I’ll be honest with you. For a while, I felt like I’ve seen everything there was to see when it comes to things regarding cultural appropriation, blatant disregard of respect, and all of that fun stuff… But I was sadly mistaken. I’ve recently come across a new musical sensation that will stir the world of Korean pop music and make me lose my faith in basic human decency once again. Let me introduce you to the newest “K-pop” group: EXP Edition, a “Korean pop music” group consisting of all-American members. And in case you’re wondering, no, the token Asian member is not Korean. I first came across news of this group as different media networks started sharing the news that there will be a group that will soon debut as the first ever K-pop group that consists of all-American members. When I first saw the headlines, I thought that that would mean the group would consist of Korean-American artists or other musicians of Asian-American descent. As the picture above shows, that’s obviously not the case. Following this mass media craze about the group, EXP Edition very quickly gained notoriety as the center of memes and jokes. I mean, how can they not? And secondly, can you blame anyone? I’ve heard rumors about the group originally being a part of an art project conducted by a student at Columbia University. The project was supposedly meant to explore appropriation, culture politics, and gender in K-pop. However, the project has evolved since then. The group members have since relocated to South Korea in order to pursue their music and to try to “make it” in the K-pop industry. I can kind of see this as the result of admiration for the culture and the K-pop music market (and I say this very, very lightly), it’s extremely hard for me to acknowledge it as anything other than distasteful and complete disrespect for Korean entertainment and culture. While looking into this group, all I can see is disregard for the hard work, planning, and thought that actually goes into the creation of not only K-pop groups, but music as a whole. No matter the reason, profiting or benefiting off of anyone’s hard work, effort, and struggles is not okay. So all in all, I hope this is a joke. But hey, check out the music video and see for yourself. Let me know what you think. And if you’d like, send me some positive vibes so I can forget about this mess. :)
0 Comments
I’ve noticed that there seems to be a strong emphasis placed on music based on where it originates from. For instance, Korean music is always prefaced with exactly that, “Korean” music, such as k-hiphop, k-indie, k-pop, the list goes on. When I asked some friends about this, a lot of them didn’t think of it as that big of a deal – and I agree. I think it’s fine to acknowledge a song’s culture and language of origin. However, I find it a bit troublesome when music starts to get belittled because of its place of origin. DEAN, a Korean R&B singer, songwriter, and producer A lot of times, music from different cultures get categorized into a separate genre and is oftentimes automatically pushed down and considered as somewhat inferior. A comment I commonly hear is, “This is really good for a (insert ethnic culture) song.” Most of the time, these kinds of statements aren’t said with malicious intent. It's usually just a passing thought. However, that in and of itself becomes problematic, especially since at that point, it’s something that’s so innately ingrained in our thoughts that things like “American” or “western” music is automatically better or is the ideal. This goes beyond the music and onto the musicians and artists as well. It’s so common for me to hear things like “This artist is Asian? I had no idea because he sounds so American,” “He sounds pretty good for an Asian rapper,” or “She sounds like a Korean version of Ariana Grande” and so on. 1LLIONAIRE, a Korean hip-hop label and collective That being said, I think it’s important that we make a conscious effort to be less segregating when we listen to different music and artists based on their ethnicity or cultural background. How we judge music should be based on the music alone, rather than their cultural or ethnic background or the musician's similarity to American artists. Check out some of my favorite songs by Asian and Asian-American artists below. ↓
(Note: All photos were taken by me)
|
A PEARL IN THE ROUGH
A Pearl in the Rough is a blog which details news, recommendations, and thoughts regarding Asian-American culture and entertainment. ArchivesCategories
All
© 2017 Pearl Shin, All Rights Reserved
|