Critical Review #10: Feld 1994

Steven Feld's "Notes on 'World Beat'" examines the interplay between American and African popular musics and the dynamics of the relationship. He highlights the dual nature of musical appropriation; that of both respectful admiration and homage and that of domination and asymmetry of ownership and power. As an example he uses Mick Jagger's recording of music by Muddy Waters. Jagger has great respect for Waters and said that he "wanted to record great songs associated with [Waters] to draw attention to rock's debt to blues" (Feld 238). However, the relationship is fundamentally unbalanced: Jagger benefits vastly more than Waters, and there is a certain cultural arrogance to the idea that a recording by a global pop star is necessary to draw attention to the music of a lesser-known artist.

Feld goes on to discuss how African American music went back to Africa and influenced African pop music, leading to the familiar sound that Paul Simon found when he went there in the 80s. He also emphasizes the idea of ownership as it relates to music. All of the songs on Graceland are "Copyright...Paul Simon", and some of the artists did not even receive writing credit for their songs (in a further example of ownership dynamics, Simon gave writing credit to the African groups for the songs on which they collaborated, but not to the American groups). Feld concludes by suggesting that the issues of power and control in the global recording business have created a situation such that African and African-American artists and musical styles are kept "at the levels of labor, talent, or 'influences'" which are used for profit by the white record company executives and their global pop stars.

Who has the power to alter the system as it currently stands? Could and would the African and African American artists mentioned by Feld bring change to the system by refusing to play a backing role? Could and would the pop stars change the system by refusing to take advantage of others' music? Or can change only occur if the record company executives decide to reform the system to eliminate the dynamics of control and domination?