Commentary
Musical Miscalculation
The Lopez Cultural Identity Crisis
By Lamaretta Simmons
 | Illustration by Wilson T. Widjaja |
I am not completely clear on the definition of moral opposition, but that is probably because I am not morally opposed to much. However, recently, while video watching I was shocked to find that the once progressive music industry has again regressed to mere modified race baiting.
I'll get to the real point, but first hear this: Music is universal, and no generation has proven the arbitrariness and transitory value of music genres and categorizations as emphatically as the MTV generation. This is a good thing. It is within this generation that we have seen rock and rap collide in a beautiful display of musical rebirth. We have seen Method Man perform with Fred Durst, Run DMC with Aerosmith, Gwen Stefani and Eve, Eminem and Elton John. However, despite the wonderful collaborations and wide acceptance of all types of music amongst the races, there are still those moments when artistic expression leads to nothing more than simple marketing greed, not to mention a faux pas of near calamity - genre and racial stereotyping. There, I said it, yes, I did.
Let me take to you to what prompted me to talk about this. It was Jennifer Lopez. While I have nothing against her personally, I think she brings another meaning to the term straddling-the-fence.
I am absolutely baffled that Lopez has two videos for the same damned song!!! Oh, a clever and lucrative marketing ploy I am sure, nevertheless, it smacks of music genre stereotyping with just a dash of racial innuendo.
Let me explain: The song, "I'm Real," by the lovely Latina gone astray, has two different audio and video productions. The original song: pop-like, fast-paced with a bit of attitude. The original video concept: Jennifer Lopez - dressed as a tough but beautiful motorcycle mamma - rides into a small Midwestern town (well, I assume it's Midwestern: there are tractors, nothing but white folk and a lot of wheat), only to perform a concert in the middle of a wheat field. And that is just what my memory has failed to expunge. Here's where the trouble comes. Jennifer, with her long blonde ponytails, and her white, slightly provocative biker suit, dances on stage in front of an all-white crowd, with her rapper buddy Ja-rule, chewing hay.
NOW: turn the dial to BET, where we see a much more toned down, girl-around-the-way, Jennifer, singing "I'm Real," in a much more sultry, rhythmic, R&B way. And this time, her sidekick Ja-Rule's raps are actually heard. Jennifer: hair pulled back in a bun, large door-knocker hoop-earring, wearing white sneakers, no socks, and what appears to be a terry-cloth short set that would fit in in any "'hood." The setting: an urban neighborhood where all the extras appear black or Latino, Jennifer standing at the steel fence of her one-story home, around the corner from where she ends up, a basketball court - where we know all black men hang out. RIGHT?
And then there is the N-word. Yes, "nigger." She says it in the remixed, BET version, although, it is bleeped. She does not say it in her original pop version. Well, I think we know which version is for which audience.
Who the hell thought that video watchers were so brain dead as to not be uncomfortable with these two obviously opposing video concepts? They obviously play on the marketing world's unproven theorem that urban music followers will not watch the Brittany Spears version of "I'm real," but we will, having seen it first, forget about it and be placated by a rendition of the song targeting the most polarized view of urban/hip hop vs. pop culture.
MTV, BET, as well as urban radio all picked up on the second hip-hop version of "I'm real," and I must say I scarcely hear the original version of the song. This proves without a doubt that a lot of money was spent on a sociological miscalculation and just exposes the fact that the second version should have been the original.
I have no desire for Jennifer Lopez, or any other entertainer to present themself differently depending on who's watching. I don't want Jennifer wearing "urban clothes," with an exaggerated urban New York accent when she visits BET, and yet she's decked out in Anna Sui on VH1. That is transparent and demoralizing. All it does is undo the remarkable gains that have been made in the world of music and entertainment concerning diversity. Oh, wait, diversity isn't cool these days, is it - I mean ... cultural congregation...?
I look back fondly, though glad it has gone, on times when hip hop artists couldn't have paid to have their video played on MTV, or any other mass distributed video show. They, with all their vigor and innovative lyrics and rib shaking beats and samples, instead were relegated to BET, the station known for its backing of black music. But they never changed to fit in. They were eventually accepted because they were original, and musically talented. That's real, and real music lovers know it.
Let us not forget that despite the miraculous and often sonically blissful merging of the genres, the music industry is still run by a lot of tone-deaf, offbeat, suit-and-tie guys, who, alas, are not real.
Word to Jennifer: do your music, honey. Forget the marketing schemes and get "real."
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