Cultural Appropriation Cultural appropriation has been happening 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 made its way across many different platforms such as music, television and fashion. In terms of cultural appropriation in the United States, it most commonly involves the white population replicating aspects of the black population and refusing to acknowledge the African culture from which they come. Much of this stemmed from white appropriation of black music dating back to the early 20th century during the jazz and rock and roll eras. This still occurs today with regards to rap and R&B music, which have become the most popular genres in all of music in general. As music rooted in Africa 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 Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Music has proven to be one of the most obvious art forms that whites have appropriated from blacks. This is shown already in the careers of Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters and is vaguely represented in the film Cadillac Records. The film shows the act firsthand by illustrating the theft by whites of songs originally composed by blacks. Chuck Berry is seen protesting the cover of his song Sweet Little Sixteen in The Beach Boys' Surfin' USA. Not only did the Beach Boys blatantly steal another artist's content, they failed to recognize the culture from which their "big hit" came. Furthermore, they were compensated much more than the original creator, making appropriation a real crime. It can be argued that dominant white America didn't pay much attention to African Americans or their culture until they started stealing their musical style and creating similar sounding content. From this, the doors opened and the appropriation began, glamorizing the once despised culture, but still not adequately giving credit to the people within it. It seems that white people don't want to admit that black culture has made the best music to date and prefer to simply appropriate it. The strong influence of African culture in some of the greatest pieces of white music is also shown in Cadillac Records when the film reconstructs the real-life interaction of the Rolling Stones visiting Muddy Waters at his record label and being in total awe. In fact, the Rolling Stones chose their band name because of Waters' song called Rollin' Stone. This is one of the few examples of white musicians who replicated the content, but did not appropriate it. Instead, they sincerely respect the individual and their culture, which paved the way for their musical career. The appropriation of black music, then, made it "acceptable" for whites to express other cultural aspects, particularly fashion. Because of the white and appropriative facade that hides African culture, white people have begun to adopt these cultural contributions as their own, avoiding the fact that they are not the creators. This is present in the case of Kylie Jenner who has appropriated black culture to the point of wearing traditional African hairstyles and even altering parts of her body to appear "African". Although this is the.