Content Consumed: Coachella, Gwen Stefani, and more
Hey hey! Happy Tuesday. I hope you’re all having a good one. I know I am—Content Consumed just hit 300 followers on Medium! Huge stuff.
Thank you so much for following me; it really means a lot for me to have Content Consumed as a creative outlet that people genuinely engage with!
In today’s edition…
🎡 Coachella’s 2023 lineup: a dud?
😬 Gwen Stefani just claimed to be Japanese
👗 Q’s I have about Dakota Johnson’s Gucci ad
Thoughts on the just-released Coachella lineup
I like to think of myself as a rational, sane person. This is why I am not attending Coachella this year (nor have I ever attended). I understand the appeal; I do not understand the financial sacrifice.
Anyways! The 2023 lineup just dropped. The headliners include:
- Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny
- K-pop girl group BLACKPINK
- R&B crooner Frank Ocean
It’s a smart lineup with genre-crossing, international flair. It appeals to audiences Coachella might not have had before, specifically Latinx music lovers and K-pop fans.
Other artists I’d be interested in seeing that exist in this lineup: Rosalía, Gorillaz, Noname, Kali Uchis, Calvin Harris, and…
That’s about it.
Either I’m supremely out of touch or there’s not the usual list of uber-recognizable names this year. Certainly not like 2022’s lineup, which I did consider shelling out my savings on (Harry Styles, Billie Eilish, and The Weeknd all headlined, but I also knew every single Tier 2 name).
Check out the full lineup here.
Gwen Stefani: “I’m Japanese”
So, Allure interviewed Gwen Stefani. Here’s how the Allure author (an Asian American woman) began the article:
Fourteen years after the debut of her Harajuku Lovers fragrance collection, we asked Gwen Stefani about the praise, the backlash, and the lessons she’s brought into her most recent beauty venture. What she said stunned us.
What did she say?!
That she’s Japanese. Multiple times.
As an interviewer, I’d be pretty stunned too! Stefani has spent years appropriating other cultures and getting backlash for it, but continuing to do it.
“I said, ‘My God, I’m Japanese and I didn’t know it.’” As those words seemed to hang in the air between us, she continued, “I am, you know.”
I’m desperate to know if Gwennie knows the definition of “ethnicity”, or even “race”.
Maybe she misspoke? Again and again? During our interview, Stefani asserted twice that she was Japanese and once that she was “a little bit of an Orange County girl, a little bit of a Japanese girl, a little bit of an English girl.”
It is 2023, and Gwen Stefani still doesn’t understand cultural appropriation, or race, or ethnicity, or AAPI stereotypes or realities, or seemingly anything—and refuses to learn, either. Oh, to be that sheltered. What a life she must live.
Dakota Johnson Gucci ad heralds a new age
Miss Dakota Johnson just starred in a Gucci video for the Jackie 1961 bag, and to quote one Twitter user:
It’s giving early days of Instagram, Valencia filter, Zooey Deschanel, Tumblr, indie twee.
And the print ad to go along with the video?
It’s giving $25 Target dress from 2011, mismatched unfashionable chaos, Lilly Pulitzer, wannabe srat girl.
So, what’s the deal here? What is Gucci telling us with the grainy IG filter, the hideous clothing, the choppy pap-like edit, the emo indie song in the background, SoCal fan cam vibes?
I trust Dakota Johnson. Usually.
So hey, if we’re reverting to 2011, I’m in. I just need to dust off my frilly sundresses, oversized sunglasses, and “had a bummy day :/” Tumblr playlist, and I’ll be right there.
And that’s it for today! Thanks for reading and thanks for following. I appreciate you!
Cheers,
Casey
👉🏼 Did you catch my best of 2022 lists? Check out my favorite movies, TV shows, albums, and books of the year here.
👉🏼 Get more content over on the Content Consumed Instagram.
👉🏼 Find out what I’m reading at my Goodreads profile.
