In an article about culture appropriation in the music industry, author James O. Young gives us his information on the difference between “taking” or “making”  music from an artist or genre. He then soon explains how music can be labeled as taking. The term he used to describe the factor that creates a negative label for the artist is because they had some sort of aesthetic difference. An aesthetic of something is a set of principles underlying and guiding the work of a particular artist or artistic movement. So, what he is trying to say is if an artist doesn’t necessarily follow the same kind of guidelines if they wish. From the genre’s culture there is a good chance the artist will not be respected because the rest of the culture could feel disrespected for not being aesthetically aware of who they are representing when making the song. Here I believe the author makes a good understandable point from the readers point of view of his message. He later explains more claims to how one’s music can be offensive to a culture, “ there is the question of the offensiveness of cultural appropriation. Ill-informed appropriation, sacrilegious appropriation, and appropriation that does not acknowledge its sources, can be objectionably offensive.” (Young para. 14) This relates to the claim of having the right aesthetics to the music in order for it to be approved. But, The word sacrilege means to violate or misuse the use of something sacred. Personally, I think that Jame’s view upon the difference in taking or making music and his diagnosis of how somebody can misuse another cultures practices in ways that make it disrespectful. Which end up, making the artist not successful in the specific genre.

Author Alexus Mcleod explains his moral view about rap artists in one of his articles, “Is hip hop “Black music”? Is it “poor people’s music”? Or both? Or is urban poverty close enough to what the popular imagination associates with Blackness that possessing such a background is seen as legitimizing?” ( para. 5) Personally, I disagree about calling the music that name but he does have a point. Most rap artists mention times of their life  that relate to such things. But, in fact, there has been some changes with this problem in rap today. Artists such as Jack Harlow, or Lil Dicky have been successful in this genre. If you’re asking why it’s because they make their songs their own without potentially disrespecting the rap culture because their music is purely original and some may say good quality. Throughout the article Mcleod often speaks about how the music genre basically has to be only black people in order to be successful and respectful to the genre’s culture. If you are saying that about the music right off of the bat and continuously speak upon it. You would think that the author would do a better job distinguishing his biases to help the reader understand in a more in depth way other than just blaming it on skin color.