own culture? Meghan Trainor gained a lot of popularity from âAll About That Bassâ using black stereotypes and forcing an image onto herself as plus-size. Avril Lavigneâs âHello Kittyâ is simply childish, and crass, using Japanese culture and people as props. Katy Perry, a devout Christian, youâd think would catch her own mistake of religious mockery before dropping âBirthdayâ. Beyond the horrid musicality of each of the songs lies an age-old, dark theme of cultural appropriation and white-ignorance. While white ignorance can be used to excuse the individual artists that are the face of these songs, it avoids accountability on the part of music production companies. Itâs important to consider the larger scene of the music industry and capitalism in the context of these flawed musics. The pop music scene is run, not so much by the artists, but by teams of writers and boardroom-busies whose job is to help write and review these works. Itâs not as if it was written, recorded, and released in one solid effort. The review process takes up a huge amount of the overall âcreation processâ and itâs inexcusable that every part of the song was reviewed and deemed acceptable for public consumption. If we canât trust the industry to monetize the contents of different musics, it falls in our hands to monetize our own consumption of content (not just music). Letâs just be a little more careful before we let pop-anthems with such harmful themes like these plague our playlists.
