Image: Race Relations Poster. (2007)
by Danielle Whitburn
by Melissa Low
You’re in a bar gracefully drinking a pinot. Two friends sit opposite, peering into the distance. A song comes on. “Oh”, one of your friends exclaims, “it’s that song you know I love”. “You mean the new Rihanna one?”, the other interjects. “No, you know...” The conversation grinds to a halt. You and your friends have realised the grim reality. The intro to the song now playing is equally Stones or Katy Perry, a classic or that cheap fake strutting around on MTV. The tunes have been copied, ripped off or mimicked because they have worked before. You feel cheated, betrayed, as if your religion has been scientifically disproven or your new Trade Me purchase was not what it said it was. You had invested meaning into that intro; it had been with you through morning traffic, road trips and getting-ready ridiculousness before a night out. And now? It was just a Sony jingle. When we listen to a manufactured, glossy song, we are listening to something meaningless masqueraded as art. Personally, I find it insulting. Take for example, when Rebecca Black’s Friday came out. The fact that it even has a name and has an ‘artist’ attributed to it is a sheer crime. But the biggest shame of humanity was that it almost passed. If you listened to the tune, but not the words, it could have been the new Britney, Christina, Ashlee or Jonas Brothers song; it could have passed. And I would guess that with some people, it already has. I still hear its dumbed-down words trumpeted across McDonald’s, at the gas station and on Studylink’s call centre lines (where we whittle away so many of our hours). In many ways, it has passed. And just like other controversial ideas, laws or facts that have ‘passed’ in society, it presents a threat that not many take notice of: the threat that, in allowing music to become homogenous, we are only asking for more of the same. The pertinent question here really is, “how”? How did our music become so vulgar, so sterile and standardised? When did being beautiful, popular, or even just rich with an average voice allow you entrance into the music industry? Sure, we can blame it on capitalism. But blaming societal issues on capitalism is a cop-out; nothing ever gets done in Marxist philosophies aside from theory writing. We must all know that a majority of songs blasted on the radio are the same song with a different singer, different words and a different theme, just like a Jennifer Aniston/Adam Sander movie. We must all know that the intro-verse-bridge-chorus-verse-bridgechorus-bridge-chorus music that tells about breaking-up, or hoes, or parties, or how much of a gangster someone is just marketing? Or do we? If this is the case, perhaps it is our fault that our guard is down. Yet the sadness prevails, the despair at having to listen to another terrible copy….oh, the solemnity of whinging. I would like to ask you, the reader: do you love trashy songs, just like we love trashy programmes, trashy movies, trashy clothes? Does acceptable trash include trashy music? Are we ready to accept what should be named as a sequel of another artists’ song as original, and to like that ‘original’? We’re either on the verge of a society that accepts less, or a society that, so used to accepting less, indifferently accepts what can only be termed ‘musical cloning’. You start to worry you’re cloning into your parents when you hark back to the musical taste of old. But maybe these days, that’s what it takes to stand for something outside materialism: it takes being seen as outdated.
Growing up as a short Asian child in a house on the North Shore, I never really had strong female Asian role models in my life (other than my amazing mum). There were no mainstream Asian celebrity role models that I could connect with, not even the equivalent of an Asian Barbie. So I grew up like any other Kiwi girl was expected to do. I ate Weetbix, sang the national anthem in both Maori and English, always brought sausage rolls to a shared lunch and ate a lot of Mallowpuffs when I could get the chance. It was the way everyone at school seemed to behaved, so I followed along. It’s fair to say that because of the way I grew up, I wasn’t a very “Asian” girl by people’s standards. However, by face value, I’m not always accepted as being a “New Zealander”, and there are those that will not consider me to be fitting into this country at all. That whole debacle with Paul Henry questioning GovernorGeneral Sir Anand Satyanand and his “New Zealander” status can be proof that New Zealand hasn’t fully accepted the multi-cultural society it has turned out to be. Over the past 15 years as I’ve noticed more Asian restaurants being built in communities, we’re fully accepting of (most of) the delicious Asian food that is offered by the culture. But when it comes to dealing with people who are, as someone once said to me, “very Asian”, people can become frustrated with all the cultural differences and accuse them of being ignorant of the Kiwi culture. Now don’t get me wrong and think I’m trying to offend everyone; I’ve been on both sides of the fence. Growing up in schools where races were generally of European decent, I sometimes felt disconnected with other Asians. Yet because of the way I look, I sometimes feel judged and stereotyped by the community that I grew up in. (I won’t even go into Kyle Chapman’s protest on the ‘Asian Invasion’ because that’s its own down-spiralling issue.) I’m sure I can find many New Zealand-born Asians that feel the same way I do, but I don’t think it’s been realised by many that right now, a new Kiwi Asian generation growing. One where people may look Asian but can speak perfect English and are able to work in any industry this country has to offer, not just the stereotyped science or accounting. Please don’t think I’m generalising all “white” people. I’m very thankful that all my friends and so many others of this country are completely accepting of the differences and embrace what the Asian community can offer. There are only a minority of people in this country that haven’t fully recognised how things have changed since the last millennium. To those I plead, get educated and realise that most Asians or people of Asian decent, like me, have been able to embrace the Kiwi culture and that they can offer a lot back. Maybe 10 years from now, if I ever have children, there will be positive Asian role models in mainstream media that they can look up to. But for now, I’ll keep embracing the two cultures that I connect with, and hope one day that everyone in this country embrace the same.
24.
issue 14 2011