Representation of Asian Culture in Coldplay's 'Hymn for the Weekend'

This essay provides an in-depth analysis of Coldplay's 'Hymn for the Weekend' music video, examining how Asia is represented and the underlying ideologies that inform these representations. The analysis focuses on the portrayal of Asian culture, including festivals like Holi and Diwali, religious practices, and lifestyle, as depicted in the video. The essay investigates the song's impact on promoting Asian culture and its reception by both Asian and foreign audiences. It also critically evaluates the potential inaccuracies and aesthetic representations of South Asia, drawing on academic literature to support its arguments. The discussion includes the song's success, its contribution to tourism, and its role in shaping perceptions of Asia. The essay concludes by summarizing the diverse aspects of the song's cultural impact and its contribution to global understanding of Asia.

Running Head: POPULAR CULTURE IN ASIA 1
HYMM FOR THE WEEKEND
COLDPLAY

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Ideology of the Song..................................................................................................................3
Benefits......................................................................................................................................4
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................5
References..................................................................................................................................6

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Introduction
The song “Hymm for Weekend” was sung by a British rock band Coldplay in
collaboration with American singer Beyonce. The song was a part of album named “Head
Full of Dreams” which was released by the band in the year 2015. This song is a perfect
combination of British, American and Asian culture, the song was being shot at various
locations in Mumbai. The video promotes the Asian culture and festivals which are being
celebrated in the region. The video became widely famous In Asia as it became highest
viewed song within the span of one month (Youtube, 2016).
Ideology of the Song
The song starts at Bassien Fort, Mumbai where a group of saints are passing by the
fort after completing their prayers in the temple and a group of people celebrating the festival
of colors. Chris Martin being a foreigner observing and celebrating the festival of colors and
the video represents the culture and festivals which are being practiced in Asia. The video
also glorifies the importance of Saints who are worshiping their Gods in temples. The video
song presents the simple and sober style of living by the people of the region. The video
showcases the band celebrating the festival of colors named ‘Holi’ with the local people. Holi
is a traditional festival which is generally celebrated in Asia during spring (Murphey &
Stapleton, 2019). It is a festival which is dedicated to Lord Krishna, the festival is of two days
which starts with fire in lit at the first night and the second day and the following starts with
the celebration of colors between the people (Whatley, 2017).
However, there is a separate day in honor of Gods where such festivals are celebrated
in most of the temples. The festival of colors in other words can also be understood as the
festival of joy where people forgive each other for all the mistakes they have made in their
past and to start their life in new phase by greeting them ‘Happy Holi’. Various children in

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the video were also dressed as Lord Hanuman and Lord Shiv, the Hindu Gods, the culture of
Asia showcases that they treat children as God’s and goddesses. The song also includes an
important part of Beyonce is being dressed as a traditional Asian Clothes, the song also tried
to represent various cultures such as the belief of the people living in Asia, their style of
living as well as the style of clothing.
As per the video people in the video are being presented in the simplest manner which
describes the smooth culture of the region. In the final part of video presented the festival of
lights where people are celebrating ‘Diwali’ which represents the victory of Lord Rama over
the demon named Ravana. These festivals are being celebrated throughout India and various
other countries like Bhutan, Nepal etc. The festival of light showcases the inner light of the
people; the festival showcases the victory of light over darkness. As the video ends with
people celebrating the festival of lights which provides a clear overview of celebration of
good over evil that means darkness (Murray & Nadeau, 2016).
Benefits
The launch of the song was a massive success as it was on top charts for months. But
along with it expression of rich culture, heritage and lifestyle relating to Asia bought a lot of
attention of foreign world. Earlier people knew Asia as a land of meditation and huge
population, but through this video it cherished the wide diversity, their happiness aside of
their misery, and their will to celebrate each day with a big smile. The song focused on
worship of rivers and animals (as figure of lord Hanuman can be seen) it taught world about
why world need to respect and pay regards to Mother Nature. Animals and river symbolizes
as god in Asia and in today’s world it taught humans why do need to protect them. The song
brought in huge amount of revenue to the tourism industry with the promotion of Asia but

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there were too many deep instances which must be considered as why this song benefited the
country and as well the musicians (White, 2018).
Throughout the song audiences noticed celebration of the festival Holi which signifies
spread of happiness and love and the victory of good over evil. People knew the real story of
it and people accepted this culture. Earlier Asian land were imagined as cluttered and densely
populated one but this was an eye opener for the audiences who got know how people are
happy and comfortable with their situation and they turned their misery into happiness
(Turan, 2017).
Conclusion
The launch of the song brought humongous success to Coldplay; it gained a lot of
limelight in Asia. Till October ’19 it has over 1.2 billion views on YouTube making it
Coldplay’s second most viewed video after something just like this by Chainsmoker. Shortly
after the videos release singer Chris Martin and Beyonce were applauded for projection of
south Asian culture and how widely this culture were adopted by other foreign land. The
Hymn for the weekend video cannot be just termed as a video but after a thorough analysis it
can be termed as it is a representation of essence of Incredible India. Although alongside
huge appreciation the song brought in criticism as well. The music video was filled with
inaccurate depictions of state of south Asia that sums up as aesthetic to foreign land. But Asia
is more than just a tourist place, it has a lot of to showcase. It was wonderful that through this
song the culture, heritage, lifestyle and a message relating to it was showcased beautifully
and people form foreign land learned from it.

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References
Murphey, R., & Stapleton, K. (2019). A history of Asia. Routledge.
Murray, J. A., & Nadeau, K. M. (2016). Pop Culture in Asia and Oceania. ABC-CLIO.
Turan, F. A. (2017). Common Points between The Hizir in Turkish Culture and Lakshmi in
Hindu Culture. UNDERSTANDING CULTURE, 84.
Whatley, E. (2017). Book Review: Pop Culture in Asia and Oceania. Reference & User
Services Quarterly, 56(3), 219-219.
White, C. (2018). Asia Pop: Investigating Asia through Media and Popular Culture.
In Internationalizing Education (pp. 72-77). Brill Sense.
Youtube, (2016). Coldplay - Hymn For The Weekend (Official Video). Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YykjpeuMNEk