Cultural Appropriation Is Ok With U.S.
The Twilight Zone aired an episode in 1960 called The Four of Us Are Dying. The episode follows a con man capable of changing his appearance by merely looking at the person he wants to become. His whole life he has slipped by, without a conscience, using his ‘talent’ to mold into other established people’s lives. He takes advantage of his ability and finds ways to rob his victims of their identities, fame, and personal acquaintances. In today’s pop culture, especially pop music, this flagrant disrespect for culture and counterfeiting of style are diminishing the credibility of many popular artists. Similar to the man in The Twilight Zone episode, there are artists in the spotlight today that need to be reconsidered for their ‘unique’ styles. Cultural appropriation is becoming a mainstream ‘white crime’ in today’s pop music society. Katy Perry, Taylor Swift, Iggy Azalea, and Robin Thicke are just a few
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Forbes had Katy listed as making $2 million per city she toured and had a total of 126 shows in 2015. The site that tracks the wealthy and famous has Katy as 3 out of 100 on the highest paid celebrities of last year (Forbes). Katy, along with other white artists abuse of foreign cultures accentuates a major flaw in today’s pop culture society and society in general, racism. A large part of American culture marginalizes anyone who isn’t a non-Hispanic white person. If this isn’t a thoroughly convincing statement consider this: as of 2013 there were 939 active Hate Groups in the US, up from 888 after President Obama’s election to office (Rozsa). Blatantly, white people still do not want to see people of different nationalities as contemporaries. Because of this a certain oxymoron is developed in hip-hop when white artists try to mimic their black counterparts and it fuels the cultural appropriation argument. We’re trying to copy something we
Although we have taken monumental strides in the past fifty years towards racial equality and diversity, it is still commonly argued that popular culture lacks some sort of racial representation. In the United States, the people who live here are vastly diverse when it comes to race and culture, yet in the media people of color get marginalized and stereotyped everyday in film, music, and etc.
Uwujaren talks about how there are many people who see everything as cultural appropriation since the difference between them is not much. One important thing that Uwujaren points out in the article is that there is a thin line between cultural appropriation and exchange, the main important thing is respect. Many people do not know the difference due to the big number of people who think everything is cultural appropriation. However, when a person who is interested in being part of another culture is allowed to be part of the culture by being invited only otherwise if the person tries to be part of the culture without being invited is seen as disrespectful. As Uwujaren clearly stated in her article “engaging with a culture as a respectful and humble guest, invitation only.” Another example of cultural exchange is when Americans celebrate Cinco de Mayo when it is a Mexican celebration but it is only a holiday in America. The reason we celebrate this holiday is because, “Cinco de Mayo commemorates the Mexican army 's unlikely victory over the French forces of Napoleon III on May 5, 1862, at the Battle of Puebla”( Lee, Special for USA TODAY, Jolie. "Why Do We Celebrate Cinco De Mayo?") In fact, it is the Latinos who celebrate this day because they are proud of their roots but they also celebrate with others who are not Latinos. It is a form of, showing others part of their cultures for example they celebrate with Mexican food like tacos, tamales, tostadas etc. Also they wear Mexican clothing, mustaches, drink hard liquor and watch the popular Mexican dance called folklorico. This is called Cultural Exchange due to Latinos sharing their pride of their roots and culture sharing it with their American friends. Since America is a free country were Latinos can
Authenticity within the culture of popular music is an issue that has been discussed for many years as it can be a huge selling point, it can cause society to either loathe or love a performing artist on how 'authentic' their persona and music is. Moore (2002) brings forward this idea in the article ‘Authenticity as Authentication’:
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
Culture Appropriation is the idea of taking one’s culture and adjusting it to another culture, and has brought about many debates for years. One specific ongoing debate is if writers have the right to write about other cultures without being classified as culturally appropriating their culture. Five articles have argued their standpoint and what they believe is the correct way to interpret culture appropriation: “Who Gets to Write What” by Kaitlyn Greenidge, “Dangerous Ideas” by Kenzie Allen, “Commentary: Cultural Appropriation Is, In Fact, Indefensible” by K. Tempest Bradford, “In Defense of Cultural Appropriation” by Kenan Malik, and “You can’t steal a culture: In defense of Culture Appropriation” by John McWhorter. While all the participants
Although concerns about cultural appropriating cultural objects such as bindis, war bonnets, and kimonos have been receiving more attention, the effects of cultural tourism of modern Asian subcultures has been relatively ignored. This lack of attention may be due to the assumption of modernity as Western or a lack of an object that bears significant cultural meaning to the ethnic culture as a whole. However, if the potential effects are left ignored, cultural tourism of modern Asian subcultures may perpetuate harmful constructions of race. The visual analysis of Gwen Stefani and Avril Lavinge’s cultural appropriation of Harajuku culture reveals that it not only reaffirms Asian American female submissiveness and Asian American invisibility, but it also constructs meanings of race and whiteness that excludes American cultural citizenship from Asian Americans.
1) I agree that pop culture is always changing and that the young generation are the ones who are mainly in control of it. The reason I believe this is because there are new videos and memes that become popular that younger people are always coming up with. Something that I had a question about was the concept that pop culture was a part of capitalism because that didn’t make much sense to me seeing as though pop culture is just what’s popular at the time and not controlled by higher status people.
The beginning of Lady Gaga’s career, unbenowst to the majority, dedicated itself soley for fame culture commentary. When Lady Gaga released her widely acclaimed album “The Fame” in August 2008, she sold 12 million copies of an album based off of the whole concept of being in a culture obsessed with becoming the celebrity as the ultimate validation of living. The media, obsessed with Lady Gaga’s whole concept, absorbed her presence in the spotlight and made her into a massive worldwide star. She once told Rolling Stone, “I want people to walk around delusional about how great they can be — and then to fight so hard for it every day that the lie becomes the truth” (Lady Gaga). Her manipulation of the public is possible from the culture revolving around celebrities. Celebration of celebrity culture is perpetuated throughout media outlets and consumed by public masses. In the Empire of Illusion, Chris Hedges discusses celebrity culture and its underlying connections to pseudo-events, which are a form of mass media manipulation through a carefully crafted event. Celebrity culture and pseudo-events are often forces for economic gains through the deception of the public.
Will sexism ever come to an end in today’s society? Are women going to let men step all over them? Jennifer Mclune discusses in her article, Hip-Hops Betrayal on Black Women, how black male singers objectify and degrade black females in the music industry. The purpose of this article is to show how black women are being deceived in the hip hop industry and being used as sex symbols instead of showing them for their true colors. Mclune (2015) voices her strong argument in attracting her audience by using ethos, tones, and the use of word choices.
The music industry’s history is a convoluted mess. There is no real consensus on what the music industry IS and what paths it has taken. Were the Beatles the greatest band to ever exist? Maybe. Is there a hyper objectification of women throughout the “men’s club” that is the music industry? Probably. It’s this hard to define, frankly confusing business that is worth roughly $130 billion dollars today. With it’s flimsy and opaque edges, can the music industry ever be called into question on its wrongdoings? The racist undertone throughout its history may force it to. With the music industry as an ever growing business that seems to change almost every decade, the one thing that has not changed throughout time is an undercurrent of racism that
Cultural appropriation has been a controversial subject of debate for decades; hence it is not something “new” as society likes to think. The issue of cultural appropriation seems to have recently emerged in the 21st century because technology has allowed information to be more widespread and easily accessed. The borrowing of cultural elements of minority cultures, particularly black culture and indigenous culture, (hairstyles, music, fashion, art, etc.) by fashion labels and designers, celebrities, and the dominant culture often elicits unforgiving backlash from liberals. For example, Kylie Jenner has frequently been called out by the black community for continuously
In this day and age, pop music dominates the airwaves at every turn. Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Kanye West, and many are commonplace names among teenagers and younger demographics not only in the United States, but all around the world. The United States has accepted the position of international, cultural role model long ago, dating back to the 1950’s when rock and roll caught fire as a hybrid of blues, country, and jazz and spread to the rest of the world almost infectiously. Since then, every major artist that comes out of the United States has easily become a global icon, regardless of the language or nationality of their adoring fans. However, one could conceive that this glamorized version of music comes less from the soul of the artist and is merely born of fiscal ambitions and visions of grandeur. The point made previously is not to critique any pop icon’s talent, which clearly they have proved to possess an abundance of it to keep the public swooning at their every whim, but instead, to show that there are musicians out there producing beautiful music without the threat of corruption and adherence to mainstream culture.
Cultural appropriation is a recent norm that has now become common place in society. Due to the globalisation of media and the free access to information via television, public broadcasting, and the internet, different aspects from worldly cultures have now been used in fashion trends, music and film. By ‘adopting’ these aspects, it is
Pop culture is evident in all aspects of American society but one of the greatest influences is seen in music. Music has evolved so much since the time of the great singers like Elvis and the Beatles. This change can be attributed to advancements in technology but, in some cases, what appears to be growth has become nothing but a lack of talent and dependence on machines and a naïve American people. Many of these artists achieve their fame because of their outward appearance-usually after cosmetic surgery-and the machines that generate their voices. In his essay titled “The Soundtracking of America,” J. Bottum agrees that “western pop songs make us ‘forcibly retarded,’ because they’re so shallow and because we’re compelled to hear the same ones over and over again.” Radio stations only play the so-called “pop” songs and, therefore, we, as a culture, are subjected and even forced to like these often obnoxious tunes. The songs rarely have any merit but are supported ...
With the music being the highly profitable, capitalist enterprise that it is today, it is no wonder that it is controlled and regulated by a few large conglomerates that exist is today’s world. It is important to make clear that although evidence is being presented of the positive aspects of globalization through music that there is overwhelming evidence that cultural imperialism is more than it seems on the outside. One must keep in mind that cultural imperialism, globalization and the creation of a global village is a business. People are profiting at other people’s loss of cultural identity, they are sold a culture and heritage. With the every growing N’Sync fan clubs and Britney clones, the world is turning into a stage for pop culture and its glamorous unattainable standards.