Doug's comment the other day about the use of pseudo-Middle-Eastern themes in popular music got me thinking. Mostly, it had me thinking that I didn't really buy it. Musicians didn't start incorporating Middle Eastern themes because of 9/11 or the Gulf War; pop music has always been exploiting these kinds of themes, haven't they?
Well, as it turns out, no. No, they haven't. I went and checked the top 20 songs from 1999-2000 for overt use of "oriental" sounding instrumentation, beats or themes. With the exception of Christina Aguilara's "Genie in a Bottle (Which, compared to, say, 50 Cent's Candy Shop, barely makes the cut), I found none. Compare that to this list, which I compiled from soundbites and music videos, of songs from the 5 years after 9/11:
2002
1) In da Club--50 Cent
2) Get Busy--Sean Kingston
3) Baby Boy--Beyonce ft. Sean Kingston
2004
4) I Don't Wanna Kno--Mario
5) Lean Back
6) Freak-A-Leak--
7) Naughty Girl--Beyonce
2005
8) 1,2 step (The high descant)--Ciara
9) Candy Shop--50 Cent
10) Don't Phunk with my Heart--Black Eyed Peas
11) Don't Cha--Pussycat Dolls
12) Just a Little Bit--50 Cent
13) Pon de Replay--Rihanna
2006
14) Temperature--Sean Paul
15) Hips Don't Lie--Shakira
16) Ridin--Chamillionare
17) Buttons--Pussycat dolls
My point, besides that Doug was right and pop music really has bolstered itself with Orientalism in the wake of 9/11, is that all of these artists are artists of color. It is somehow more acceptable for non-white artists to use these beats, because it adds to the image culture has created for them. They are being different, other, from white artists, but they're doing so in a way that lines up with the image the West constructed after September 11th. The beats get more and more pronounced, celebrated, and sellable as time goes on. It's all very depressing.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I think I'll go listen to something classical again...
Amy,
ReplyDeleteIt struck me largely because of "Genie in a Bottle" and because of a few other tunes. Weird, isn't it, how colonialism and capitalism and H&A are all wrapped up together. E.g., the cultural anthropologists in Heirs of Columbus. Hmmmmmm.
I think your note about the cultural okay-ness for artists of any darker-skinned ethnicity to appropriate from basically any other culture evidences the unspecificity of the otherness. It's not important whether or not the artist is middle-easter, far-east-asian, pacific islander, latina, or african in descent, it only matters that they are not white europeans. Sad day indeed.
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