Disclaimers: 1. I am African (and black). 2. My views do not reflect the opinions of every African person. We are all entitled to our own thoughts. This is just what I think. 3. This is a critique on the companies (and society as a whole) and is not intended as hate towards any groups/artists.
I don’t like it when kpop artists try to make Afro-beat music. My biggest reason is that it feels slimy to use our culture when we as a people are not respected. About 2 years ago, Bada of SES went on a show (I forget which one) with her son and tried to tell him to eat his food because Africans don’t have anything to eat. Her son responded by saying Africans don’t eat bread, they eat dirt. Now, he was pretty young so I don’t blame him but I do blame her for the ignorance and it is very telling of the views Korean society as a whole is teaching at such an early age. The world as a whole treats/views the African continent as backward and uncivilized. K-Dramas still portray Africa as some desolate, poor waste land where there is no food, water or electricity and an animal will attack you the second you step foot on the continent. To me, if you still think of us in that way, you shouldn’t be allowed to use our culture just because it is popular. I know kpop is rooted in taking from other cultures but this one hit harder for me.
Not to mention, Africa is treated like an after thought for everything (Tours, Cinema releases etc) so it just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. It is trying to capitalize on the acclaim and success of Tyla (she doesn’t make afrobeat but amapiano and if you don’t know the difference then respectfully please be quiet) and Tems, Burna Boy etc but loses the heart of what makes the genre so special. Even without the culture aspect it still feels like a cheap imitation to me. Not to mention the addition of accents (sma-TA baby sma-TA i’m looking at you), it just rubs me the wrong way. K-pop follows trends. We know this so I guess it was my fault for not knowing it would only be a matter of time.
Lastly if this comes across as just hate, I’m sorry. I have a lot of pent up frustration about this. This topic agitates me so much that I have thought about writing this for over 2 years now but I didn’t want to be dismissed and invalidated. However, I ultimately wanted to talk about it and came to the conclusion that ignorance is a preference so here it is.
Edit: Tried to post on the other subreddit but it got taken down so we’ll see if it stays up here
submitted by /u/Clp_1889
[link] [comments]
