Music and Appropriation
Appropriation (in the arts)
The adoption, borrowing, or theft of elements of
one culture by another culture.
Taking over another culture’s style or way of
expressing itself for your own purposes.
Taking something created by another person and
making it your own.
Music and Appropriation
Mei-lwun, “Sweet Home Country Grammar” (2003)
incorporating
Lynyrd Skynyrd, “Sweet Home
Alabama” (1974)
Nelly,
“Country Grammar”
(2000)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=692ReyCPdqA
There are many examples of
appropriation in pop music
Imitation (style theft)
A person models their
performance or songwriting
style on another person’s
style.
Members of one culture
adopt or adapt the style of
another culture.
Plagiarism
Someone steals someone else’s song
or music and doesn’t give credit or pay
royalties.
“Recontext”
Someone uses someone’s song or
music in a context for which it was
never intended – movie soundtrack,
video game, advertisement, etc
Cover
Someone (usually legally) does their own
version of someone else’s song.
Watch on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIzoWNQqnEQ
Remix
Someone (usually legally) remixes the
elements of someone’s song to create a new
variation– typically an extended dance track.
Lady Gaga, Born this Way (Bollywood Remix)
Lady Gaga, Born this Way
(Liam Keegan Club Mix)
Lady Gaga, Born this Way
(Chipmunk Remix)
Sampling
Someone uses part of somebody else’s
recording as part of their own song
[accompaniment, chorus, rhythm track, etc]
Watch on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mM0-ZU8njdo
Mashup
Someone takes two or more songs by
different artists – maybe people who
would never willingly be part of one
another’s music – and creates a new song
based entirely on these source songs
Cheekyboy, Biggie’s Last
Christmas
incorporating:
Wham, Last Christmas (1984)
Puff Daddy, I’ll be missing you
(1997)
Notorious B.I.G., Juicy (1994)
Listen on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJv17xpatg4
A capsule history of appropriation
in popular American 20th century music
The following is a clip from the movie RIP: A REMIX
MANIFESTO (2009) sketching the mutation of two
musical motifs from their origins as anonymous African
American blues to their existence today as commercial
successes by white groups.
Riff from “Walking Blues”
COTTON FIELDS  ROBERT JOHNSON  SON HOUSE  MUDDY WATERS
MUDDY WATERS  LED ZEPPELIN
“The Last Time”
TRADITIONAL BLUES  STAPLE SINGERS  ROLLING STONES   
?
Watch the entire film online: http://films.nfb.ca/rip-a-remix-manifesto/
Watch clip on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y67en6x_TsY
Episode One:
Appropriation in Blues & Jazz
Blues starts out in the late 1800s as an organic folk
creation of African Americans. Songs have their origins
in the cotton fields and taverns, though church music
also plays an important role. Amateur musicians trade
lyrics, music, and ideas around freely. No one is wholly
responsible for any particular song. No one owns any
song or can claim sole authorship of it. At first, nothing
is published or recorded. Music is transmitted in
performance alone. Each performance is a re-creation.
Appropriation in blues and jazz

Authorship and ownership are not clear-cut or
considered that important

Every performance is unique; little is published or
recorded; songs are not “fixed” in an original or
authorized version

What you do with the material is what’s
important; not who created the original or who
“owns” it
Episode Two:
Appropriation in R&B, Rock
and Roll, Electric Blues
Mid-twentieth century appropriation was characterized
by white musicians appropriating black styles and songs
and capitalizing on them. White-owned music
publishers picked up the rights to black songs, whiteowned record companies recorded black artists, and
white musicians adopted elements of African American
style and popularized them with white audiences,
sometimes making fortunes.
Plagiarism?
A look at some of the
sources of Led
Zeppelin’s “The
Lemon Song” ...
“squeeze my lemon” ...
Arthur Mackay,
“She squeezed my
lemon” (1937)
Robert Johnson,
“Travelling
Riverside Blues”
(1937)
Howlin’ Wolf,
“Killing Floor”
(1964)
Led Zeppelin,
“The Lemon
Song” (1969)
Plagiarism?
Wikipedia notes: In December 1972, Arc
Music, owner of the publishing rights to
Howlin’ Wolf’s songs, sued Led Zeppelin for
copyright infringement on “The Lemon Song.”
The parties settled out of court. Though the
amount was not disclosed, Wolf received a
check for $45,123 from Arc Music immediately
following the suit, and subsequent releases
included a co-songwriter credit for him.
Episode Three:
Disco, hip hop, sampling,
mashups
By the second half of the century, recording is the
major focus of popular music as an industry.
Recordings and technology become important areas
for appropriation.
Because records are mass-produced, more permanent
than live performance, and major sources of wealth
that are subject to copyright, legal and ethical
questions about appropriation become more central.
Technology and appropriation
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Disco re-edits (1970s - )
Remixes (1970s - )
Hip hop DJing (1970s - )
Sampling (1980s - )
Mashups (1990s - )
Disco dance re-edits
During the disco craze of the 1970s, DJs
would sometimes have two copies of a
record and would extend the song by
mixing one into the other so that it went
on and on.
Eventually, DJs began recording “reedits” of popular songs that contained
lengthened versions of tunes made this
way, sometimes with the addition of
sound effects, voiceovers, or other
extraneous material.
Remix
In the end, this led to the practice we have today, where
producers sometimes create multiple mixes of the same song
for different situations: radio edit, extended mix, dub (mostly
instrumental), etc.
It also opened the door to the idea
of the remix.
In a remix, another producer is
given access to the master tracks
for the original and can use them to
reinterpret the material with the
addition of their own sounds,
instrumentals, vocals, and
arrangement.
Hip hop DJing
When rap began (also in the 1970s), the most common
practice was to accompany the rap with breakbeats. The DJ
would have two copies of the same record – one on each
turntable .
He would cut back and forth between an
instrumental or percussive interlude in the song
(the “breakdown”) and the same instrumental
passage on the other disc, creating a
continuous stream of the same instrumental
line for the MC to rap over.
Hip hop DJing
Video excerpts, including
Kool Herc
Mixing, beat-juggling
Ice-T , Grandmaster Caz
Breakdowns
Grandwizard Theodore, DJ Jazzy Jay
Needle dropping and scratching
Grandmaster Flash, Fantastic Freaks and Cold Crush Brothers
Djing, instrumental hip hop
Watch this and following clips on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/v/2Vfoput5KBo
Rap hits the charts

The first mainstream rap single was Sugarhill
Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight.” It uses an
instrumental cover of Chic’s disco hit “Good
Times” from the same year as the
accompaniment.
What on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diiL9bqvalo
Blondie – Hip hop promoter

Punk singer Debbie Harry, aka
Blondie, was into the
underground hip hop scene in
the late 70s and it was she
who invited members of Chic
to a Sugarhill Gang event,
which is how they knew who
the Gang was when members
jumped up onstage and
started improvising raps over
“Good Times” at a Chic
concert a few weeks later.
Rapper’s Delight (1979)
Rap enters the world of copyright.

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A couple of months later an early bootleg version of
“Rapper’s Delight” is released, using material from “Good
Times.”
When members of Chic hear this track, they threaten legal
action and there is a financial settlement. They are granted
co-writing credit. Sugarhill Gang gets a band to record an allintrumental version that is suitable for rapping over.
Interestingly, Chic’s song has original music but adapts most of
its lyrics from two (out of copyright) depression era songs:
“Happy Days are Here Again” (1929) and “About a Quarter to
Nine” (1933).
MC Blondie
Meanwhile, way ahead of her time, Blondie decides to do a
“rap” song of her own.
Watch on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHCdS7O248g
Rapture (1981)
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Earliest white appropriation of hip hop
Earliest example of a female rapper
The first #1 single to feature rap
The first “rap” video to be broadcast on
MTV
Features cameos by rapper and graffiti
artist Fab Five Freddy and graffiti artists
Lee Quinones and Jean-Michel Basquiat.
Hip hop DJ Grandmaster Flash was
supposed to appear, but didn’t show for
the video shoot.
However, he re-used the song in his
famous mix “Adventures of Grandmaster
Flash on the Wheels of steel ”
Appropriation in early hip hop
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Initially completely non-commercial;
typically practised outdoors in parks
and on the street; improvisational;
for pleasure
DJs used (almost exclusively black)
records, which they mixed together
to create extended breakbeat
backdrops for MCs to rap to and
dancers to dance to
Public performances, rarely for
money, almost entirely unrecorded,
in which old and new records (funk,
soul, jazz) were used as sources for
original musical experiences.
Sampling
Watch on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7tOAGY59uQ
The Banana Boat Song
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Originally a “traditional” (anonymous, collaborative)
Jamaican folk song (actually a mento, not a calypso)
Lyrics adapted by “Lord Burgess” and William Attaway
(Jamaican popular songwriters from the 1950s)
Song further adapted for Harry Belafonte and released
on his Calypso album – became a million-seller with
mainstream white American audience
A different version, by The Tarriers, was also a hit, and
these songs launched a calypso craze in the United
States
Sampled and processed by Bangladesh in 2010 for Lil
Wayne’s track (originally intended for rapper T.I.)
Pre-digital appropriation
Songs and styles are
borrowed or stolen from
their original context and
used in a new context
(typically a more
commercial or mainstream
one; often without much
concern or understanding
for the original context)
Post-digital appropriation
Elements of a person’s
or a group’s actual
recorded performance
are lifted from their
original context and
used in a new context,
sometimes without
respect for the integrity
of the original or even
knowledge of the
original in context
Gap Ad (early 2000s)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNesa12IL-o
Audrey Hepburn dancing in the movie Funny Face (1957)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3oxqmKGM5g
Digital appropriation and
postmodern de-contextualization
No one cares about the original creators or the
original context in which the work was created or
presented.
The intentions of the film maker or the scriptwriter
 What the choreographer was trying to do with the
dance
 Who Audrey Hepburn thought she was when doing
the dance – what either Audrey Hepburn’s character
or Audrey Hepburn herself was dancing for

Digital appropriation and
postmodern de-contextualization
No one cares about the original creators or the
original context in which the work was created or
presented.

The intentions of AC/DC in writing and performing
their song

Whether any of those people would like to be
associated with each other or would like to promote
The Gap
Digital appropriation and
postmodern de-contextualization
Lil Wayne and his producer Bangladesh don’t show
much sign of caring about the context from which
their sample comes.
What the anonymous creators of the original song
meant by it, felt or cared about
 What Harry Belafonte felt or cared about when he
recorded the song in the 1950s
 Whether or not any of these people would be happy
to have their creation used snidely as a piece of Lil
Wayne’s amoral, narcissistic banger.

Every case of appropriation
involves an attitude toward the
original, and twists the intentions
and context of the original to a
new intention and context.
Do artists owe anything to the
people who came before them,
and those people’s intentions and
contexts?
Recap: original song
Otis Redding,
Respect (1965)
Recap: cover version
Aretha Franklin,
Respect (1967)
Recap: hip hop djing
Anquette,
Respect
(1988)
Recap: remix
RLP and
Barbara
Tucker,
R.E.S.P.E.C.T
(2011)
Recap: sampling
Na Wasn?
Productions [?],
Respect the
Window
Shopper (Aretha
Franklin vs 50
Cent)
(2011 [?] )
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IICqaN-XyYg
Rap acapella
They come scoop me up at LAX and I hop in
When it comes to bad bitches you know I got them
Some from Long Beach, some from Watts, some from Compton
You know a nigga wanna see how cali girls freak off
After that five-hour flight from New York
I start spitting G at a bitch like a pimp, mayn
Tell her "Meet me at The Mondrian so we can do our thing"
She can bring the lingerie with her, I suppose
And we can go from fully dressed to just having no clothes
She can run and tell her best friend bout my sex game
Her best friend could potentially be next, man
Listen man, shit changed
I came up from doing my thang
Homey I'm holing, holing, holing
Mashups
The typical mashup artist is an amateur, semi-anonymous
“bedroom dj” creating their art on a computer and posting it
– illegally but without charge – on the Internet.
Three great mashup artists to check out:
DJ EARWORM
NORWEGIAN RECYCLING
GIRL TALK
Want to know more about mashups as an artform? Visit
http://www.futureartnow.org
Mashups
Coldplay vs Drake, Lil Wayne & Eminem,
“Forever The Scientist” (Tizwarz Mix)
incorporating
Coldplay, “The Scientist” (2005)
Drake, Kanye, Lil Wayne, Eminem,
“Forever” (2009)
Appropriation in American
popular music (a very crude summary)
Blues, Ragtime, and Jazz (late 19th and early 20th century)
African Americans invent the most important foundations of 20th century
popular music through a free, organic exchange of ideas and motifs
Rock and Roll, Electric Blues (mid 20th century)
African American creations are adapted, capitalized on, and sometimes
stolen by mainstream white musicians and entrepreneurs
Hip hop and sampling (late 20th century)
African Americans recycle their own and white music to create new songs.
(Mostly white) musicians gradually adopt and perfect sampling techniques
and “producer music” is born.
Mashup (today)
Runaway appropriation. Everybody can use everybody else’s stuff for
anything (though there are legal difficulties if you make money from it)
Appropriation in the 21st Century
Here is a track I “created” in literally about two minutes.
I found a recording on YouTube of a Muslim muzzein
making the call to prayer from a minaret and I stuck it on
top of a eurodub track from a producer I like (Tosca, “John
Lee Huber” (Rodney Hunter Dub)).
Should it be okay for me to do that?
• From a legal point of view?
• From a moral point of view? (ethically)
• From a cultural appropriation point of view? (politically)
Appropriation in the 21st Century
Are the only appropriation issues left now to do with
money and copyright law or are their still questions of
respect, fairness, political abuse?
Can anyone appropriate anything now? (From a practical
point of view the answer is yes. But what about from a
moral point of view .... ?)
How important is acknowledgement?
How important is an understanding of and respect for the
appropriated music and its original makers?
What do appropriators owe to
the creators of the past?
 Nothing
 Royalties
 Acknowledgement
 Respect
 Knowledge, true understanding