In honor of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, GRAMMY.com has gathered artists for a conversation surrounding their experiences in and out of the music industry. Singer/songwriter, producer, and gamer mxmtoon; singer/songwriter and producer Tyler Shaw; and percussionist Taku Hirano share their perspectives on Asian identity in and out of the U.S., what the music industry can do to be more inclusive of these communities, Asian and AAPI artists in pop culture, and more.
Among the topics of conversation was how Asian Americans and artists of Asian descent are portrayed in the media today.
"Hollywood did a very good job at creating the stereotype for the nerd, the character who dies off first, but now we're seeing some kind of change with Simu Liu being one of the first Asian Marvel characters," Shaw said.
While that may be changing, there needs to be more representation of the diversity with the community.
"There was just a recent poll where a large swath of the country couldn't name a prominent Asian American, and we have one in the White House as a vice president," Hirano pointed out.
The panel also touched on the history of anti-Asian sentiment in the country. "Oftentimes with my own audience, I have to educate them around different historical things that have happened and why we have racism and still face these sorts of things in our day-to-day lives," mxmtoon shared.
Watch the video above to listen to the whole conversation, including how k-pop and Olivia Rodrigo are making waves for the community.
