Nylon Pink? The name sounds edgy and punk doesn't it? I was a little curious when I first saw "Fwd: ***Alll Girl*** Asian Electro Rock band launches first music video!" on the subject heading of an e-mail I received from a friend. My thought process went something like "Electro rock and an ALL female Asian band? Cool, Represent, more power to them". But that went away as soon as I clicked the link to their video. I guess you can say they were going for an electro look. Sure, they were wearing nylon, lipstick, and pink colors, but the music, which is suppose to be the cornerstone of any band, was as synthetic as their name states and they were not an ALL GIRL crew.
The band starts off with lead singer Kaila Yu who also made an appearance in Fast and Furious 3 Tokyo Drift. Now a lot of you who fancy the import cars may also recognize the Taiwanese American from a car show or some JDM magazine. She first gained her notoriety as a car model and then moved on to be a Playboy model (no surprise there). The rest of the band members include DJ Shy on keyboards and turntables, Kit.E.Katt on bass, Theresa Houston on guitar, and rounding out with a Y chromosome carrier, drummer TJ McDonnell . Now each of these individuals personal accomplishments are not bad in their own right, but they just don't work well together as a unit. It's sort of like taking different types of candy and mushing them into one giant blob of icky.
I watched their music video for their single, Lipstick and although it may be okay to look at for a sec, something about it just didn't sit well with me besides Kaila's extreme use of an auto-tune throughout the entire song. They just seemed to reinforce the stereotypical Harajuku-cute-edgey-seductive Asian girl that you would see in the typical Hollywood portrayal of Asian women, such as Fast and Furious 3 Tokyo Drift. Now, I'm all for female empowerment, but not when it back tracks and labels people into boxes. Their Girl Power falls short because first off, contrary to the deceiving e-mail header I got, not every member is female (now The Spice Girls, they were Girl Power!). The video also brought to mind the notion of the "Dragon Lady", which has been a misogynistic stereotype of Asian women since the 1930s. For example, there's a part where they prey upon this white dude, led by their ferocious pack leader Kaila. Kaila brings the seduction, hyper sex appeal, and domineering prowess to subdue the unsuspecting hipster and orders her gang to beat him to the ground. Even her physical appearance sort of channeled a dragon-esque image with her dramatic, villainess makeup and metallic wings. Coincidence or maybe the UCLA Econ grad knew exactly what she was doing?
I commend their efforts and even give them kudos to the video because it was produced well, but the overall message fails to send a positive message to the APIA community and the society at large, not to mention the music scene. Now, I'm sure they'll appeal to a specific niche, like aspiring car models and people with Asian fetishes, but I don't think that it'll be enough to keep the band afloat.
Check out Nylon Pink's video, Lipstick
For more info. on the band visit them at myspace.com/nylonpink
