Pop Orientalism

by W. Anthony Sheppard

NOTE: Here we post Tony Sheppard’s recent TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) talk “Pop Orientalism: Tin Pan Alley to Taiwan Today.” (Wikipedia entry on TED and TEDx HERE.) The talk considers musical representations of East Asians and of Asian music from the late nineteenth century to 2013, touching on examples from minstrelsy, to Katy Perry’s “Unconditionally” performance at the American Music Awards, to music videos by the East Asian megastar Wang Leehom, offering some shoutouts to fellow musicologists along the way.

W. Anthony Sheppard is editor of the Journal of the American Musicological Society and professor and department chair at Williams College.