When it comes to getting back to her ska roots with a No Doubt reunion, Gwen Stefani has said, "anything can happen." However, what's happening this week is further reflection of the artist's appropriation of Japanese culture in her music and merchandise — perhaps some she hasn't undergone herself.
First, some background: for her 2004 solo album Love. Angel. Music. Baby., Stefani was more often than not joined onstage, in music videos and at press events by a group of four Japanese backup dancers called the Harajuku Girls, each of whom had a stage name based on the pop star's LP.
Two of the Girls recently appeared in Stefani's self-referential music video for recent single "Let Me Reintroduce Myself," and outside of these real-world appearances, Stefani would centre the characters in launching her Harajuku Lovers perfume line, and animated series Kuu Kuu Harajuku that ran for three seasons.
While not the first time Stefani has faced criticism concerning cultural appropriation, a new interview with Allure finds journalist Jesa Marie Calaor recalling how the artist's Harajuku phase first "made me feel seen in a way that I never did in fashion or beauty or really any mainstream media or marketing" as a Filipina American teen in New Jersey, before further questioning the cultural commodification as an adult.
To conclude their interview, Calaor asked Stefani what she'd learned from the backlash to Harajuku Lovers, and the pop star responded with a story she previously shared about how her father's job at Yamaha placed her in proximity to Japanese culture:
"That was my Japanese influence and that was a culture that was so rich with tradition, yet so futuristic [with] so much attention to art and detail and discipline and it was fascinating to me," she said, explaining how her father (who is Italian American) would return with stories of street performers cosplaying as Elvis and stylish women with colorful hair. Then, as an adult, she was able to travel to Harajuku to see them herself. "I said, 'My God, I'm Japanese and I didn't know it.'" As those words seemed to hang in the air between us, she continued, "I am, you know." She then explained that there is "innocence" to her relationship with Japanese culture, referring to herself as a "super fan."
"If [people are] going to criticize me for being a fan of something beautiful and sharing that, then I just think that doesn't feel right," she told me. "I think it was a beautiful time of creativity… a time of the ping-pong match between Harajuku culture and American culture." She elaborated further: "[It] should be okay to be inspired by other cultures because if we're not allowed then that's dividing people, right?"
You can read Calaor's complete Allure piece here.
First, some background: for her 2004 solo album Love. Angel. Music. Baby., Stefani was more often than not joined onstage, in music videos and at press events by a group of four Japanese backup dancers called the Harajuku Girls, each of whom had a stage name based on the pop star's LP.
Two of the Girls recently appeared in Stefani's self-referential music video for recent single "Let Me Reintroduce Myself," and outside of these real-world appearances, Stefani would centre the characters in launching her Harajuku Lovers perfume line, and animated series Kuu Kuu Harajuku that ran for three seasons.
While not the first time Stefani has faced criticism concerning cultural appropriation, a new interview with Allure finds journalist Jesa Marie Calaor recalling how the artist's Harajuku phase first "made me feel seen in a way that I never did in fashion or beauty or really any mainstream media or marketing" as a Filipina American teen in New Jersey, before further questioning the cultural commodification as an adult.
To conclude their interview, Calaor asked Stefani what she'd learned from the backlash to Harajuku Lovers, and the pop star responded with a story she previously shared about how her father's job at Yamaha placed her in proximity to Japanese culture:
"That was my Japanese influence and that was a culture that was so rich with tradition, yet so futuristic [with] so much attention to art and detail and discipline and it was fascinating to me," she said, explaining how her father (who is Italian American) would return with stories of street performers cosplaying as Elvis and stylish women with colorful hair. Then, as an adult, she was able to travel to Harajuku to see them herself. "I said, 'My God, I'm Japanese and I didn't know it.'" As those words seemed to hang in the air between us, she continued, "I am, you know." She then explained that there is "innocence" to her relationship with Japanese culture, referring to herself as a "super fan."
"If [people are] going to criticize me for being a fan of something beautiful and sharing that, then I just think that doesn't feel right," she told me. "I think it was a beautiful time of creativity… a time of the ping-pong match between Harajuku culture and American culture." She elaborated further: "[It] should be okay to be inspired by other cultures because if we're not allowed then that's dividing people, right?"
You can read Calaor's complete Allure piece here.
