Plagiarism In Music

Lately, many musical artists have faced accusations of plagiarism in their music, such as Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off”, and Demi Lovato’s “Stars”. Music history consists of many instances of theft, however it was much harder to detect them. since the means in which music was distributed was limited in the past. When radio made its breakthrough appearance in the field, music not only made it easier for material to reach its intended audience, and a wider crowd; including the victims having their spotlights taken away, mostly having to do with race. From then on, radio and music began to be regulated by the government, and created the laws in which the music industry now functions; including the protection of musicians from being taken advantage

of. On occasion, big name artist are convicted, and forced to pay for damages to other artists for their pretty obvious, and more subtle sampling without permission. On the other hand we have been witnesses to some musical breakthroughs, that involve the influence of artists on each other, but this isn’t considered stealing. The questions are, how can we make racial issues within this matter seize? Where do we draw the line between inspiration by another, stealing, and what is truly “original”? Aspects of culture appropriation, and plagiarism is wrong; but if we take a step back, we can combat the source of the problem if we differentiate between influence, imitation, and robbing.
Rock music was appropriated by whites, and was originally black culturally, stemming out of R&B and Country; historically called, "race" music, meant to keep Billboard charts separate by color, with Country/Western reserved for whites. Even Elvis Presley himself openly admitted he wished he had the ability to express himself lyrically like his black Rock and Roll peers who were lesser known, even though the pioneered the genre. Victims of this phenomena include Chuck Berry, and Little Richard. Little Richard’s, "Tutti Frutti" was covered by Pat Boone just a mere two months after it was released, and had masses believing it was his. Announcers would introduce him as “the man who made it a hit." Little Richard’s version reached No. 17 on the charts, but since his own song was deemed inappropriate, and suggesting black culture was a bad influence on tenagers, Boone's cleaned up version reached No. 12 on the charts. But this cover isn’t considered stealing, given Little Richard was given credit as songwriter. The cultural stealing of a musician's songs, can be just as equally impactful as literal stealing according to the law; as content is hijacked, and ridden to success away from it’s rightful owners, they are condemned as dangerous individuals.
The british invasion in the 1960’s revolutionized American popular music.

Bands flooded into the states with widespread acceptance, such as the Rolling Stones, who owes it’s beginnings to black blues musicians. The Beatles were by far the most successful band in the U.S to come out of the U.K. The Beatles not only also influenced by the blues, but in many foreign genres; in this case, Indian music. Indian music had its first hallmark in western music among Acid rock bands, for example Jefferson Airplane, and The Grateful Dead. Psychedelic drugs, like LSD, and acid began to take popularity among counterculture hippies in the late 60’s. Acid rock became a very distinctive genre that mimicked the effects of such hallucinogenic drugs in the underground scene. The Beatles however, are crowned with the first use of the Indian instrument of the sitar in western music. They meddled with Indian music under the influence, thus creating the connection between Indian culture, and the drug/hippie subculture. The Beatles were able to rejoice in the light of oriental music without exploiting Asian religion, by taking its influence, making a seemingly new sound, and having a deep respect for it. Unlike Led Zeppelin, another rock band that sampled, and simply stole both white and black artists songs without permission and payment, The Beatles are a perfect example of how to take influences, and combine them with your own background in a respectful manner to create something fresh without

appropriation, and theft.
While world music seems to have the luck of the draw when it comes to influencing western artists, without reinforcing negative stereotypes in their cultures, it comes back to the problematic fact that the same cannot be said about African American music.

One instant in which African American culture wasn’t used with vain intentions was that of the hip-hop group, The Beastie Boys. Hip-hop has become a forefront place of discussion for racial inequality. Although there are those who argue that this genre now represents a variety of backgrounds, in a sort of melting pot, why is it that the more successful of artist related and connected to hip-hop are white? Eminem’s rapping, and Miley Cyrus’s twerking, are fine with audiences, but when a black artist does the same thing they are a bad influence although they developed the trend in the first place, and that robs them of their freedom of expression, fans, and damages racial identities. The Beastie Boys had the first platinum hip-hop album creating controversy due to whites capitalizing more than blacks on borrowed material. Although, The Beastie Boys were from a very privileged background, they have been praised by many for being influenced heavily by African American hip-hop music, bringing their own talents, and creating an entity staying true to who they were, and not harness African American culture away from it’s rightful owners for fame, but to be innovators to the shared

genre.
Although, “transformative use” has never been mentioned in law, it has recently been a topic of interest within the conversation of fair use. It explores possible standards to determine if copyrighted music has been used in a transformative way. This might be one answer to artist taking genres corresponding to specific races or cultures, and taking away the power of who defines the scene. There is absolutely nothing wrong with an appreciation of a genre not historically pertaining to your race, the problem arises when you do not wish to share center stage with the people who made the stage possible, and venomously sabotaging their image. Take for example the late soul singer Amy Winehouse who took most of her musical influence from African American girl groups from the 60’s. Despite her musical influences being of black decent, it did not stop her from uttering racial slurs. People now remember her as a misunderstood drug addict who needed help, but would the same be said of a singer who belonged to a minority, or would have masses gone on a witchhunt? In our society we take theft as an infringement of our rights, and we need to careful what we label it as so. With music, it’s hard to say that someone isn’t taking multiple influences, and adding on top of it to make it authentically theirs, just about any genre can be traced to something prior. Stealing, and sampling without paying up royalties is straightforward, and even blind to skin color; cultural appropriation is not. The cultural appropriation isn’t a literal crime, but more of a manipulative invasion of moral codes, and to come to a solution musicians must understand the consequences of cross musical barriers, without oppressing their peers.