Cultural Appropriation Cultural appropriation has been around longer than people have understood its true meaning. Kadia Blagrove of the Huffington Post explains cultural appropriation as "a dominant group adopting/trivializing elements of a culture without acknowledging the existence of its original source, especially when the adopted culture belongs to an oppressed group" (2016, p 1). . This type of appropriation has spread across many different platforms such as music, television, and fashion. In terms of cultural appropriation in the United States, this most often involves the white population replicating certain aspects of the black population and refusing to recognize the African culture from which they come. Much of this stems from white appropriation of black music dating back to the early 20th century, the era of jazz and rock and roll. This still happens today when it comes to rap and R&B music, which have become the most popular genres in all of music. As music of African origin becomes more and more appropriate, other aspects of the culture are exposed to the public, encouraging other races to replicate these concepts. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Music has proven to be one of the most obvious art forms that white people have appropriated from black people. This is shown as early as the careers of Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters and is vaguely depicted in the film Cadillac Records. The film shows the act firsthand by depicting the theft by whites of songs originally composed by blacks. Chuck Berry is seen protesting the replication of his song Sweet Little Sixteen in the Beach Boys' Surfin' USA. Not only did the Beach Boys blatantly steal another artist's content, but they failed to recognize the culture from which their "hit" came. Additionally, they were compensated far more than the original creator, truly making this appropriation a crime. It can be argued that mainstream white America did not pay much attention to African Americans or their culture until they began stealing their musical style and creating similar-sounding content. From there, the doors opened and the appropriation began, glorifying the once disdained culture, but without always properly crediting the people within it. It seems like white people don't want to admit that black culture has made some of the best music to date and would rather just make it their own. The strong influence of African culture on some of the greatest white music is also shown in Cadillac Records when the film re-enacts the factual interaction of the Rolling Stones visiting Muddy Waters at his label and being completely impressed. In fact, the Rolling Stones chose their band name because of Waters' song called Rollin' Stone. This is one of the rare examples of white musicians who reproduced content, but did not make it their own. Instead, they genuinely respect the individual and the culture that paved the way for their musical career. The appropriation of black music then made it “acceptable” for whites to express other aspects of culture, particularly fashion. Because of the white, appropriative facade that hides African culture, white people have begun to embrace these cultural contributions as their own while avoiding the fact that they are not the originators. This is present in the case of Kylie Jenner who took the appropriation of black culture to the point of wearing traditional African hairstyles and is.