Throughout music history, we have seen white people taking traditionally black music and making it more accessible for people. The blues, which had its roots in African American spirituals, was taken over by the Beatles, Bob Dylan, and the Rolling Stones. It was seen with Elvis Presley who was crowned the king of Rock 'n Roll and later when the king of R&B was Justin Timberlake. According to Susan Scafidi a professor who wrote a book on the subject, cultural appropriation is "Taking intellectual property, traditional knowledge, cultural expressions, or artifacts from someone else's culture without permission. This can include unauthorized use of another culture's dance, dress, music, language, folklore, cuisine, traditional medicine, religious symbols, etc. It's most likely to be harmful when the source community is a minority group that has been oppressed or exploited in other ways or when the object of appropriation is particularly sensitive, e.g., sacred objects.” Where are one appreciation and the other appropriation? In my opinion, acknowledging where it came from and how it came to be, especially if it rose out of oppression, is everything. What are your thoughts on cultural appropriation and how much is too much?
http://blog.sonicbids.com/appropriation-vs-appreciation-in-music-where-should-we-draw-the-line
That is an interesting question. While I do think that what the Beastie Boys did was questionable, I think they did make a really smart decision business-wise. However, morally, it is questionable. They took an aspect of black culture and got all of the credit. I don't think it is inherently wrong to make a band and play music in a style you did not create, but the Beastie Boys changed their style for popularity.
ReplyDeleteI think the Beastie Boys creating rap songs was fine. Think about what music would be right now if groups of people didn't take aspects from other cultural music. We wouldn't have rock music which in turn would most likely mean no rap music. I think its silly trying to label one type of music to one culture because then there would be no new music.
ReplyDeleteTotally. It was a trio of rich white Jewish kids from NY taking a totally marginalized black cultural music and making millions off of it. They appropriated the style of dress, the accent, everything they could. They were cultural raiders who succeeded because of timing.
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