Avril Lavigne releases a new song ‘Hello Kitty’: Watch it here!

Pop punk singer-artiste, Avril Lavigne, has caused controversy with her latest single ‘Hello Kitty’ which apparently reduces Japanese culture to a bunch of stereotypes.

Updated: April 25, 2014 3:00 PM IST

By Amanda Monteiro

Avril Lavigne releases a new song ‘Hello Kitty’: Watch it here!

Avril Lavigne releases a new song ‘Hello Kitty’: Watch it here!

Pop punk singer-artiste Avril Lavigne has caused controversy with her latest single Hello Kitty which apparently reduces Japanese culture to a bunch of stereotypes.

So the singer takes a different direction with Hello Kitty, and it is clearly seen in the video where she puts on a tutu with every possible colour, ever. She then proceeds to utter vague Japanese phrases while commanding a quartet of backup dancers, who all dress the same. She even dances with her guitar, and the heads to have some sushi and sake, prepared specially by a chef who is probably the only one less enthused about this whole idea, as we are. Later, she walks down a street in Tokyo and waves, as the backup dancers continue to do their thing.

Oh, and let’s not forget the song. It begins quite abruptly, with random Japanese words like ‘kawaii’ being thrown all over the place. Then Avril describes a sleepover, mentioning ‘truth or dare’ and ‘jumping around in underwear’ – what? But the key part of the song was the chorus, it was dubstep! The genre of the song is as confusing as the video itself.

The ‘Hello Kitty’ music video debuted on Tuesday, but a short while later it was not found on Youtube. Then a spokesperson for Avril said that the video was never posted (huh?) and was going to go up the next day. A representative for the video site, in the mean time, said that the video was not taken down, but it was only pulled from public viewing. Since then, the video is back and has received more ‘dislikes’ than ‘likes’.

Needless to say, the song and video content was accused as being offensive and racist. Propagating stereotypes that all Asian women look the same, or choosing locations like a candy store or a sushi restaurant, all point to the seemingly offensive nature. The video has been called the epitome of ‘Japan fetishization’.

Besides this, there were direction comparisons to Gwen Stefani, who also uses a quartet of backup dancers called the Harajuku Girls, in tours and music videos.

Avril said that besides being “flirtatious and somewhat sexual” the song was about her attraction towards the Hello Kitty franchise. As soon as the criticism began, fans of the singer came out in support.

But later, Lavigne said that the video was shot in Japan, with a Japanese director and actors, who would have known if she was being racist through the video, or not. And there are many forums which have Japanese people actually justifying her video, saying that Japan does have everything the video describes, from candy stores to people who dress up like the backup dancers. Some even argue that this is what a foreigner would see in the country, and this is what Japan shows to the world.

All in all, though there is no doubt that Avril really does love Japan and Hello Kitty, the way she keeps throwing that in our faces is sure to make us dislike the new song and video, if not just mindlessly brand it racist.

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