Wielding a guitar powered by an amp with a skull on it, Charlene Kaye vows to climb the rungs of the music industry. To do so, she resorts to changing her image again and again, in line with the demands of racist band managers and label executives. What ensues is a hilarious and honest exposure of the racism and misogyny governing the music industry, as she recounts her journey to coming into her own as a musician.
Balancing witty comedy with explicit political commentary, Kaye attacks double standards in the industry. Incorporating multimedia, cartoonish music accompanies the emails she receives from people looking to hire her to achieve the “diverse aesthetic” of their gig bands. Kaye pokes fun at the carbon copy, cut-and-paste white male face of pop, and revisits racist portrayals of Asian people in music — a jarring reminder of how recent some of them were.
Kaye dots about with free-wheeling, infectious energy, testing different genres to try and find her route to self-expression as an Asian American artist. From imitating generic white rappers to folk artists singing in “cursive,” she jumps between musical stereotypes and pokes fun at evolving sub-genres. Light comedic sequences do not diminish the weight of Kaye’s experiences in being forced to “step into the white” to break into the mainstream. Kaye tries to fit the musical mould worn by various A-list pop stars, flitting between impressions of Lana Del Rey’s hushed mumble-singing or Taylor Swift’s breezy chord progressions. Some of the impressions land better than others, though (with a questionable British accent during a rendition of ‘Guess’ by Charli XCX).
We are taken on unexpected avenues — from a rendition of ‘What’s Up?’ by 4 Non Blondes as an un-medicated version of herself, to a crowd singalong to an innuendo-filled pseudo-hymn. The set is slightly uneven, with some segments losing momentum or a few impressions being over-exaggerated. The uplifting and full-circle ending, however, is a euphoric moment where Kaye steps into her individuality — shredding for the sake of shredding without hiding behind anyone’s ‘white.’ Diversity Shredder is at once refreshingly funny and unabashedly politically charged, and an empowering celebration of embracing your individuality.
Charlene Kaye: Diversity Shredder has finished its Fringe run.
Image by Charlene Kaye, provided to The Student for press use.
