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Changes in the music industry
Changes in the music industry
Changes in the music industry
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Cultural appropriation is one of the worst phenomena to enter America’s social scope. People are taking aspects of cultures and using them for their selfish gain, undermining and taking away the spotlight of the originators in the process. Many white people have adopted this behavior, seeing it fit that they can steal anyone’s identity even though they have the greatest and ideal identity since the beginning of civilization. Justin Timberlake and Adele Laurie Blue Adkins (also known as “Adele) are primary examples of this ludicrous practice. Since the 1950′s, soul music has been a staple in African American music and many African American artists have made a name for themselves in the genre. Their unique, strong voices were leagues beyond the generic, boring and dull voices of the cousin screwing Caucasians (and their awful country music). With …show more content…
this, many Americans grew to love and enjoy soul and other African American genres. The entertainment value and warmth in the tone and the lyrics resonated in many households. However, the powers that be thought of a creative way to make even more money, maximizing their music sales potential: white people singing black-inspired music. People are willing to listen to and buy music that is made by people who look like them and share a similar cultural background. Guess which racial group makes up the majority of the United States.. white folks. Since the Caucasians are the majority and have the most money/power, it makes perfect sense to inject Caucasian artists into a secretly beloved and fast growing genre. Elvis Presley, who had black elements in his music, is lauded as one of the greatest musicians of all time.
However, if Elvis was actually black no one would care about him, his legacy wouldn’t be the same, and he wouldn’t have been as rich. He should have stuck to his musical roots instead of stealing music from an already oppressed group. Screw him. Justin Timberlake is in the same boat; he makes a lot of money, has hundreds of millions of views on YouTube, and is a multimillionaire, all while doing the African American genres of R&B and soul. Chris Brown (who is the color of a school bus) is a lot better than Timberlake but does not nearly have the same amount of clout or money as Justin. Timberlake needs to give his moves and his voice back to the brothas. Adele isn’t safe either; she sounds like your average alto in a black church choir while looking like the Goodyear blimp. If her skin were even 3 shades darker, she would be in the purgatory of Gospel music, where she wouldn’t escape. Her whiteness gives her an unfair advantage. She needs to get rid of that black inspired voice by dropping the Little Caesar’s
pizza. Black people get a pass with cultural appropriation. Even though slavery was centuries ago and legally they are equal to any other racial group, their history and oppression gives them the right to copy from any race they choose, especially the white man. Their adoption of non-black hair (weave), getting educated by Caucasian standards, and using Caucasian languages (mainly the English language) are all okay, since they have suffered for so long.
This soul music was a combination of R&B and gospel music that began around the 1950s. Soul was spreaded throughout the nation in which a lot many people of races took on such as, Aretha Franklin, Sonny & Cher, Teena Marie, as well as Otis Redding. Soul music is defined as a something powerful and it was a mainstream black pop in American music. Soul music had a meaningful impact in which you can feel where its coming from. Soul music had grown and changed, and it kept up with time.
Tupac Shakur - His Impact on American Culture Tupac Shakur was a very influential person in the 20th century. He was born on June 16, 1971 in Brooklyn New York, and died on September 13, 1996 in Las Vegas Nevada (unknown author, no title, no page, letter code C). But his family moved around a lot while he was a kid (Bastin, J.D.). He eventually ended up in the Bay Area California alone and spent his first two years there homeless (unknown author, no title, n.p., letter code D). He grew up with only his mom and loved her very much.
The blues emerged as a distinct African-American musical form in the early twentieth century. It typically employed a twelve-bar framework and three-lined stanzas; its roots are based in early African-American songs, such as field hollers and work songs, and generally have a melancholy mood. The blues can be divided into many sub-genres, including Classical, Country, and Urban. The purpose of this paper is to focus on the careers of two of Classical blues most influential and legendary singers: Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith.
Soul music was developed in the late 1950s from African American church music called Gospel music. After slavery ended in1865, African American were not welcomed in the church of White Americans, so they built their own churches and sang Christian songs with African American vocal styles and rhythm. As the civil rights movement, staged bigger and bigger demonstrations and increase in African American pride “Soul music” became more than party music for young blacks: it became a rallying flag for the Black nationalist movement. Soul music was born thanks to the innovations of continuous post-war musicians who essentially turned Gospel music into a secular form of
During the Civil Rights era, African Americans changed the way people looked at music by ending the segregation in the music world and by making a well-known “soundtrack” and influence during the Civil Rights Movement.
It is important to note that cultural appropriation is far from being cultural appreciation. While whites may idolize and take interest in the “exotic” cultures from which they borrow, they still view themselves as racially superior. If white culture truly respected the traditions which they were borrowing, there would not be a misuse of culturally significant artifacts ranging from Native American headdresses, Indian bindis, and a variety of disrespected aspects of black culture such as language and dress. White society adopting Ebonics is painfully reminiscent of the white French colonist speaking to his black citizens in Pigdin. In both cases the white man is speaking a dialect that is not their own, either to mock or “associate” with black society. “To speak pidgin to a Negro makes him angry, because he himself is a pidgin-nigger-talker. But, I will be told, there is no wish, no intention to anger him. I grant this; but it is just this absence of wish, this lack of interest, this indifference, this automatic manner of classifying him, imprisoning him, primitivizing him, decivilizing him, that makes him angry” (Fanon). To see nothing wrong with appropriation is to see nothing wrong with the generalization and demoralization of minority
In this paper I’m going to show how African Americans have used hip hop and black hair are two ways in which African Americans embrace their culture and fight oppression. However, as we have reviewed in many classes, oppression is not easily escaped. So in this paper, I’m going to show how cultural appropriation is used as a way of oppressing black culture. So this paper is an expansion of what we have learned in the class.
be seen through the blues and jazz singers of the Harlem Renaissance, soul singers of the civil
Being that African Americans were if not just getting their foot in the door as being looked at as human and beginning to be accepted in U.S. society at that time. Executives in the recording industry encouraged white artists attempt to replicate the sound of popular black musicians for profit. This resulted in music like rock-n-roll that is largely associated with whites and the African American pioneers who laid down the foundation for the music are forgotten or better yet not even heard of. Cultural appropriation is still remains a concern even
The infectious nature of African American music, which has appeared in a variety of styles, most notably jazz, soul, rap, rhythm and blues, spread through the American public quickly and broke the barriers from where they originated. Beginning in the seventeenth century music was critical in the organization of early slave uprisings. When brought to the United States, drums were used as a means of communication: spreading messages in a rhythmic language undeciphered by white people. They were used to orchestrate resistance and revolts. After a ban was placed on slave drumming, they retaliated by preserving those rhythms through adaptation to new instruments. Following the American Civil War, the blues reflected the disheartening realization that, although emancipation was granted, equality for African Americans wasn’t guaranteed. Blues vocals communicated disappointment and melancholia. They were reminiscent of African griots, singers, and storytellers. The blues mirrored American race relations, documenting the struggle and conflict on the one hand, but also suggesting a future based on cooperation and understanding. Jazz was initially considered a lesser form of music or not music at all. Many notable 20th century composers, Aaron Copland, Maurice Ravel, and Igor Stravinsky, embraced jazz as a powerful music genre. Sam Cooke is the first great figure in soul. His music marked a change from emotional to social and political issues, as evident in the song “A Change is Gonna Come.” From the 1960’s up until the 1970’s, soul had moved to songs of political awareness and protest, p...
However, that is not the case. White artists are taking the styles and genres of African Americans and turning them into a mockery, and on top of all that, they are being rewarded for it. When said they turn these styles into mockery, it means that they change up the style into something completely different than what it originally was. Macklemore and Ryan Lewis are prime examples of artists appropriating hip-hop. “During the 2013 MTV’s Video Music Award, artists Macklemore and Ryan Lewis won an award for best hip-hop video, beating popular African American hip hop artists. Two white men won an award for appropriating hip-hop. Hip hop originated from African Americans, and having a two white artists win an award for misusing our culture’s music is not acceptable” (Cadet). In hip hop, African American artists talked about their plight as African American men and about the struggles growing up. However, these white artists won an award for just taking the style and talking about anything important. They do not talk about their plight because they do not have one comparable to African Americans. They do like musicians did in the past: take the music from African Americans, and then take away the color. “But we cannot blame individual white artists for the inequitable way they are received by the American public—the way their performance of black cultures is
Hip hop has permeated popular culture in an unprecedented fashion. Because of its crossover appeal, it is a great unifier of diverse populations. Although created by black youth on the streets, hip hop's influence has become well received by a number of different races in this country. A large number of the rap and hip hop audience is non-black. It has gone from the fringes, to the suburbs, and into the corporate boardrooms. Because it has become the fastest growing music genre in the U.S., companies and corporate giants have used its appeal to capitalize on it. Although critics of rap music and hip hop seem to be fixated on the messages of sex, violence, and harsh language, this genre offers a new paradigm of what can be (Lewis, 1998.) The potential of this art form to mend ethnic relations is substantial. Hip hop has challenged the system in ways that have unified individuals across a rich ethnic spectrum. This art form was once considered a fad has kept going strong for more than three decades. Generations consisting of Blacks, Whites, Latinos, and Asians have grown up immersed in hip-hop. Hip hop represents a realignment of America?s cultural aesthetics. Rap songs deliver a message, again and again, to keep it real. It has influenced young people of all races to search for excitement, artistic fulfillment, and a sense of identity by exploring the black underclass (Foreman, 2002). Though it is music, many people do not realize that it is much more than that. Hip hop is a form of art and culture, style, and language, and extension of commerce, and for many, a natural means of living. The purpose of this paper is to examine hip hop and its effect on American culture. Different aspects of hip hop will also be examined to shed some light that helps readers to what hip hop actually is. In order to see hip hop as a cultural influence we need to take a look at its history.
In early childhood, most of the world’s children are taught that stealing is wrong. Don’t take what belongs to someone else because they have probably worked for their belongings. What is especially taboo is stealing and getting praised for the thing stolen. Essentially that is the basis of cultural appropriation. Cultural appropriation is done by the victors in history to the victims in a way that marginalizes their culture. It takes certain aspects of the culture that have deep traditional meaning and puts it for everyday use in order to be edgy or fashionable. The people that took the culture are in essence praised for the some of the same attributes that oppressed the culture in the first place. It is pretty much understood that white people
For the African Americans, music was a way of expressing their freedom against a system which saw them as objects of commercial transaction and exploitation’2. So then came about Jazz, the result of African rhythm and European harmony being mixed together. Jazz was initially
Breckenridge, Stan L. (2003). "The 'Path African American music for everyone. Second Edition. Iowa: Kendall-Hunt Publications, Inc. Enotes.