Nothing is as simple as it seems. Ms. Kolawole mentions “Hound Dog”, which is an excellent example. Elvis brought the song into the mainstream, and it was first recorded wonderfully by Big Mama Thornton in 1952. But like a great deal of music from that era, the song was written by Jewish songwriters ,in this case, the team of Lieber and Stoller from L.A… It seems like Ms. Kolawole did not check the origin of the song she uses as her main example of appropriation before she published the article. That makes it another prime example of misguided anger over appropriation. She made an assumption about the song’s origins, based on her own preconceptions. Of course, such songs could not have been written without influence of American Black and Appalachian music traditions. American music is about cultural sharing, not appropriation.
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