(Source)
Shocked and confused by the video for YaYaYa (야야야)? If so, I give a very quick introduction to K-pop and media representations of other races in Korea over at Sociological Images, to help readers unfamiliar with either place it in some context.
If you’re one of those, I hope it does, and I especially recommend one of the links I give in the post – Who is Korean? Migration, Immigration, and the Challenge of Multiculturalism in Homogeneous Societies, by Timothy Lim – for anyone further interested in race-relations in Korea.
Meanwhile, I was tempted to translate the lyrics too, but they’re too inane already adequately covered at Allkpop. Instead, this Friday I’ll be covering Pray (기도) by Sunny Hill (써니힐) .
Until then, Happy Chinese New Year’s everybody!
Why shocked and confused, is it some N.American thing?
Srsly, I’ve watched this video twice and I do not get why is it shocking, is is cos I am missing the lyrics?
Welp, it might help if you followed the link he posted in the second sentence ;).
Speaking as someone of First Nations descent, it was mildly offensive (it was lame, stereotypical and just plain dumb). I mean, if they’re going to engage in cultural appropriation they could at least do a better job of it!
Yes, I’m being facetious. How would you feel if your cultural heritage was boiled down to what people remembered seeing in bad 50′s westerns? Forever? Or worse, what if people are focused on the bad 90′s westerns with their noble savages loving mother earth? Either way it shows a shallow and warped glimpse of what some white guy scavenged from a few different tribes and cultures just to sell movies. Seeing it in a lame music video from another country/continent/hemisphere in the 21st century…
That’s just mind-blowing and deliberate ignorance. That’s shocking. What’s confusing is WTH the imagery has to do with that inane song??
Really though, the link he gave does a much better job of explaining it than I ever could.
Thanks for adding that, and yeah: everything is covered in the link, or at least in the numerous comments the video provoked among (I’m assuming) mostly North American readers.
I have to admit, I wasn’t at all shocked, confused, or offended myself, but that’s an unfortunate side-effect of living in such a non-PC society so long, so thanks again for reminding me how problematic the video was.
So far as actually being offensive goes, it only really rates an eye roll and a facepalm (for me anyways). To put it in perspective though, while I’m of First Nations descent I’m Metis and never grew up on a reservation. I am also incredibly pale, enough so that at pow wows I have gotten “The Look” a few times. I must be a throwback to someone or other, because neither of my parents have this complexion! lol. Point being I’ve never had to deal with people thinking I’m a drunken-loser-welfare-illiterate Indian or asking me if I’ll do a rain dance or any of that nonsense.
Yap I’ve read this article before. But I still do not get it at all (the rant, not the article), it’s pop video, what did you guys expect? It is stylised according to pop culture view of North American Indians. It is colourful, distinct and shallow as any portrait of any other nation/country/idea that appears in pop culture. How is that offensive? What shall I expect (or what do you expect) from pop video. Have you seen Rammstein – ‘America’? That is about contemporary North American culture, and it is properly offensive. Could Koreans do video like that one, or on that occasion would be too offensive? OK, it sounds like I am trying to be sarcastic here, but not, Indians are part of this culture too, why do you not choose to be offended on this occasion?
I am so badly confused about this comments, but please do not accuse me of lack of free will. I want to understand the issue, but as for no I am totally unable to do it. I am not sure if that will help to understand my lack of understanding, but I am wondering, for example, how would you fix it (the video)? How you would make it not (or less) offensive?
yyy, ‘good will’ I meant :)
I was a little confused by the free will comment at first ;).
Any song like ‘Amerika’ (which I actually like ;) ) is kind of designed to offend, so if a korean artist chose to do a song like that it would be equally as offensive. Has nothing to do with geographic location in that case (in fact, I can think of a bunch of North American artists who have done worse). I find yayaya to be only mildly offensive, and part of that is just a facepalm reaction to the costumes. I mean, there’s stereotypes and there’s “okay…I thought I knew what you were doing, but where did *that* come from?”. A North American artist doing the same thing would probably get waaaaay more fallout. This is only shocking and confusing (to me) because it’s a very poorly done stereotype for no purpose. I mean, there’s no *reason* for them to dress like that for the purpose of the song.
As for fixing the video…Either do an entirely different song (even mildly offensive lyrics that connected with the costumes would be less confusing!), or costume it the way the song sounds-a club environment.
I’m not sure if I’ve answered this question “Indians are part of this culture too, why do you not choose to be offended on this occasion?” because I don’t know if I understood it correctly.
For such a short post, I sure got a lot of reading out of it. Thanks for the links!
You’re welcome!
Interesting little discussion here! I commented on the video immediately on youtube, but I will repeat what I said here. I’m a Native woman, and this IS an offensive video. Much of that is due to the issue that James touched on in the post about the harmful portrayals of various ethnic groups in Korean media. This is an especially important issue to address in relation to American Indian female portrayals when one considers the legacy of maltreatment and violence projected upon Native women in physical, social, and psychological ways. It also employs a very infantile, dare-I-say ‘savage’ perspective on Native females’ sexual prowess.
**If anyone needs more info on this, I recommend Devon Abbot Mihesuah ‘Indigenous American Women: Decolonization, Empowerment, Activism’ and Andrea Smith ‘Conquest: Sexual Violence and American Indian Genocide.’ Both Native female scholars.
Thank you! I was trying and trying to remember a book I’d read and you triggered it in my brain!
I’m wondering…I was reading an article that was citing numbers/percentages on violence against First Nations women in the US and apparently didn’t bookmark it or write it down. Does this sound at all familiar? Even if I can’t find the exact article again, I’d kind of like to find the numbers again.
Reminds me of MC Mong and his song “Indian Boy.”
Even setting aside the question of whether or how offensive it is… what is going on here music-wise? There’s a clear attempt to integrate Native Indian soundscapes (or, what the composers think that means) into the typical K-pop dance formula, and in fact, first impression is that it’s quite different from what’s happening visually / plot-wise. Plot-wise the Native Indian doesn’t exist at all, just a substitutable and meaningless figure of the primitive; visually it’s typical kitsch/culture-terror where again, it’s really about the pretty face wearing ‘cutesy’ facepaint (exemplified by the most blatantly kitsch tent prop imaginable). Musically, though, they do seem to be trying to integrate the ‘Indian’ more comprehensively – at least, they didn’t go for a “drumbeat + hollering chant” intro => typical K-pop solution. In other words, a genuine attempt to mix together K-pop’s twin staples of dance and electronic sounds with a new sound. Not genuine in the sense that it does justice to the Native Indian soundscape, but genuine in the sense that they’re trying to create a variation within K-pop’s musicscape.
I’m certainly not committed to this, and it’s not intended to justify or in any way effect the whole cultural representation question. But it is interesting, musically, and I think it’s different from, say, MC Mong’s Indian Boy, which is Same Song As All Other MC Mong Songs + 5 seconds of elephant sounds, pretty much.
James – your link for Timothy Lim’s article tried to direct me to another (unfound) page within The Grand Narrative. I checked the properties and found the story at http://www.japanfocus.org/-Timothy-Lim/3192 .
It should be working now. Thanks.
it just makes me laugh when when I see a buncha hypocrites whos done nothing for the natives in their land all jumping on some music video..
Banned.
Call my commenting policy strict, but I doubt someone who could write an inane one-liner like that could ever make any meaningful contribution here.