New Coldplay and Beyoncé ‘Cultural Appropriation’ Video Gets Ripped To Shreds By Social Media
Coldplay and Beyoncé certainly thought that by teaming up for a music video for the song “Hymn for the Weekend,'” everybody would be excited. Well, the media that seems to fawn over every move Beyoncé makes certainly appears to be excited. Here’s a description of the video from Us Weekly.
“Queen Bey, 34, wears a gold flower crown and low-cut shimmering dress bedazzled with jewels for the video. To polish off the Bollywood-inspired look, the scene-stealer draped herself in chains and wore a choker necklace and henna.”
However, many in the comments section after the article aren’t having it.
“I like coldplay and beyonce but they definitely exaggerated and exploited this culture to the fullest. The video is a compact of cheerful visual wonderland through the westerners eyes of what a place like India is like,” claims Justine.
“She and her suck-up minions are trying to make her into a “queen”! She is NOTHING of the sort! A queen conducts herself with grace and dignity, beyonce has NEITHER!” says KISSFreak.
The biggest problem people seem to have with the video is that they think it’s another perfect example of cultural appropriation. Gossip Cop describes the controversy.
“Beyoncé and Coldplay are being accused on Twitter of appropriating Indian culture in the music video for their new collaboration song, ‘Hymn For The Weekend.’ The video, which was filmed in Mumbai, features the band performing in the streets during a Holi festival while Beyonce in decked out in elaborate Indian garb.”
People have been chiming in with comments after the article.
“She commits cultural appropriations each and every day with that stringy blonde hair,” Shani says.
“Well they kind of have a point. When whites wear dreads they get accused of appropriately blacks. Beyonce isn’t Indian so why is she appropriating Indian garb. This is now the politically correct world we’re living in that everything will now be deemed racist,” adds Abequa234.
Perhaps Coldplay thought they could get away with the video, especially because Beyoncé seems to have a golden touch with the media, even when she sometimes misses the mark. But, the controversy could also be a complete publicity stunt. After all, not only has Coldplay’s album A Head Full of Dreams flopped down the Billboard 200 album chart (currently No. 38), but the album itself has received very mixed, but mostly negative reviews.
“Coldplay’s seventh album A Head Full of Dreams is insufferably bland at best and downright offensive at worst,” claims Scott Dransfield of Under The Radar.
Many critics and listeners consider Beyoncé’s appearance on the song “Hymn For The Weekend” a move of desperation from a band that used to be able to stand on its own. It’s not all over for Coldplay, though. The band will be headlining the Super Bowl Halftime Show on February 7. The halftime show usually helps the performing band, but sometimes backfires. Perhaps Coldplay will remind viewers why they loved the band in the first place.
[Photo by Clemens Bilan/Getty Images]
