Jamie Reidy wonders if there is as much racial prejudice within Rock & Roll as there is in basketball.
Linsanity and the revelation that Jeremy Lin is one of the first Asian-Americans to play in the NBA reminded me of another popular industry lacking in Asian-American representation: Rock & Roll.
In this completely unscientific poll, I will rank the biggest Asian-American rockers.
1) Todd Park Mohr. Who? Exactly. The half-Korean Mohr is better known as the large cranium-ed leader of Big Head Todd and The Monsters. I first heard of this Colorado band in 1991, thanks to two Notre Dame classmates who transferred to the U of C for a semester in our junior year. (They nearly didn’t return to ND, thanks to the more, uh, accommodating drug and sex attitudes in Boulder.) One of my friends played guitar and sang in a band; through that vehicle, he shared “Bittersweet” with us. I’ve been a fan ever since. In fact, I saw my first live BHT show this past June in Hermosa Beach and came away incredibly impressed with Todd’s guitar-playing.
2) James Iha. The Smashing Pumpkins’ cofounder and guitarist is 100% Japanese. Some music aficionado pals of mine suggested that Iha be ranked in the top spot, but it’s tough to pass up another band’s namesake. Also, the fact that James Iha never seems to smile annoys me.
3) Mike Shinoda. Rock/Rap fans will recognize the name of the Linkin Park guitarist of Japanese descent. No, he is not the guy who screams.
And that’s it.
Journey’s new lead singer does not count, since he is from the Philippines, not South Detroit. But his Hollywood-worthy story begs the question: shouldn’t the Internet have helped more Asian-American kids get discovered?
William Hung does not count, either. Insert joke, here.
Interestingly, I.M. Pei designed the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. Iha’s Smashing Pumpkins has an outside chance of getting in, but I doubt it.
There are way more Wok-n-Roll sushi joints in America than Asian-American rock-n-roll stars.
I wanna know why that is the case.
Is the Jeremy Lin of rock playing till his fingers bleed in a Midwestern garage or a southern basement? I hope so.
—AP Photo/Chris Pizzello
About Jamie Reidy
Some are listed here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Asian_Americans#Music
There are also others who are half such as Kirk Hammett of Metallica.
Half mixed or less than 100 percent shouldn’t be included in that list…not that makes them any less talented or denying them of their Asian heritage; but listing them as Asian is deceiving —because the fact is that, we visualize Asians as having uniquely Asian features; well at least I do! Also, this is how we classify minority groups or recognize them, is by their ethnic appearance.
The topic of this article is asking where are all the Asian American Rockers. The problem with that list is that, it does not stick to just mainstream bands or artists — it includes people in symphonies, composers, music critics and so on! Furthermore, majority of them are biracial or tri-racial etc, so the regular person would never identify or recognize them as “Asian”.
I had no idea Ne-Yo’s mother was African-American with Chinese descent and his father is Nigerian. Chinese genes are not dominate…I would just see him as a black person. The list included Enrique Inglesias! LOL. He looks nothing Asian. He sings in English and Spanish, not Taglog (mother is Filipino). That list is misleading and does very little to prove that we have Asian rockers in America. The closest one in that whole list would be: “Far East Movement also has the distinction of being the first Asian-American group to earn a top ten hit on the Mainstream Pop charts in the United States”. I have a peeve with them wearing sunglasses, ALL the time…seems to me, they are trying to hide their Asian eyes!
The western culture is very judgmental…you’d need a very big EGO to succeed…often times, you don’t even need talent — just need a huge ego…which trait is often found in extroverts. Asians of all people are probably the least to have egos. (Buddhism teaches enlightenment and living without ego.) Aside from ego, there are some fields/entertainment/sports turfs still seen as strictly “American” aka white or black; not open to other ethnicity. We could also ask “where are all the Indian-American rockers?” There are still a lot of stereotypes to overcome; once this happens, then mainstream people will embrace a wider-range of entertainers, in turn encourage and open opportunities for dreams to come true.
Check out Jimmy Wong’s song “Ching Chong” (on youtube) in response to the racist rant by UCLA’s Alexandra Wallace…so hilarious!
Black-Eyed Peas: Allen Pineda Lindo, Jr. (half-Filipino)
Atomic Tom: Eric Espiritu (the band that presumably had their musical instruments stolen and had to play on the subway with their iPhones)
asian power! haha.. thanks for the shout out.
also, little known fact… the Van Halen brothers (Alex and Eddie Van Halen) are half indonesian.
Just looked it up, Eric. Turns out the VH brothers are a 1/4 Indonesian (their mom is half).
But I didn’t know they had any Asian blood. Cool fact!