Lately in class we’ve been talking about race and music. We also read Segregating Sound, wherein Miller laid out some of the history of modern day music and how racial politics led to current stereotypes and perceptions of music. I think it’s very interesting how much seemingly apolitical features of American life can have such a hidden racial and ugly history–such as current country music being a mainly white commodity based of minstrel shows and the colonization of Hawai’i. I think the concept of cultural appropriation seeping into music is complicated, because innovation and cultural tradition are especially blurred lines in the arts. However, when people like Elvis directly steal from others and become successful partly due to the fact that they are able to take advantage of privilege directly related to the color of their skin, it becomes apparent that theft and racism are larger players than one might think. Especially disturbing was the song about a “dark Filipina woman.” I think these types of songs speak directly to how racialized and problematic the history of music is. Going forward, I believe there should be a movement to give proper credit to black artists stolen from and continuation to support local artists of color.