Rationale for why some people have issue with Tokyo Machine (Polish) using Japanese Culture for Branding
We’ll start off by saying that Tokyo Machine = Eryk Kowalczyk = Xilent, for people who are not aware.
Xilent’s social media features Eryk as himself (he is white and Polish) and his alias was established in 2009 and now has 20.3k followers on Twitter.
Tokyo Machine features Eryk obscuring his face with goggles and a mask. This has led to people assuming that the person behind a music alias that is heavily inspired by Japanese culture (e.g. making songs titled “moshi” [a greeting in Japanese] and “saikou” [roughly translated from Japanese as meaning “highest”]; having an animal mascot crew with names ending in “-chan”). This alias emerged around 2015 and notably has deals with providing music to games such as Rocket League.
For proof that Tokyo Machine is Eryk, there are screenshots and links from Shazam and ASCAP.
https://www.shazam.com/track/352244945/crazy
https://www.ascap.com/repertory#ace/search/workID/894083125
There has been discussion on Twitter about why people have an issue with this, since many people of non-Asian descent have been inspired by Japanese culture in the past. A common thread that people have pointed out is that because Monstercat actively removes comments/posts of people mentioning that Tokyo Machine is Xilent on platforms where they have the power to do that, and because Eryk hides his face and hair (which obscured his ethnicity as a side effect), people are uncomfortable of a white man having success with a brand centered around Asian culture where the logical assumption if you don’t know who they are is that they’re an Asian person.
I will quote from some Tweets that we have seen of this discussion.
I just find it laughable that a white person found success by making his entire artist alias about Japanese culture (which made me and others assume he was Asian), but Asian people find that they have to whiten their names on resumes to get job opportunities
Harvard study about it: https://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/minorities-who-whiten-job-resumes-get-more-interviews
Not to mention that I'm realizing that I find it uncomfortable that someone can "Asianify" themselves to make money, but Asian people don't get to stop being Asian at the end of a workday. With the stuff in the USA about the "China virus", I worry about racially motivated attacks
Cause I doubt if racists after 9/11 didn't know the difference betweet a Sikh and Muslim person, they're not going to know the difference between a Japanese and Chinese person.
yeah, i doubt xilent is doing it intentionally out of malice
white artists like these may have good intentions, but they end up receiving more success/recognition than members of groups that influenced them because they're disproportionately favored by the industry
Pretty much this. Also on a social scale, Asian people don't get to be Asian whenever they feel like it. I know in acting, we keep getting typecast and that sucks.
it could be argued that the usage of japanese culture is respectful, but the project misleads people to think that the person behind it is japanese
Yeah I thought he was Japanese. I mean the guy puts on a mask, googles, and a wig, and everything is Japanese related so that's an easy assumption to make. Although I remember people trying to compare skin colours to see if he was Asian and that was something
Asian culture also has some toxic aspects if you're born into it so while not every Asian person feels this way, I honestly don't feel comfortable knowing that a white person got successful off of putting on a mask, goggles, and a wig and being all like "moshi moshi, kawaii"
Just unfollowed Tokyo Machine. I knew he was Xilent but I had no idea he was trying to pull a Rachel Dolezal. It makes me sick that Monstercat was helping him do this.
I just spent a while trying to explain how problematic it is that Asian people in the West have felt pressure to whiten their names to get job interviews, but a white person can base an entire music alias around Japanese culture and be more successful than their previous alias
It hurts cause I don't get to stop being Asian when I feel like it. When I process photos of myself, I try to "unyellow" my skin. (Relevant reading - https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/read-crazy-rich-asians-director-s-letter-coldplay-yellow-1135826)
I'm also concerned about all this "China virus" talk because if racists can confuse Sikhs for Muslims, they can confuse all of Asia for each other.
Also I don't really get as bothered by being influenced by Japanese culture (e.g. Puppet who is on the same label) as much as putting on a wig, mask, and goggles and then having the label go to the extent of using automoderator to remove any post/comment with "Xilent" in it
Why are they letting everyone make the reasonable assumption that the person behind a Japanese centered alias is Japanese and hiding that the person is Polish if it isn't a big deal to them?
I know that DotEXE became Summer Was Fun and no one hid that...not sure what the need was to suppress talk of TM = Xilent.
I'll just leave the imgur album here with a lot of removals of people bringing it up - https://imgur.com/a/v5VXnu5
For ease of access, screenshots of removals of the comments/posts of people talking about Tokyo Machine being Xilent will be posted here. Source links are in the imgur post.
Another comment on r/EDM where people were also discussing this. One commenter pointed out that the ASCAP database was eventually updated to remove mention of Eryk being Tokyo Machine, except from “party”. (https://www.reddit.com/r/EDM/comments/b9iz9b/list_of_reasons_why_i_think_xilent_is_tokyo/f1cx54o/?context=8&depth=9)
What we can take away from this that it would have been less harmful for Monstercat and Tokyo Machine to have been more forthcoming with who the artist was behind the alias instead of actively hiding it.
Japanese culture is becoming more popularized in the West, but misleading people, whether intentional or accidental, to believe you are of a visible minority when you are not and crafting a persona out of someone else’s culture that you wear for a few hours to make money off of performing is hurtful to the people who don’t have the option to take off a wig, mask, and goggles and go back to being white.
