Boom Go the Bombs, Boom Goes the Bass

It is now common knowledge that the upper echelons of the Bush Administration ignored warnings of the 9/11 attacks. But the resulting devastation continues to expand. Bush Junior's War on Terrorism, like his father's Gulf War, has shifted the attention of even the most apolitical Americans towards the so-called "third world." Palestine and Israel, India and Pakistan, Saddam Hussein and Oil Sanctions, and, of course, Afghanistan, have been sent straight to the forefront of the news agenda. Such heightened interest has created a strong market for the sounds and sights of these regions, so it is not surprising that U.S. music producers are finding ways to pillage the "third world" for material.

Of course, Americans are not going to pounce on the latest Dahler Mehndi or Reda Darwish albums, but by appropriating the cultural assets of the "foreign" lands from which these musical styles originate, a new (to much of the "first world") aesthetic has been applied to established Western formulas. The creators of this "new mix" are viewed in turn as having "discovered" an "exotic" or "different" sound. They set imperialism to a new bass-heavy beat, claiming traditional "third world" art forms as hot commodities.

The aural and visual epitome of this "new beat" is the Henna-soaked music video entitled "Addictive" by Truth Hurts, featuring Rakim. DJ Quik produced the song, sampling traditional Hindi music. Although the track is centered on sounds from India, the video features choreographed belly dancing: a Middle Eastern dance form. This odd combination is indicative of a typically totalizing Western mentality: India, the Middle East, what's the difference? The entire "third world" is one big backwards and "underdeveloped" wasteland, right? Wrong, but such assumptions are embedded into every note, chant, beat, image, and dance in "Addictive," relying on the romantic notion that the Middle East and India are inherently mystical and sexy, as if everyone studies the Kama Sutra, practices Tantric Sex, rides magic carpets, and belly dances naked in the moonlight.

While the video's "exoticism" may seem exciting to the average Westerner, who's more used to grinding and grabbing on the dance floor, it comes with imperialist undertones. "Addictive" paints a Westernized Middle East, offering a luxurious palace-turned-nightclub, full of beautiful models slinking and gyrating sexily on the dance floor, in "ethnic," sequined costumes and Henna.

Such seductive images become increasingly politically significant in a time when the dominant (that is, U.S.) media images from the Middle East and India feature decontextualized violence and aggression. Because of these images, many confused and terror-paranoid Americans view the Middle East not as a region with its own history and concerns, but as a vast, evil, anti-American terror network, unhindered by geographical bounds and hell-bent on destroying democracy forever. In that sense, by collapsing the two, "Addictive" convolutes and expands the boundaries of "evil" by making India part of an "anti-American terror network." After all, expanding "boundaries" is what the War on Terrorism is all about, as Ashcroft and Bush know all too well.

This is not to say that Truth Hurts is some secret agent working for the U.S. government, but that representation is always political. Even the average pole-greasing stripper will refer to herself as an "Exotic Dancer," exposing underlying attitudes towards non-Western culture. It is because of these attitudes that the average American can feel magically sexy, dancing in a club to the "forbidden," "risqué" sounds of a faraway "foreign" land like India, even when almost all of those people have no idea what is being said in the song. For them, it simply does not matter how the lyrics translate, only what preconceptions are embedded in the sound.