Guybrush

I think cultures are always changing and now, in many cases, rapidly merging. Sometimes change hurts. Generally speaking, I think mimicry comes from a place of love. Beastie Boys came from hardcore, but they fell harder in love with hip-hop and so they mostly wanted to do that instead.

Maybe there's bad appropriation and good appropriation. In my example above, they did kinda fake it until they could make it, but then they became a genuine part of it and added something new to it. They helped take hip-hop to new places and to a wider audience. Maybe that can be said to be good appropriation.

If Bieber or Timberlake or whatever makes a one-song foray into a genre because a producer wants that particular sound for that song, then arguably that's not quite as good.

Still, if a culture - music or otherwise - gets popular, it's gonna reach a new audience and some of them are gonna love it and be inspired. Maybe that inspired person is a teenager in a band or Timberlake's producer. In a way it's a sign of cultural health. It can seem really dumb then when a newcomer who was never part of the culture suddenly sells more than old-timers in that genre. I agree that it's obnoxious, but I also find it a little hard to blame artists or music producers for aiming for success. Arguably, the disappointment should lie with the masses who buy the appropriated culture and make it successful. Best case scenario, it brings in a new audience also for the old-timers.

Anyways, I do find it kind of inevitable. For me as someone who doesn't feel particularly victimized by cultural appropriation, I prefer to just laugh at it. However, even if I can't quite relate, I do respect that some people genuinely find it problematic and wouldn't really argue against anyone making that claim.

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