Let's get this straight, yes--Gwen Stefani, a famous well known singer from America DOES have four girls who are called "The Harajuku Girls" follow her around constantly, she DID name them Love, Angel, Music, and Baby which happen to not be their real names, and she DOES in fact not let them speak in public. When first hearing these things you probably think "what the hell?That's not right at all..it's as if their just robots or something!" Well atleast that is what I thought when I first heard of it. After long thought, some research, and comments from other people whom I asked their opinion for, I have ve
ry much changed my mind on the situation. It is not so much a negative insult to the people of Japan that actually live and experience Harajuku life, but instead, shows a woman with a serious passion (maybe even obsession) for their culture. It is then argued that perhaps she is in it for the money and her obsession for this culture is just a big scandal. There are many people out there who are very interested in the Harajuku lifestyle but you do not see them making money off of it do you? They are just sincerely interested in it. Maybe Gwen is just as interested in it as these people. Who is anybody to judge her for being a greedy person who is only it for the money, when they do not actually know her personally? That would infact be an assumption about her, not a real fact.It has been said that Gwen is perhaps showcasing these girls as something that is false. Some people believe that it makes every Harajuku girls look as if they follow around a blond 24/7 and are completely mindless. People are making a HUGE deal over Gwen somwhat falsely showing Harajuku culture. It's not as if Japanese culture hasn't mad a few mistakes on other culture before. For example on this site, http://www.engrish.com/faq.php#Q1 it shows many examples of mistakes that have been made about North American culture by Japanese culture.
Definition of Engrish:
Engrish can be simply defined as the humorous English mistakes that appear in Japanese advertising and product design.
So if people in general--no matter where they're from, make mistakes on a culture other than their own, it shows that atleast they are getting involved in that different culture and are attempting to learn things about it, even IF they do not fully get the concept. Gwen is doing exactly that. She is curious, and so adoring over the Harajuku lifestyle, that she is incorporating into her music and by doing so, it is being misinterpreted as being rude, racist, and ridiculous.
In Gwen's song "Harajuku girls" she basically sounds like she worships them and everything they do."Harajuku girls, you got the wicked style -- I like the way that you are -- I am your biggest fan, oh." I don't know about you, but that doesn't sound like she's putting them down or degrating them in any way. It sounds as if she just truly loves them a lot. If Gwen made a song about how horrible they are, then yes, that would be wrong, but what in the world is wrong with someone showing adoration about something they are passionate about?When did that become a crime? Is she not allowed to appreciate another culture?
So what about Love, Angel, Music, and Baby? Are they being severely hurt by all this? Absolutely not. They couldn't be happier. Money, Fame, Friendship, Dancing with Gwen Stefani --that just about sums it up. We don't see them walking away and being disgusted with all of this. They aren't often critisized about what they are portraying, only Gwen Stefani is being talked about for her being "racist".
Without Gwen having these four girls in our lifestyle, would anyone REALLY know what Harajuku lifestyle is? Would many people try and find out about it and be interested in it? Probably not. It is because of Gwen Stefani that we heard about them. It does not fully mean that we think all Harajuku people are just like Love, Angel, Music, and Baby but it gave us a taste of something new in this world that we could now perhaps find out more about. It was only a buliding block to learning about a new facinating, unique, culture which we would not have known anything about without Gwen introducing them, may it be a completly 100% true way of showing them or not.
Lol..there is a point to watching this video, takes a while to get to the specific part, but the Harajuku girls do actually talk in this video all together.
Woks Cited.
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unknown. "Gwen Stefani"No date.Online image.photobucket images. 9 April 2008.
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unknown. Tian's Blog. 25 Mar. 2008. 9 Apr. 2008
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unknown. "wen Stefan" No date.Online image. google images.9 April 2008. >
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