But, I love Bey

The other day Yera sent me a link to the new Coldplay/Beyonce Music Video. Personally, I am a fan of the song "Hymn for the Weekend", though I have to admit as much as I love my girl Beyonce, I am not really sure she adds much to the song. The collaboration must have been mostly for the upcoming Superbowl? But anyways, I watched the music video, and can honestly say, I much enjoyed it. The video is shot in India, and I thought the imagery was beautiful. I did not think for one second that anything about the video was insulting or demeaning. Actually, I didn't give the video a second thought until I read a NPR article examining the video under the broader context of cultural appropriation.

Theft and Artistry: Coldplay, Beyonce in India Spark Discussion on Appropriation

Truthfully, I had never even heard of the term cultural appropriation until this article. After reading quite a few articles on it, I learned that cultural appropriation generally refers to the (unauthorized) use of a minority group's cultural expressions, dress, knowledge, traditions, language, religious symbols, etc by a more dominant cultural group (typically white western culture). Cultural appropriation is condoned for many reasons, but the two big ones that many articles touched on were:

1. First off, it robs the minority culture of credit for their creative work and innovative genius. In my searches, I came across multiple references to big name artists- Madonna, Gwen Stefani, Katy Perry, Miley Cyrus, etc who had used other cultures and styles of music to influence their own music. Apparently this type of "borrowing" was way more common than I had imagined.

2. Secondly, not only does it borrow from a less dominant culture without giving due credit. It usually involves a misrepresentation or exploitation of the original culture. For example, Selena Gomez using a bindi as an accessory, or Katy Perry dressing as a Geisha for a VMA performance. The artist misrepresents the original culture, and in doing so, insults and belittles the minority culture.

The anti-argument to cultural appropriation is that it is not appropriation, but rather cultural appreciation. That we all live in a melting pot of different races, religions, and cultural and that widespread exposure would only naturally lead to the fusion and adaptations of different culturally elements. That was kinda always how I viewed it.. After all isn't imitation one of the greatest forms of flattery? I would have thought so? That is why I thought the coldplay/beyonce video was so cool in the first place. But upon closer observation, I understand why this video and so many others like it, bring up some issues. Coldplay's video, though beautiful, actually feeds into the romanticized western narrative of Indian culture: busy streets, tons of colors, bindi clad women, folk dancing, etc. Which if Coldplay was trying to work off the spiritual nature of the song (a savior upon which one can draw strength from) the imagery of baby Krishna, street kids, running girl, etc might very loosely work, but really there isn't much of a correlation.

So upon conclusion, am I going to boycott Coldplay and Bey? Hell no, I still think they are wonderful artists, and I thoroughly enjoy their music. Do I believe the video was purposefully offensive or insensitive? Also, no. But, do I believe as a society we have to be more mindful of our presentations and cultural depictions...fo sho.

On a final note, I came across a pretty cool article during my search outlining racial perceptions of female beauty, and how these perceptions play out in the pop culture arena...definitely worth checking out! Link Below:

When your brown body is a white wonderland