A new music video released Friday from Coldplay has set off a discussion online about cultural appropriation.
The band’s video for their song “Hymn for the Weekend” featuring Beyonce, which was filmed in Mumbai last fall, heavily features Indian culture.
In the video, footage of Coldplay lead singer Chris Martin in various taxis around the city are interspersed with shots of civilians living their daily lives. The band members perform on the streets during a Holi festival, covered in colored powder and Beyonce appears in the video wearing traditional Indian clothing and sporting henna tattoos. Bollywood actress Sonam Kapoor also makes a brief appearance.
Reactions to the video online were mixed, with some saying that the video shows an appreciation for Indian culture.
But others have argued that it crosses the line from appreciation to appropriation.
This is not the first time Coldplay has come under fire for using other cultures as background imagery for their music videos. The music video for the band's song “Princess of China” was also called "misguided" after its release in 2012.
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