The 2013 American Music Awards were pretty innocuous and safe, in terms of pop star antics. There was no tongue-and-twerk craziness and things were tame for prime time, network TV.
However, the broadcast was not without controversy, as Katy Perry was accused of racism after her performance of 'Unconditionally,' which featured the singer dressed as a geisha.
While we watched the perf, we were wondering if Perry, who was decked out in geisha garb, would face such allegations. Using another country's culture in a pop music performance often attracts criticism, but we were thinking that despite some vocal issues, her stage production was pretty and respectful to the culture.
Also, Perry was just in Japan and even shared photos of herself while spending time with geishas, so it's entirely possible that she have some sort of immersive experience meeting them, which in turned inspired her performance.
The Twitterverse went nuts with comments about racism.
Perry's performance doesn't appear to be racist to us. She may have co-opted elements of another culture and incorporated them into her set up, but it wasn't done in an lewd or negative way. It looked like a tribute and celebration to us.
PopCrushers and Katy Cats, we're looking at you. What do you think of Perry's geisha-style performance? Was it out of line? Was it just fine? Was it racist?
As of press time, Perry has not commented on the controversy.
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