This week’s reading theme is “Cultural appropriation or appreciation?”. As a MCC student, this question has been discussed many times in multiple classes. However, I have never considered the question in particular to “K-Pop” and Hallyu so it was interesting to think through this particular lens. Everytime this question has been discussed, my question has always been, “Then what is original?” “What isn’t cultural appropriation?” “ “What constitutes “appropriation” of culture?”. In my perspective, appropriation can be either be done well or bad. It can be either cultural appreciation or cultural misappropriation.
Thinking about cultural appropriation through the K-Pop lens, the first thing that I thought of was a controversial song called “IT G MA” by a Korean rapper named Keith Ape. When this song was first released in 2015 it received a lot of mixed reviews globally, as some western listeners accused Keith of severely appropriating the black hip hop culture, some praising Keith’s ability to adopt another culture as his own, and some listeners downright calling the song and the tune messy and everywhere. Personally, when I heard this song for the first time, I thought it was just another western rap music. In my personal opinion, I don’t think “IT G MA” is a imitation of the southern black hip hop culture. I don’t think Keith Ape made the song with the intention of appropriating the southern hip hop culture because he thought it was “cool”, but rather a personalized interpretation of a style of music that is widely pervasive and popular. If you watch the music video of his song, there are small elements of appropriation happening from the African American rap scenes, though I don’t think it to be a bad thing. In my opinion, I don’t think appropriation of culture is a bad thing. Culture travels globally and appropriation can be regarded as the highest form of flattery. With the rise of the internet world, the connectivity of the world has become so close and fast. The practicality of outreach has become so easy and accessible. And if we don’t share and gain inspiration from other cultures, fashions, trends, personalities, and music, then what is the point of all this connectivity? I think 21st century is all about modernity and innovation. We need to be exposed to experiences, people, and trends to continue to make our society exciting and new.
However, I do believe that there is a fine line between culture appropriation and appreciation. Personally, I just don’t know what that line is. What are your opinions?
The Politics of K-Pop 
Firstly, I do not believe cultural appropriation is ever a question of “is it good or bad thing?”. By definition, cultural appropriation is incredibly harmful for the cultures being appropriated. So to admit that there are instances of cultural appropriation and then validate them is contradictory. It G Ma’s main controversy stemmed from the fact that it stole the beat from You Guessed It ( a song made by a black rapper, OG Marco) without giving any credit. The music video is also almost identical. This fact was never mentioned by Keith Ape when the song was released, but fans caught on quick. After the backlash, Keith Ape did have a discussion with OG Marco and squashed the beef. Whether this was intentional or not, I think the fact that these artists capitalized off of all of OG Marco’s original creations is something to address. It is most certainly exploiting black culture for personal gain and is racial plagiarism, and therefore cultural appropriation. Hip Hop is widely popular now, and its origins are also widely known. I think the majority of people have no problem with spreading their culture, but when cases like this occur, where no credit is being given to the original creators, I can understand why people would begin ‘gate-keeping’ their culture out of a need to protect what is theirs. This isn’t to say that non-black people can’t create good rap music. I actually really like all of the rappers in that music video because they clearly take hip-hop seriously and respect the craft. They produce good music, It G Ma was indeed an undeniable bop. Despite this, we can not allow for cases of blatant plagiarism to be swept under the rug. There is nothing innovative about plagiarism.
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In my Hip-Hop and Politics class we learned that historically music had been a means of resistance for black folks. From slave hymns, to blues, to jazz, to R&B, and hip-hop, music has been a way for African Americans to talk about their unique lived experiences and struggles that include colonialism, slavery, segregation, redlining, mass incarceration, police brutality. For example, Kanye West discusses the war on drugs in his song “Crack Music,” and Meek Mill critiques mass incarceration in “Young Black America.” Both the war on drugs and mass incarceration are issues that disproportionately impact black people. Street performers rapping and breakdancing became a way to not only make money, but as social programs such as after school programs were defunded in “the projects,” these performances served as an outlet for creativity and community building. It also in some cases like with Dr. Dre it became a means for social mobility (Kelley, “Playing for Keeps”). To outsiders this breakdancing in the street is seen as a waste of time, and proof that black people aren’t invested in useful things, but when K-Pop stars do these dances they are commended for their ability and pristine choreography.
K-Pop stars often co-opt styles of black Americans or adopt caricatures of black people that are generally not seen as acceptable when on black people, and they capitalize off of them. When a K-Pop star wears dreadlocks or cornrows — styles that were developed specifically for black hair — people (outside of academia that aren’t well versed on appropriation) see it as a cute hairstyle; however when black people wear these styles they are often punished at schools, or told it is unprofessional for work settings. Additionally, there has been a trend for K-Pop girls to adopt a “bad bitch” persona, much like Miley Cyrus’ attitude during her foray into Hip-Hop. These personas seem to be over exaggerated stereotypes of black women that were developed during minstrel shows (loud, aggressive, lacking class, etc). As a black woman, it is disheartening to see these personas being praised as edgy and cool when I get told I’m scary or intimidating if I’m not constantly smiling.
Obviously, Korean people have their own unique experiences with colonialism and racism, but I personally don’t necessarily see them addressing these issues in their songs (if you have any examples, please let me know!). To me personally, I think the line between appreciation and appropriation is quite clear. If you are just using aesthetics that historically attributed to black folks for profit, without acknowledging the contexts from which you are borrowing, or recognizing when it is harmful to the people you’re borrowing from, I think it falls under appropriation. While I agree with Anderson that people can be influenced by music and aesthetics, I think in order for it to not be plagiarized or appropriated there has to be some element that is unique and credit should be given to things that are inspired by other artists. Especially since K-Pop songs are largely produced by management and not the artists themselves, I feel it lacks the authentic historicity that is inherent in Hip-Hop. K-Pop has lots of great music, but just like any genre, including Hip-Hop, I think it has its weaknesses. While I don’t think K-Pop is a bad genre or that all idols are racist, I think it should be consumed critically, and that producers of K-Pop should be held accountable when they misstep.
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