Meh… I can’t believe you actually think that anything coming from MTV is anything but mindless commercial shit anyway. She wasn’t put on there for the twerk, she was put on there because she (allegedly) can sing. Also: bewbs. The tragically late adoption of Gagaesque fashion is a pathetic bit of “me too” as well.
You already covered it. The difference is between appropriation and plagiarism. When it comes to visual art there is a fine line. Visual creations are deemed to be ‘copyrightable’ whereas dance is not. IMO there is absolutely nothing wrong with adoption of other cultures’ dance moves or musical style: the proof is in the pudding. If people like it, they will buy. Adoption and assimilation of alternative styles is all anything is in the end of the day. Plus homage is a compliment, not theft.
part of the mainstream audience of America that’s always going to be
racist and avoid Black performers or Black culture
I think there’s far less of these people than you’d think. How many hiphop shows have you been to? The people to which you refer would almost certainly not go see Eminem as they’d be the same deadshits who call it “rap-crap”.
Won’t somebody please think about the white race!..
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MLK’s egalitarian goal.
Familiar with that one. It’s the one that whites get all I Have A Dream-y about while kind of forgetting everything else that King had to say. Especially the stuff that he said not too long before whites murdered him.
It’s also B.S.:
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Nah, whites are fair game. Sorry.
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Correct, its a Jamaican expression. Might go back as far as the 80s, I cant remember right now.
Twerk gyrated further into pop culture focus this week when noted white pop star Miley Cyrus attempted, poorly, to perform it on a televised awards show.
Sounds like someone is jealous
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Well, in the most literal sense, Barack Obama IS really-and-truly African-American.
I don’t know what “culturally black” means really, either. I have an idea of what the stereotype behind it is, however.
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What on earth is wrong with you people?
Have none of you ever heard of dancehall - that great Jamaican artform that regularly percolates into US mainstream culture via Hip Hop? Dancehall dances and dancehall queen competitions have been ‘twerking’ for well over 20 years. There’s no need to look at reggaeton or Africa, the influence is blatantly obvious as this clip from a Canadian reggae festival in 1995 shows: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=U0tGhLfxtZ4#t=85
uhhh, the ancestors of native Jamaican people were brought there as plantation slaves from Africa. Of course there is an African root.
This is fascinating. I’m learning a lot. In fact I’ve book-marked that video to study later.
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You’re still not getting it. It is a huge jump.
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I think there’s far less of these people than you’d think. How many
hiphop shows have you been to? The people to which you refer would
almost certainly not go see Eminem as they’d be the same deadshits who
call it “rap-crap”.
Yeah, you’re right. I was thinking about that as I wrote it. White kids in the Fifties or Sixties seemed to break through a barrier of listening to Black performers their more racist parents didn’t like. And you hear about some Black musicians who strangely see that their audience is mostly white (a complaint in Mo Better Blues). I don’t know how much that still happens, but it’s the only other good argument I can see against white artists “appropriating” black art, even when they’re giving proper credit and royalties to the songwriters or the culture they’re appropriating from.
If there was really a problem of Black performers not getting jobs because of competition from Eminems and Mileys and Pat Boones, I don’t know how we’d address that, other than shaming white artists into self-segregating their musical culture, playing only genres most associated with white culture. Which would look more or less like the current state of Country music. +shiver+ What’s-his-name would have to give up singing Honkytonk Badonkadonk.
Wow. Really? I had no idea. I always wondered how they got there.
My point is that dembow and many other contemporary African dances are heavily influenced by dancehall (which has enjoyed a huge resurgence in Africa over the last 10 years), and that it is the primary node of distribution for this style.
You said there’s no need to look at Africa. I’m telling you you are full of it.
Do you understand the difference between ‘roots’ and ‘influence’? Here, I’ll make it easy for you.
‘Dancehall is a primary influence on twerk style dancing in the US. The roots of the style come from Africa (like everything else)’.
Would you like me to use smaller words?
@awjt and @weareie: Simmer down, please.
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Not really. Claiming that white people shouldn’t twerk because it’s black culture is virtually indistinguishable from saying they shouldn’t do it because it makes them wiggers, or that it’s not a white thing to do. Which is virtually indistinguishable from pooh-poohing Obama’s success by dismissing him as not being culturally black. What does that even mean, anyway? Should he sit on the front porch of the WH with ribs on the grill, a 40oz. in one hand, a slice of watermelon in the other, drawling his way through his sentences? Honestly, I got riled up on another BB thread for pointing out how horribly racist people were acting. Because guise, seriously, saying Obama is successful because of his white mom totally isn’t racist, we promise.
I don’t think that she was going for Gagaesque fashion. She was going for a TV acceptable version of the nakedness in the Blurred Lines video.
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Okay, okay, I’ll get off your lawn. Sheesh!
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