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Chuck Donaldson
Ms. Franklin
English 1101
7/23/2015
Cultural Appropriation in Music
According to the Oxford Dictionary, the definition of appropriation is the action of taking
something for someones own use, typically without the owners permission. Many people
exhibit appropriation for their own publicity. It is common for celebrities and big named
industries to use appropriation for fashion,
music, etc. When using this appropriation,
people take the culture and the heritage of
others. An easy example of appropriation
is if someone would say my culture or
our culture when they are referring to a
culture that is different from their own.
For example, if a young, white female from a suburban town in the United States were to dress in
Indian style clothes and sing traditional Indian music, it could easily offend people of traditional
Indian culture.

Cultural appropriation is a great offense to most people who love and respect their heritage and
culture... If someone is passionate about their heritage and culture, then they might feel stripped
of their identity if someone were to try to imitate them. Appropriation can cause a great amount

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of controversy and arguments between the people who are being offended and the people who
are exhibiting appropriation.

Appropriation finds itself in many

different music genres. Some artists
commonly take the culture of other
people and use it for their own good.
Artists can be seen dressing in African
or Indian styles of clothes for fashion
designs. Many times, appropriation is
found in the phrases that some artists
may include in their songs. A perfect example of appropriation is music is The Tokens song
The Lion Sleeps Tonight. They are an American pop band who took traditional African music
and used it in their song. The Tokens did not even give the songs credit to any African
musicians; instead, all of the credit went to American writers.

In the song Fire Squad by J Cole, J Cole mentions an example of Elvis Presley and
appropriation. Same thing that my ***** Elvis did with Rock n Roll (Cole 64). J Cole
mentioned how Elvis came into a black genre of music and stole the crown, which labeled him
as the King of Rock and Roll. Look around my ***** white people have snatched the sound
(Cole 67). In the same song, J Cole also lists other artists such as Eminem, Macklemore, and
Justin Timberlake who exhibit the same type of examples. In the song, J Cole preaches about
how white artists commit appropriation in predominantly black music genres. The artists that he

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names in the song are labeled as some of the best artists in their genre. Because of their color
and white privilege, they are automatically placed above the pioneers of the genres. The artists
that J Cole mentions have role models in music who do not even receive credit for their
contributions to the genre.

In my eyes, one of the

biggest musical
appropriations that I know of
is from the King of Rock and
Roll, Elvis Presley. In the

Album cover for J Cole's song

"Fire Squad"

American 1900s, rock and roll was a predominantly black genre

of music. This was all until Elvis Presley came along. Back
when Elvis was becoming famous, segregation was still around in
the United States. That is the main reason why Elvis became so popular. Most people loved the
sound of Rock and Roll, and they loved the harmonizing sound of black voices and the fantastic
dances. Elvis rose to fame as a white man who could dance and sing just as well as the black
singers. Since segregation was still an issue, many radio stations would play Elvis instead of the
better, black singers. All of Elvis Presleys influences were black singers, but they were never
credited for their music that influenced the King of Rock and Roll.
Katy Perry exhibits the most obvious forms of appropriation we can find in current music. Katy
Perry is a modern day pop star who rose to fame in 2008 with her hit single I Kissed a Girl.
When she released this single, she was under the label of Capitol Records. After rising to fame,
she created her own record label, Metamorphosis Music, under Capitol Records. She has won
multiple awards from events such as American Music Awards, MTV Video Music Awards, and

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Peoples Choice Awards. In September of 2012, Katy Perry received

the name of Woman of the Year by Billboard. Calculations from
November of 2013 show that Katy Perry had sold eighty-one million
singles and eleven million albums worldwide.

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In the music video for Katy Perrys

song Dark Horse, she dresses up
as Cleopatra. She wears a
traditional Egyptian headpiece with
her hair all twisted up and braided
into dreadlocks. She covers herself
in Egyptian makeup and eyeliner as
if it was her own tradition. She
also dresses head to toe in an Egyptian dress.

Katy Perry dressed as Cleopatra

The most offensive part about her whole

wardrobe is most likely when she smiles. In the music video, Katy Perry cocks a grin and shows
a little bit of her teeth, except that you cannot see her teeth. Instead, Katy Perry wears some sort
of jewelry on her teeth, pretending as if they were grills. In the background of the music video,
we are able to see background dancers who dressed up as cats and mummies. In fact, the song
itself has nothing to do with the music video. Nowhere in the song is there even a phrase that
can relate to either Cleopatra or Egyptian culture. Even though this music video is viewed as
extremely offensive to most people, it was the first music video from a female to hit a billion
views on Vevo. Not only do acts like these offend people of the culture that Katy Perry is
appropriating, but they can also offend people who support Katy Perry.

This is not even the first time that Katy Perry committed an act of appropriation. At the
American Music Awards in 2013, Katy Perry performed live on television in front of millions of
people. For her performance, Katy Perry was dressed as a geisha. A geisha is a traditional

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Japanese female entertainer.

This act of appropriation
caused a lot of attention and
publicity. Many people all of
the world were offended by
Katy Perrys claim of
3

Katy Perry dressed as a geisha at the 2013 American Music

Awards

Japanese culture. Despite all

of the negative reactions and

negative publicity that she received, Katy Perry constantly continues to commit acts of
appropriation.

Katy Perrys real heritage consists mostly of English background, but she also has a percentage
of Irish, Portuguese, and German ethnicities. Her acts of appropriation would not be as bad if
she were to dress up as something from her own heritage. Although it may seem like it, but Katy
Perry is not the only one to blame for her acts. Even though she was the one who agreed to dress
up in these types of costumes, some of the blame also must be placed on the people who are
above her. Fashion designers, music video directors, and record label executives also need to be
blamed for this offense of cultural appropriation.

Katy Perrys costume designer in the music video for Dark Horse was Nicolas Jebran. Nicolas
Jebran holds part of the responsibility for the offensive makeup, clothing, and accessories that
Katy Perry was wearing in the music video. The director for the same music video was Matthew
Cullen. As the director, Matthew Cullen would have easily been able to cancel out the cultural

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appropriation or to disagree with directing the video. In addition, since the video was released
under Capitol Records, the record executives had all the power in the world to change the theme
for the music video.
However, Katy Perry had
shown cultural appropriation
more than just in the music
video for Dark Horse. For
every time she exhibits these
acts of appropriation, she is not the only one to blame. The blame should be placed on everyone
who helped her create the act of appropriation.

Another famous artist who exhibits cultural appropriation in music

is Miley Cyrus. Miley Cyrus is a modern day popstar who came to
fame on the Disney Channel show Hannah Montana. She is the
daughter of Billy Ray Cyrus. She is an actress, singer, and a
songwriter. In 2008, Miley Cyrus was nominated for best original
song for the Golden Globes. In 2014, she had received sixteen
nominations at the World Music Awards in 2014. Miley Cyrus was declared Artist of the Year
by MTV in 2013.

In Miley Cyruss music video for her hit single We Cant Stop, she is filmed putting in grills
and twerking. The writers of this song was Timothy and Theron Thomas. They decide to write
this song for Miley Cyrus because she told them that she wanted a song that wanted a song that

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feels black. The song was originally written for

Rihanna, but instead Miley Cyrus decided to take
it. Miley Cyrus has even claimed that she feels
like she is Lil Kim on the inside and that she
loves to listen to hood music. Since Miley
Cyrus stated that she wanted a song that feels
black, she is involving her music video with
stereotypes. What I get out of that statement
combined with her video, is that she thinks black
music is only about doing drugs, twerking, and
wearing grills. Even on stage, live at the Video
4 Miley Cyrus twerking at the 2013 VMAs
Music Awards, Miley Cyrus made

a fool of

herself. In the middle of her song, she bent down to twerk on Robin Thicke. Off on a little side
note, Miley Cyrus was not even somewhat decent at twerking. She is completely unable to move
the lower half of her body in the way that twerking should actually be done. Coming from a
teenage males perspective, I actually thought that it was quite of a disgusting sight to see.