hot doody: avril lavigne releases video for single 'hello kitty'

[VCRClock]

big ups to CANADA and CHAD KROEGER (did you know she married chad kroeger) for makin this possible

so anyway

what's the shortest length of rope you can buy at home depot

[pop-tart]

SUING VCR FOR PAIN AND SUFFERING AND PUNITIVE DAMAGES AND STUFF

[RobClock]

I wonder if it hurts to be this much of a shill

[Losperman]

I love this song, but the video is fucking terrible. It seriously look like she had 4 hours of free time while she toured Japan so they were like "let's film you walking around and dancing with almost no energy or choreography and call it a video! Yeah!" She has never had very good music videos, though.

[I1I1I1I1I1I1I11111I1I1I1IIIIIII1I1I1I1I11I]

c-c-c-c-cute WUBWUBWUBWUB

[FLOUNDERMAN_CLOCK]

bitch you aint kyary what the fuck are you doing.

[BilliardBall10]

despite my honest hate/dislike to avril lavigne due to her stupid attitude/behavior, i have to admit: she has a nice face/looks.

oh, and the video is a bit dull.

[AstronautClock]

the video is removed lolololololol

also I would bang avril lavigne

[Fax Clock]

ew, girls

[RobClock]

[miracle fruit]

the video is removed lolololololol

lmfao

[Losperman]

The video was removed because it wasn't an official upload. And I haven't seen a valid argument about why it's racist. It's shitty, totally, but racist? I'm not sure I see how.

[VCRClock]

forgive the wall of text

I'm not gonna watch the video again to pick it apart, but off the top of my head:

- use of japanese words/phrases is cringe-inducing (even "mr. roboto" is more palatable)
- avril's backup dancers look like they were required to all look the same/act emotionless & robotic. they're sorta like props... more so than backup dancers usually are. I dunno if they were supposed to lend "actual japanese person" credibility to the video, but they do kind of a weak job if so
- video attempts to boil japanese culture down to one-dimensional concern with "cuteness" (yo did i mention avril's japanese is over-the-top bad) without, y'know, actually engaging with it, or incorporating any organic products of japanese culture (even hello kitty herself is suspiciously missing!) -- it looks as if it was created in a laboratory (or, like you said, banged out in four hours) based on some north american's idea of how japan is supposed to be

words are failing me. I might be able to identify some more solid problems to latch on to, but I really don't want to watch that video another time. it's just not a video that should have been made in 2014. if we're to put aside how dumb the song itself is, the worst part of the video is probably the fake-ass backup dancers filling in for a japan that's not really present. but I think the song is flawed to begin with - it feels like it's without substance, some sort of weird western cash-in on the aura, but not even the substance, of japanese cultural capital. it's not just that avril lavigne is some white chick cavorting around in japan wrecking shit, because as silly as this is going to sound, I think intergalactic is a video with fewer inherent problems. it's a more genuine tribute to a japanese cultural product, even if it is of western origin. maybe it's that "intergalactic" has something of a detached reverence - like the beastie boys are not going over there and acting like they run the show. or it could just be that "intergalactic" isn't a song that treats japanese like it's coolbabble and japan like it's the sanrio store. it's not costume-shop geishas and it's not mickey rooney in "breakfast at tiffany's," but it is a one-dimensional caricature of japan that doesn't let the culture speak for itself.

[AstronautClock]

The video was removed because it wasn't an official upload. And I haven't seen a valid argument about why it's racist. It's shitty, totally, but racist? I'm not sure I see how.

its racist because shes white. so who is really being racist

[FLOUNDERMAN_CLOCK]

The video was removed because it wasn't an official upload. And I haven't seen a valid argument about why it's racist. It's shitty, totally, but racist? I'm not sure I see how.

Japan exploits our culture way more anyways, and they think it's funny when we do dumb shit with their culture like how we think it's funny when they do the same with ours.

[Losperman]

Japan exploits our culture way more anyways, and they think it's funny when we do dumb shit with their culture like how we think it's funny when they do the same with ours.

This.

AS much as I love Gwen Stefani, I can see how her having four Harijuku Girls follow her around like dolls can seem racist. In that case they do seem to be acting as props or fashion accessories. I don't feel like that's the case here.

[VCRClock]

Japan exploits our culture way more anyways, and they think it's funny when we do dumb shit with their culture like how we think it's funny when they do the same with ours.

OK, but we've got a media reach Japan doesn't have. There's a wide range of US media representing the US that everybody watches, but there's a much smaller audience for Japanese representations of Japan. Similarly, US representations of Japan get more play than Japanese representations of the US. Nobody gets the wrong idea about the US as a result of their exposure to Japanese media, except maybe Japanese people. The reverse is not true. Plus Commodore Perry Orientalism World War II die cis scum.

I agree that a lot of people on both sides have a sense of humor about how much Japan and the West lazily/inaccurately represent one another, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't avoid it when it's painfully easy to do so. Unless it's obviously satire. The video didn't make me mad, it just made me disappointed. A little tact is all I'm asking. Ms. Lavigne.

Sorry to be this guy.

[PezClock]

This is not mature, to go on twitter and write LOLOLOLOLOL makes me just boil. Worst part is it's in caps.

BTW, she ain't mature.

[miracle fruit]

^
LOLOLOLOLOL!!

[Losperman]

but that doesn't mean we shouldn't avoid it when it's painfully easy to do so.

But, as she pointed out, it was a Japanese creative team behind the video. So I think it was more like she showed up and her Japanese label had organized a video shoot that they thought would make her Japanese fans happy, and she went along with it. She has never seemed the type to be sensitive about doing whatever her labels want, even if she acts rebellious.