Cite Your Cross-Cultural Influences Publicly and Often
Appreciating other cultures is welcomed; hijacking them as your own is not. An easy way to prevent people from feeling like you are stealing their culture is to cite who influenced you. Music stars Adele, Sam Smith and Christina Aguilera commonly acknowledge the influence Black artists have had on their sounds and admire historically Black genres.
In an interview with Carson Daly, Smith blatantly pointed out his heroes.
“You know, my main teacher has been Whitney Houston, probably, just soul music,” the singer said. “I’m the biggest soul fan. Stevie Wonder, Chaka Khan, Luther Vandross, all those people … I actually didn’t listen to guy singers, really, up until two years ago. All my mom would play was Whitney [Houston] and Chaka!
When you steal, you can get sued. And that’s just what happened to singer Robin Thicke when singing legend Marvin Gaye’s estate sued him for plagiarizing his 1977 track “Got to Give It Up” with “Blurred Lines.”
