The music industry has endured many controversial moments, however as time goes on, more and more music artists are being accused of inappropriate cultural appropriation in their music videos. Cultural appropriation occurs when the appropriator causes racist generalisation or stereotypes through the action of stylising a deeply significant symbol of culture to achieve a mere ‘aesthetic’. In this process, there is a lack of cultural appreciation, understanding and accurate representation, therefore exploiting cultural elements for personal use, and even profit. This action has prompted a lot of cultural backlash and criticism towards music artistic and is deemed highly problematic.
An example of this practice can be seen in Iggy Azalea’s stylistic choice of voice. She is a white Australian rapper, however, when she raps in her music/music videos, she sounds African American. Hip Hop has long transcended the African American community and as a result, her black tone has coined the term ‘blaccent’ (black accent) and has been an accused of “verbal blackface” by rap artist Jean Grae. Putting on this accent owned by a minority with a significant history of struggle and oppression is argued to impose on the history of black culture. She was also accused of parodying Bollywood in her rap music video Bounce, where she wears traditional Bollywood dress wear, belly dances and rides an Elephant, despite being Australian. The term and action of ‘twerking’ is historically coined by black hip hop culture, however, Iggy Azalea is also seen to twerk in several music videos, predominantly alongside black dancers. She also uses culturally black hand singles while rapping.
American Miley Cyrus, determined to eradicate her ‘vanilla innocence’ and child Disney icon status, released her confronting music video ‘We Can’t Stop’. The music video featured Miley twerking side by side with three African American girls and wearing gold teeth grillz. Twerking and grillz are symbolic and apart of black hip hop culture and by using them as a means of achieving an alternate black persona, style and ultimately profit she is appropriating the accouterments in a non-appreciative manor.
The cultural appropriation of black hip hop, undertaken in music videos by both Miley and Iggy are condoned as problematic seem there is a distinct lack of relationship between their cultural backgrounds and the culture displayed.
To avoid such controversy, artists will acknowledge and reflect all that the culture is, instead of just parts that are deemed fashionable or cool, because then it is defined as cultural appreciation.
The iconic music artist Beyoncé is renowned for her culturally appreciate music productions. Her album ‘Lemonade’ was praised on its ability to reflect black culture’s subjugation, womanhood, hair, bodies, song, dance, and suffering. It was described as a Black Feminist masterpiece. She features members of the black community, symbolic hairstyles (cornrows, braids, afro), face paint, clothing, music, and locations to reflect the black culture in its entirety and pay respect to all its endured.
The issue of cultural appropriation does not purely exist in the music industry. It is a wide-spread issue that is prevalent in multiple areas, including celebrities, fashion, and art. Just this week white celebrity Kendall Jenner was slammed by social media and accused of cultural appropriation for wearing her hair in cornrows publicly.
By Kayla Mathew
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Guo, J., (2016) How Iggy Azalea mastered her ‘blaccent’ – The Washington Post [WWW Document], n.d. URL https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/01/04/how-a-white-australian-rapper-mastered-her-blaccent/ (accessed 9.1.19).
Capture By Kayla 