Just a few early thoughts from my walk home about looking at politics in music, specifically music videos.
I've just written an essay about the apparent cultural appropriation in this video by Coldplay and Beyoncé, and whilst I won't bore you with the all 1047 words just yet, there's a clear argument present. Beyoncé herself plays an Indian Queen in traditional dress despite being of Native American and Creole descent and the 'India' portrayed in the video is over-exoticised and inaccurate. There have been similar accusations for appropriation with other recent videos, including Bounce by Iggy Azalea and Lean On by Major Lazer and DJ Snake. Whilst the latter two proved very controversial, I found there to be just as strong an argument for the Coldplay video that it was cultural appreciation not appropriation, which made me wonder where the line between the two is drawn and whether there's something worth exploring here?
Diversity is a wonderful thing, and if we continue to label everything that draws inspiration from other cultures as 'appropriation', then I fear people will stop seeking inspiration from other cultures to the ultimate detriment of our society.
Not sure how we could make public/visualise this, perhaps some sort of event to encourage cultural appreciation? But would need to be careful about how it was done so as not to offend.
Only early thoughts, but it's something! Have a good weekend guys.
I quite like the idea of cultural appropriation - it's certainly something that will create controversy. I can give you lots more references if you decide to run with this idea but it looks like you and Hannah are having a hard time getting a conversation going with the other people in the project. I've sent an email around reminding people that they need to start blogging so I hope it helps!
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