Katie Nagaraj
GWS-201
Miles Feroli
12/3/20
Cultural Appropriation in Music
Our world is composed of so many different cultures and backgrounds, that this world is
one big melting pot. Cultures vary in so many different ways such as traditions, religions, food,
social standards and more. It is human nature to be interested in ways of life that are different to
us, and many times artists will explore these different cultures. However, this can lead to them
misunderstanding or misusing these cultures and coming off in an offensive way. This can be
referred to as cultural appropriation. For my final project, I decided to focus on the music unit
that we discussed, and within this unit we briefly discussed cultural appropriation. After
watching the different music video sources in class and listening to the group presentation that
week, I decided I wanted to focus my project and learn more about cultural appropriation. The
definition of cultural appropriation is “the taking-from a culture that is not one’s own- of
intellectual property, cultural expression or artifacts, history and ways of knowledge” (Grays, 3).
This is not something that usually happens with bad intentions, but more so without the true
understanding of what the culture and its traditions and symbols mean. In order to showcase the
idea of cultural appropriation, I created a video inspired by the WatchMojo series, and did one
with the theme: 5 Times Artists were Accused of Cultural Appropriation.
One of the examples used in my video was Katy Perry’s music video for her song “Dark
Horse”. This music video is supposed to be set in Egypt, and has Katy Perry dressed as cleopatra
(nicknamed Katy-Patra). The idea behind the video is that Katy-Patra has the ability to turn men
into dust, and that she is sought after by Egyption men in the video. The video is very focused on
the visual aspects and the artistic vision of it all. “Dark Horse, is a visual feast. Peeters (2004)
suggests music videos are often more concerned with spectacle than narrative, and Perry’s video
is nothing if not a spectacle” (Pennington, 110). This is where the loss of understanding and
appreciation for the culture comes in, when artists spectacle on the visual which is exactly what
Perry did. For example, she had women with cat heads on during her video around her for the
visual aspect. This completely downplays the importance of this symbol in egyption culture.
Another example of downplaying the importance of this culture is the allah symbol featured in
her video. It was mentioned in the video created for this project, but one of her suitors in the
video is wearing a necklace with the pendent with the arabic for “Allah”, which means god. She
then burns the man. Many people were upset by this in the video because it is shown as very
inconsiderate to damage God’s name in that way. Perry’s video, while getting some of the
factual aspects of Egypt correct, really missed the mark on how she chose to portray and use
their culture.
Taylor Swift's song “Shake it Off” was an instant hit among fans and the world
everywhere. With its catchy tune and fun message, it is an easy song to love. However, people
pointed out a few things in her video. She shows herself in many different scenes dancing
different styles. One features her as a ballerina, and some people noticed that there were only
white women featured in that clip. People were also upset that she had a scene that was hip-hop
inspired. In this scene there are women twerking, which some felt was showing black stereotypes
in a bad way. There is a scene where Swift is crawling underneath a line of women twerking.
This was most likely done for the visual aspect, but can seem to others as insensitive and
portraying these women of color to make the video look good. While this may not be at all what
Taylor was trying to show, everyone has an opinion and some viewed it as cultural
appropriation.
Three of the five of my examples used all had ties to India, and that culture that they
have. When Selena Gomez released her song “Come and Get It”, she felt that it had an indian
and tribal sound to it. During her Billboard Music Awards performance in 2013, she dressed in
an indian inspired outfit and finished it off by wearing a bindi. A bindi in Indian culture is very
important, and its significance is tied to the seven chakras of the body. The bindi is placed in
between the eyebrows, serving the purpose as the “third eye” chakra (Jha, The Purpose of the
Bindi). Many people however looked at Selena Gomez wearing it and called her out for cultural
appropriation. Lots felt like she wore for the beauty aesthetic and that she did not fully
understand the meaning behind it and its importance. Gomez however took to defense and said
that she has been learning about the culture and feels educated enough to wear one. Shuvi Jha,
who wrote for the Hindu American Foundation, says that “This evokes the question of cultural
appropriation, as many Hollywood celebrities (Vanessa Hudgens, Gwen Stefani, Selena Gomez)
have begun wearing the bindi as a fashion statement. While some individuals with traditional
bindi-wearing cultures criticize this act, there are others who view it simply as an attempt to
embrace Indian culture.” (Jha, The Purpose of the Bindi). In Major Lazor’s video “Lean On”, it
is also set in India. These singers have Indian women dancing around them, and have many
visual aspects of Indian culture. They are appropriating Indian culture in this video, for a number
of reasons. The song does not have anything to do with India or the culture in any way. Their use
of Indian culture was just to enhance the visuals of their music video. Another artist who did a
very similar thing was Coldplay & Beyonce and their music video for the song “Hymn for the
Weekend”. This video was shot in Mumbai and features many different aspects of India in the
video. An example would be the band participating in Holi, which is the Indian festival of colors.
Beyonce is also featured in the video, playing a bollywood actress that is starring in a movie
shown in the music video. While the idea of this video sounds cool, it is for the wrong reasons.
Once again, another artist is using aspects of cultures to make their video a spectacle and a show.
While this next text about to be mentioned is specifically talking about Africa, it feels relevant to
this example as well. “The continent is full of deserts, jungles, highlands, savannahs and many
other things, but your reader doesn’t care about all that, so keep your descriptions romantic and
evocative and in particular” (Rutabingawa, Arinate, NPR). This can be applied in the same way
that coldplay used India for their music video. Instead of truly caring about the importance
behind the culture, they seem to only use it to their benefit to fit the image they have in their
head for their video. Sad as it may be, it seems that many artists overlook the true importance
and wind up being called out for cultural appropriation.
My project summed up five times where artists may have demonstrated or were called
out for cultural appropriation. By taking cultures and using them to make videos and songs look
good, it can be very offensive. Artist’s sometimes do not realize that they are doing this which
often leads to them getting caught up in the spectacle of it all. By not being familiar and a part of
these cultures, it is hard to fully understand the meaning and importance behind the ideas they
are trying to portray. This only leads to looking bad and using such important traditions
inappropriately. Artists like the ones mentioned in my project, may need to have a better
understanding of the cultures that they are trying to use before showcasing them in their music
videos and performances. By doing this, it can only make things better and more acceptable for
them to use.
Works Cited
Grays, Jaja. “The Blurred Lines of Cultural Appropriation” City University of New York (CUNY)
Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism, 16 December. 2016,
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1193&context=gj_etds
Jha, Shuvi. “The Purpose of the Bindi.” Hindu American Foundation, 21 Sept. 2020,
www.hinduamerican.org/blog/the-purpose-of-the-bindi/.
Rutabingwa, Viviane, and James Kassaga Arinaitwe. “Taylor Swift Is Dreaming Of A Very
White Africa.” NPR, NPR, 1 Sept. 2015,
www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2015/09/01/436653602/taylor-swift-is-dreaming-of-a-verywhite-africa.
Pennington, Rosemary. “Dissolving the Other: Orientalism, Consumption, and Katy Perry’s
Insatiable Dark Horse”
file:///Users/katienagaraj/Downloads/Pennington_Dark%20Horse%20(3).pdf