Alternate Universe 06: Danger of Girlbossing

Reviewing LISA's ROCKSTAR

Hi there. Welcome to Active Faults.

A friend sent me something last week with the following message: “I’m a bit uncomfortable watching this. Giving Orientalism and Egotism. Do you get me?” Half asleep and bleary-eyed, I finished watching ex-Blackpink’s LISA’s new music video, ROCKSTAR, in that precise state of mild discomfort and confusion as to what exactly was the key messaging. 

Let’s nitpick exactly why we had the ick. 

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We are immediately transported to a dark and soggy back alley, saved by dim neon signs written in Thai, English and Chinese. LISA appears in cyberpunk-ish streetwear, black fabrics cut out in all the right places to complement her figure and choreography. The first verse flows out:

Gold teeth sittin' on the dash, she a rockstar

Make your favorite singer wanna rap, baby, la, la

"Lisa, can you teach me Japanese?" I said「はい、はい」

That's my life, life, baby, I'm a rockstar

Here, I squinted for the first time. What’s with the (multiple) Japanese references if she’s Thailand-born (“BKK so pretty”, to use her exact words) and a South Korea-made idol trying to penetrate the Euroamerican markets? Sure, you can always interpret it as a casual, routine flaunt of her global influence and fanbase. Some fans of LISA even take it to the height of informed political activism, that ROCKSTAR is implicitly criticising Westerners’ racist inability or reluctance to tell Asians apart. I, for one, don’t think it was a jab at all. 

If anything, I feel like ROCKSTAR is dangerously homogenising Asian music, femininity and pop culture to orchestrate an enticing spectacle for Western consumption. The next scene features LISA wearing a vaguely ethnic headscarf in front of a Dune-coded backdrop, leading an entourage of identically dressed Asian dancers. She was distinctive in the lot of them - another jab at face blindness? Or a deliberate emphasis on her beauty that’s essentially solipsistic and narcissistic?