Gwen Stefani Addresses ‘Harajuku Girls’ Era Against Cries of Cultural Appropriation

In 2004, Gwen Stefani released her album Love. Angel. Music. Baby., and the project will celebrate its 15th anniversary on Nov. 23. During the press cycle for the album, Stefani promoted the project by traveling with four Japanese and Japanese American backup dancers dubbed the Harajuku Girls, a concept that some people feel has not aged well.

During a new interview with Billboard, Stefani reflected on her decision to cast the dancers, explaining that she created the mini entourage as part of the overall vision of the project.

“When it first came out, I think people understood that it was an artistic and literal bow down to a culture that I was a superfan of,” she said. “This album was like a dream. I went in thinking I’m going to make something that could never be possible — me doing a dance record -‚ come true. It was almost like a joke, because I thought that could never happen to me. So it was my fantasy. When the Harajuku Girls came out, it was like, you’re not even real, you’re a dream. It wasn’t like, ‘You’re not real because you’re Asian.’ Are you kidding me? That would be horrifying!”

The 50-year-old added that she felt truly connected with Japanese culture and wanted to share that love with the concept of her album, which features a song titled “Harajuku Girls.”

“When you’re from Anaheim and never traveled outside of your city until you’re 21 years old, it was really crazy to go to Japan,” she said. “When I got there and saw how fashion-obsessed they were, I thought they were my people, because my style was so unique. I get a little defensive when people [call it culture appropriation], because if we didn’t allow each other to share our cultures, what would we be? You take pride in your culture and have traditions, and then you share them for new things to be created.”

“When people asked me about it during radio interviews, I told them this was all a concept and we were having fun,” Stefani continued. “By the way, the girls were cast to be dancers — that’s all. We went to Nobu in London and we talked about the concept of the record and I showed them my style bible. Judging by their own personalities, I called them ‘Love,’ ‘Angel,’ ‘Music’ and ‘Baby.’ It was like we were creating a group together.”

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