From Panorama Music Festival 2018: Queerness, Asian America, and Rock & Roll

The founders of musical projects Japanese Breakfast and Jay Som are notable in the music industry for being female, queer, Asian American, and outspoken about those identities. Panorama featured both on Saturday, giving viewers a sample of the movement that Vice described last year as “making room for Asian American women in a genre that has long been dominated by white dudes.”

Publications have recently celebrated diversity at 2018’s music festivals and also lamented where they fall flat. Remezcla applauded the number of Latino artists at Panorama, and the blog Beauty Within described the seven Asian American artists playing Coachella. On the gloomier side, Pitchfork ran the data on 2018’s 20 biggest multi-genre festivals and found that only three achieved gender balance. (Pitchfork and Panorama topped the list, and third came FYF, which was canceled.)

On Saturday afternoon, Melina Duterte's California-based musical project called Jay Som performed its lo-fi dream pop and rock from her latest album, “Everybody Works” and ended with her recent single “Pirouette.” Two sets later, Oregon-born Michelle Zauner’s project Japanese Breakfast broke out its indie pop compositions, including “Machinist” and “Boyish.”

Yaeji, a house DJ whose lyrics bounce between English and Korean, had been scheduled to perform Friday night’s last set at The Point, where she might have played her hit “Raingurl” had her performance not been rained out. Also scheduled and canceled was R&B artist Jhené Aiko, who has Japanese heritage and uses her Japanese middle name in her moniker.

Panorama attendees Thuy Tong and April McMullan had come to watch Jay Som and Japanese Breakfast after seeing them on tour with fellow Asian American indie rocker Mitski in 2016. Tong said that seeing Asian American artists made her feel inspired: "That's my people," she said.

Kimberly Frechette and Tim Reilly had seen Japanese Breakfast at Music Hall of Williamsburg, and at Panorama they attended Jay Som’s and Japanese Breakfast’s sets. Frechette said, “It’s not very common that you see Asian American artists playing these days, so I think it's great."

Frechette said she loves Japanese Breakfast’s energy. “Her outfit today was also killer,” she said, echoing attention that Zauner has recently gained for her style. Reilly added, "I think the coolest thing about Japanese Breakfast is that it started out as her solo project after her mother died, and she was able to use that sad energy to create something so positive for fans to enjoy.”

In addition to creating a space for Asian American artists, Jay Som and Japanese Breakfast have given visibility to queerness in their art. For example, Japanese Breakfast’s “Everybody Wants to Love You” is about Zauner’s “relationship with a woman who has no idea I wrote it for her,” she wrote in a tweet. Jay Som has spoken about being inspired by the queer community, and Yaeji’s work has become part of an Asian-American queer nightlife scene.

Reflecting on Mitski, Japanese Breakfast, and Jay Som’s 2016 tour, McMullan said, "It was cool that the lineup was so queer, and [so full of] people of color."

"When you bring queer people in, it opens up a dialogue of inclusivity,” Tong added.

—Staff Writer Liana E. Chow can be reached at liana.chow@thecrimson.com.