Semiotics and Cultural Appropriation in KPop Music Videos
The world of Korean Pop has not only enchanted the world through its unique music but also with its artistic music videos. However, it’s not all glitz and glamour — despite the beauty of their well-crafted MVs, some have misused cultural and historical elements which offended fans. In the sea of issues in the K-Pop world, one of the biggest fishes is cultural appropriation due to the ignorance of semiotics.
During the Rococo period, exoticism became a component of interior design. The European interpretation of Chinese styles produced Chinoiserie which could be seen in Rococo furniture, textile, and pottery.
The beauty that Chinoiserie possessed distracted people from the fact that it was a prime example of cultural appropriation and ignorance of semiotics. While some might argue that it was an admiration of Chinese culture and art, one cannot deny that there has always been a fine line between the appreciation and appropriation of culture [3].
Chinoiserie is a “tentacle of Oriental fetishism” where Westerners — Europeans in particular — appropriated Chinese culture by mimicking their motifs and techniques without honoring its cultural significance [5]. This act of taking something from someone else’s culture without acknowledging and respecting its cultural relevance can be seen in contemporary KPop music videos, an unfortunate example of history repeating itself.
For interior designers, the importance of the study of signs and signs using behavior — semiotics or semiology — cannot be stressed enough, especially when working with people from different cultures. American philosopher Charles Sanders Pierce defines signs as “something which stands to somebody for something” [1], which means that they cannot have a definite meaning.
However, it is important for designers to know that certain cultures have their own system of beliefs accompanied by icons and symbols they created so the meanings they put in those ornaments and motifs must be respected.
Semiotics will help people understand why certain things cannot be used merely for aesthetic purposes.
A big example of misusing a cultural symbol is by putting up dreamcatchers as ornaments. The object is an important symbol of spirituality in the Native American Ojibwe culture [4]but such meaning is disregarded and often goes unrecognized by most people, even designers who supposedly research motifs they will use for a design.
Several KPop groups have been called out for the occasional cultural appropriation present in their music videos. Most of the time, it had something to do with mocking cultures through dances or hairstyles but some had offensive set designs as well.
For example, Red Velvet’s Joy received backlash from the music video of her solo song “Hello” which used dreamcatchers as a decorative element. In BLACKPINK’s “How You Like That” MV, a statue of the elephant-headed Hindu god Lord Ganesha was placed on the floor which offended their Hindu fans.
Cultural appropriation and racial insensitivity have been a longstanding problem in the KPop industry [2].
From hairstyle, make-up, outfit, and choreography, to set design, various artists, companies, and production studios have offended cultures and races from outside South Korea. Since production design has the most components when it comes to aesthetics, it would be better if set designers are extra mindful of semiotics so as not to carelessly use motifs, symbols, and ornaments significant to other cultures.
According to a study by Xie et al. (2021) about the design method of Semiosis in interior furnishing design, randomly bringing design elements together makes them lose the context they depend on, which leads to “jumbled” furnishing design and even a “crisis of feature.”
Without recognizing the context of the elements used in a space, the designs become one-sided and every form becomes similar to each other. The designs end up soulless, as it is disconnected from their local historical context, regional characteristics, and site environment.
Such matters are very apparent both in Rococo’s exoticism and KPop’s contemporary set design. Aside from the designs looking bland and inaccurate, it is also inappropriate and offensive. Production designers must resist the temptation to blindly follow trends or indiscriminately copy everything from their design pegs or mood board.
A guaranteed way to avoid cultural appropriation in designs is to prioritize the design’s background information, which has four categories: history, culture, regional characteristics, and themes [6]. Regardless of who the designer is and what they are designing, they must put utmost consideration into the information provided by each category before coming up with a design.
The KPop industry surely opened an enthralling world of distinctive music and imaginative music videos. It has managed to have fans go crazy over the idols’ performances and even inspired some to pursue creative careers to get into the field.
KPop has also revived historical styles in an interesting way through their fashion and set designs. However, the companies and production studios involved in producing the songs and music videos of KPop groups still need a lot of studying to do with regard to cultural appropriation, racial sensitivity, and semiotics.
There is no problem in being inspired by historical and cultural styles, provided that the designer does not carelessly use them in their designs. It is important to take into account the historical accuracy and cultural relevance of the style that will be used for the design, rather than just focusing on its aesthetic aspects. Moreover, being knowledgeable about the background information or a style or any specific object will help create a design that not only answers to the concept, but contributes to the creative presentation of a song, story, personality, or even life itself.
This is the second part of the essay I wrote about KPop music videos and historical interior styles. Check out the first part here.
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Bibliography:
[1] Britannica. (n.d.). Semiotics. Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/science/semiotics
[2] Dazed Digital. (2020, August 12). How K-pop is responding to its longstanding appropriation problem. Dazed. https://www.dazeddigital.com/music/article/50045/1/how-k-pop-is-responding-to-cultural-appropriation
[3] Heng, A. (2021, November 8). Let’s Rethink Chinoiserie and Cultural Appropriation. Chinosity. https://www.chinosity.com/2021/09/09/lets-rethink-chinoiserie-and-cultural-appropriation/
[4] Karim, N. (2021, July 18). Dreamcatchers are not your “aesthetic.” The Indigenous Foundation. https://www.theindigenousfoundation.org/articles/dreamcatchers#:%7E:text=Nevertheless%2C%20the%20appropriation%20of%20dreamcatchers,unobtainable%20by%20non%2DNative%20cultures
[5] Spencer, M. (2018). The Chinoiserie Paradox: Fashion Creating the Self Through the “Other.” Compass: The Gallatin Research Journal. https://wp.nyu.edu/compass/2018/04/24/the-chinoiserie-paradox-fashion-creating-the-self-through-the-other/#:~:text=Chinoiserie%2C%20a%20tentacle%20of%20Oriental,Chinese%20decor%20presuppose%20this%20immensely
[6] Xie, Y., Hussin, R. B., & Mohd Noor, A. L. B. (2021). The Design Method of “Semiosis” in Interior Furnishing Design. Art and Design Review, 09(03), 254–262. https://doi.org/10.4236/adr.2021.93020
