Gwen Stefani scored hit after hit almost twenty years ago with songs from her album Love. Angel. Music. Baby., but over the years has received increasing criticism for one of her great sources of inspiration at the time. The fact that she was inspired by the Japanese clothing style Harajuku leads to conversations about cultural appropriation. A recent interview has revived the discussion.
“I am Japanese,” says 53-year-old Stefani several times to the American magazine Allure when asked about the fuss. The singer is not: her father is Italian-American and her mother Irish-American. But the singer says it feels like she really is a bit Japanese.
LAMB will be released in 2004. It is the first solo album by Stefani, who was previously part of the band No Doubt. The album contains hits such as What You Waiting For?, Rich Girl and Hollaback Girl and reviewers are fairly positive about the pop record. But the decoration of the clips, Stefani’s entourage and the perfume line that emerges also raise eyebrows.
Stefani has been strongly influenced by the Harajuku culture – or, critics argue, misused the culture to make money from it and thus appropriate the culture. Harajuku is a neighborhood in Tokyo and is known worldwide as a major fashion spot. Harajuku’s colorful street art and vibrant fashion scene also fascinated Stefani, who first learned about it through her father’s business trips and later went there herself.
“That’s how Japan influenced me. It’s a culture so steeped in tradition and so futuristic at the same time. There’s room for art, details and discipline: I found it fascinating,” Stefani says of the culture. “And when I went there, it became clear to me: I am Japanese without knowing it.”
Is it inspiration, or is it stealing?
In recent years, discussions about cultural appropriation have become increasingly frequent. The website of Asian Raisins, an organization dedicated to raising awareness of racism and combating prejudice, explains why cultural appropriation is problematic. “The stories and histories of these cultures are ignored and not told, which leads people to believe in negative stereotypes created by white people.”
In the clips, during the tour and in her own clothing style, Stefani tries to incorporate as much as possible from the Harajuku culture. In addition, she is always accompanied by four Japanese and American-Japanese dancers who are named after her album. The dancers do not speak in interviews and cannot be heard in the music, but they are the inspiration for the perfume line that Stefani later releases.
“If you’re in What You Waiting For? listening between the lines, you notice that the song is about someone who is a fan of Japan. I sing that I have to do well (in my career, ed.), so that I can go back to Japan,” Stefani said in an interview with Paper Magazine. Because of that interview, the discussion about the singer’s ‘inspiration’ flares up again: is it inspiration, or is it stealing?
“If we didn’t exchange our cultures, we wouldn’t have known all the beauty we know now. We learn from each other, we share things with each other and we grow through each other. Making rules about that only leads to bigger differences,” says Stefani on the fierce criticism of comedian Margaret Cho in 2006. According to Cho, the singer used her backup dancers as puppets.
Journalist would have misunderstood Stefani
Stefani has no regrets about her choices: according to the singer Love. Angel. Music. Baby, with Harajuku as a source of inspiration, an interesting experiment. “It was a fantastic time, a very creative time. It feels like a very creative project to me.”
According to a spokesperson for Stefani, the interviewer understood from Allure the singer wrong when she said she is Japanese, even though she repeated that several times. The spokesperson would not say what her point was. Stefani himself has not returned to it and does not seem to be aware of any harm. “It is important that we are inspired by other cultures, because if we do not, the distance between people will only increase.”
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