Cultural Appropriation in Kpop

[happydirections.livejournal.com]

i found this very interesting to watch and i agreed with a lot (if not almost everything) they said. they talk about the ignorance not just that of the korean entertainment business but they also touch on how a lot of international fans are guilty of doing the same thing.

they have more 'real talks' out if you guys are interested!! you can find the videos on misterpopotv's channel.

Source: Misterpopotv

Comments

[mayuyu.livejournal.com]

This is worth the watch tbh. I like how they addressed problems without bashing anyone and tried to show what is cultural appropriation and what isn't. I hope people watch this and understand more about the subject. I especially love that they talk about "koreaboos" and how the cultural appropriation goes both ways.

[psharp10.livejournal.com]

this was really interesting to watch and imo they do a really good job explaining and discussing the topic while keeping clear of not offending anyone unnecessarily or irrationally. being on the topic of cultural appropriation, i remembered about the interview youngbae (taeyang) did with a magazine and he spoke out on it as well, i never saw the interview posted on omona but i dug down deep into my tumblr likes to find it and here it is:

"There are people who criticise the appropriation of black culture, aka hip-hop, for not being authentic. What are your thoughts on this?

Actually, I don’t think the question is really about authenticity. It’s clear the cultural performances of hip-hop vary from place to place. Obviously there are a lot of outside influences to Korean hip-hop but at the same time there are unique elements in Korean hip-hop. The culture of hip-hop obviously comes from the States. It really isn’t about who’s right and who’s wrong because there’s no right and wrong when it comes to music. Every country is going to have its own way of performing a certain genre of music. Hip-hop is a genre that’s inspired a lot by personal experiences and Korean hip-hop is authentic in itself because we have our own unique experience, even though it can be inspired by somewhere else. We do our own thing and when people start to like what they see, it grows and begins a new type of culture. Comparing Korean hip-hop and American hip-hop is a bit of an old-fashioned way to frame the discussion. It’s more important to perhaps consider how people have been able to truly enjoy the adaption of hip-hop.

obviously this doesn't cover the whole issue and focuses more on the hip-hop/k hip-hop aspect of things but i still found his answer very interesting to read~

[jazzygyu.livejournal.com]

I didn't like his answer because he didn't really talk about appropriation more specific his own issues with culture appropriation. People who call out appropriation are not calling out people who bring their own culture into hip-hop because thats not what appropriation is so what he said is not the issue. There is a right and wrong to doing music, some of the stuff YG has done is wrong and needed to be addressed, but I guess I shouldn't expect him to actually address the issue.

[theharleyquinn.livejournal.com]

I hated this answer. He's cutting around a lot of corners based on his belief that Korean hip-hop has become its own style out of its inspiration from American hip-hop, but he's ignoring the fact that the images, styling, and verses are still very much based in black hip-hop tradition and there is some disrespect if you're not respecting the culture those adaptations came out of. He can't minimize the significance of those personal experiences of black people that led to hip-hop, and to call the argument old-fashioned is somewhat ignorant. There are legitimate grievances. How can we not compare Korean hip-hop and American hip-hop if Korean hip-hop artists are still jumping on American hip-hop trends? Taeyang's image itself is in part an adaptation of American R&B performers. I get where he's coming from but he's still getting a lot of things wrong, and I think it's mostly because people strip the culture and history from the music genre when they're trying to create "new" trends.

[modestgoddess79.livejournal.com]

dumb answer but to be expected from the guy that had an all black brass band on stage miming performing on a song with no brass

[jazzygyu.livejournal.com]

Really? Lol what performances was that? This how you know they use black people as props.

[tokyocinema.livejournal.com]

ah...misterpopotv. I heard he lost a lot of subscribers after he decided to stop doing k-pop reactions. /shrugs

This video was pretty worth the watch, ngl. But South Korea banned blackface? O.o Where was THAT article?

[pikapika217.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I didn't know that! the latest ones are with him & his brother but those videos are ones usually new to only his brother and can be from any period of time.

[tokyocinema.livejournal.com]

Yeah, he said he wasn't going to stop "black people react to kpop" but he said that his regular reactions are done and he's moving on

some people knew it was going to happen as he slowly stopped putting out solo reaction videos and started to doing more Real Talk and others really weren't happy about that.

I saw some comments saying that the era of Kpop Reaction Videos and/or Kpop Reviews is slowly coming to an end since EYK stopped doing Kpop Music Mondays and a lot of small channels have stopped posting on youtube altogether and now misterpopo stopped doing reactions.../shrug

[pikapika217.livejournal.com]

he definitely seemed to be moving away from it and then he had to get his computer repaired so not that surprising. the two channels I subscribe to - kpopsavant & 2MinJinJongKey and the one I check every once in a while - JRE KML - are still active so I have them at least.

[adenar.livejournal.com]

i watch 2min and talagagagirls but the latter are all at school/work so they tend to upload a batch once a month, but i still enjoy them. i'm not surprised that people are moving on from it though, i've always found it tedious to watch solo reactions personally.

[jazzygyu.livejournal.com]

I agree with a lot of what they said. I agreed that yeah people do need to be more careful with the use of the term culture appropriation even though there is a lot of it in general in the media rather it be western or korean. I do agree with the fact that GD wasn't in black face for his music video I think people only got angry about that because of the picture he posted on instagram with no context and they were mad that he didn't bother to clear things up. Like he really could have just released a statement saying no this is for my music video, but instead he waited until the company said something like weeks later and they only responded because it ended up in western media. So I think thats why people where mad was because his instagram picture look similar to trayvon martin and when he was asked about it he didn't bother to clear it up like he didn't care that people where offended. I never thought that picture was about Trayvon but I can understand where people where coming from.

What I don't agree with is the whole excuse that they just don't know blackface is wrong. There numerous instances that prove otherwise. For example, I can't remember where I read this but there was some major event that was going be held in Korea where there would be different African ethnicities coming to the country, so they took out an act that they normally did in blackface because they felt it would offend some of the African people, they did this without any black people telling them it was offensive, they know. Also with Yongguk yeah he tries but that doesn't mean he doesn't mess up, him having a name like jepp blackman doesn't stop being offensive just because he tries to do better and if he wants to learn about African American culture reading a book written by a white man about the black experience isn't the way to do it, it just further feeds into the notion that people only care to listen about issues of oppression when its coming from someone privileged rather than the person who is actually affected by it. There are plenty of black authors and people who can tell you about the black experience. BTS maybe trying and I appreciate that but rapmonster still has said n-word on a few occasions, if someone is generally trying to understand my culture they would defiantly know by now not use that word and why not to use it. I recognize effort and I recognize when people generally want to learn my culture, but at the same time people make mistakes and those mistakes need to be correct and if they are generally interested in learning my culture, they will listen when they are corrected so that they don't make the same mistakes.

[happydirections.livejournal.com]

i only remember rapmon using the n-word once when he was covering shinhwa's song (in wich that word originally wasused sadly). on what other occasions has he used that word?

[rixythewraith.livejournal.com]

He used it predebut

[kjc48.livejournal.com]

Can someone send them a link to that great article that shows the receipts of Korea being VERY aware of the fact that blackface was racist (this isn't the first time blackface has been banned).

I wish they would talk about the fetishizing of black culture. And the fact that "hip-hop" + "fierce" are so strongly connected within kpop (especially for girl groups).

It's great to know that Yongguk is reading up on black-culture and growing as a person/artist, but it's going to take a few more years to erase "Jepp Blackman"

[revertigo.livejournal.com]

i remember an episode of running man where the cast and crew dressed up as The Avengers and one of the PDs had on dark makeup because he was Samuel Jackson's Nick Fury. that's the only circumstance where ignorance can be forgivable when it comes to the issue of racial insensitivity, racism and cultural appropriation. he wasn't making a mockery out of a community of people, but paying homage to a specific character/actor. it's also not a re-occurring gag on the show.

however, the ki kwang and gag concert sketches i've seen recently where they paint themselves black and act out stereotypes? i don't even buy that they didn't mean to be offensive. at the most basic and juvenile level they straight up FAIL the common courtesy/treat others like you want to be treated golden rule. like how would you fucking feel if people painted their skin yellow to do a sketch about eating ramen and blurted out, "ching chong ling tong"??! it's fucked up.

anyway, i enjoyed this video very much. i really appreciate the participants living by their standards and showing lots of respect, doing a lot of research and attacking the issue from all sides. they're right, it really does show and i wish that's how we all can do it all the time.

[asth77.livejournal.com]

he wasn't making a mockery out of a community of people, but paying homage to a specific character/actor.

Yes but that was done for laughs. The PD was supposed to be funny with his costume. I have a problem with that tbh. They won't paint themselves in white for laughs to portray a character. To me, as long as it's done to bring in laugh, I'm out.

[revertigo.livejournal.com]

yeah, it was offensive. i'm not saying that's a circumstance where blackface is okay (it's never okay) but rather that's when i actually buy the ignorance/didn't mean any harm excuse. the joke wasn't about race but more so the overall theme. it's still wrong, but i don't think it's racist.

[timetobegin.livejournal.com]

Great video indeed OP! I really liked how this was in depth, nuanced and approached the subject from different sides (which does not seem to happen alot when it comes to internet discussions, great of them to also point that out).

[modestgoddess79.livejournal.com]

um Yongguk still engages in cultural appropriation when he wears cornrows or calls himself Jepp Black man, I don't care how many times he reads that book where a white guy does black face or how obsessed he is with Che. Labeling hair styles Africans have worn for thousands of years as hip hop is offensive. Me wearing my hair as it grows out of my head is not hip hop style, it's my damn hair.