Understanding appropriation as a creative practice
In the 1960s, English rock musicians like the Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, Led Zeppelin and many others were discovered by American listeners – largely because of the Beatles – and became a smash hit with American teenagers. Many of these UK groups had been listening closely to African American roots blues and electric blues – Read More …
The process and the result of making a composite photograph by cutting, gluing, rearranging and overlapping two or more photographs into a new image. (Wikipedia) The process was occasionally used in advertising in the late 19th century and for novelty postcards that were popular with the Victorians (many of which were proto-surrealist). People often had Read More …
In Jamaican music – particularly dancehall – it is a common practice for a producer to create a basic rhythm track (bass and percussion) and to then solicit a variety of artists to create songs over it. The track is called a riddim. This is a sort of “invitational appropriation,” in which sometimes dozens or Read More …
Dub is a brand of musical creation that originated in Jamaica around 1970. Many people credit King Tubby, the most famous early dub artist, with having created the “remix” in his dub versions of songs he and others produced for the Reggae market. Dub arises out of the popularity of “versions” in Jamaica in the Read More …
In the classical period of Western music the only generally legitimate ways a composer would appropriate another composer’s music would be to write variations on that composer’s theme or to “transcribe” their work for different instrumentation. For instance, the popular composer Franz Liszt (1811-1886) transcribed countless orchestral and other works by fellow composers. He recreated Read More …
It can be useful to distinguish between each of the following common types of culture in the Western tradition, and the relationship each of them has with appropriation. Folk and digital culture are generally or potentially participatory, while high and mass culture have not tended to be. Folk culture Middle Ages – present (frequently participatory) Read More …
The hip hop artist gets a group of live musicians to replay the music they want to use in the style of the original track. Now they only have to get permission from the publisher of the music, not from the record label or owner of copyright on the original recording. Fees for covering other Read More …
Slash, named for the punctuation mark in k/s (Kirk/Spock) is a subculture that began in the 1970s. It involves re-writing and re-editing franchise scenarios to propose a homesexual relationship between characters who, in the original, do not have this connection. The original and classic pairing is Captain Kirk and Mr Spock from Star Trek. The Read More …
Fan art is original artwork made by fans of a particular franchise, such as Batman, Star Wars, etc. The art may be in any number of media: drawing, cartoons, painting, sculture, collage and photomontage, digital remix, etc. Fan art often focuses on a particular character or motif with which the fan is obsessed or preoccupied, Read More …