Rick Rubin claims to know "nothing about music" and have very little technical expertise, but he's nevertheless become a guru-like figure for many bands, empowering them to make some of their best music (and some of their worst). Now a prolific podcaster, Rubin has shared his views on musical appropriation, saying that the concept is an "impossible idea."
Rubin shared these thoughts in a conversation with Rosalía on the June 28 episode of his podcast Tetragrammaton. Rosalía asked him directly what he thought about appropriation, and Rubin responded, "I think it's an impossible idea. It's crazy. The only reason you make something like something that someone else has ever made is in tribute to that. You're never undermining that thing; you're shining light on it by doing something like it, because you think it's so beautiful. … I think we can be inspired by anything, and it's only good."
Rubin was referring to musical influence, and never got into the colonial implications of theft and appropriation — such as, say, wearing a headdress to a music festival, or Elvis becoming far more successful than the artists he directly borrowed from.
Rubin's good-faith interpretation of musical appropriation doesn't address power or privilege. "If you tried to directly copy what somewhere else does, it's going to be different when you do it than when they do it," he argued. "If you look at the history of music: the Beatles wanted to do music like Motown, like American music. It doesn't sound like it — it sounds like the Beatles! Led Zeppelin wanted to do American blues music. It doesn't sound like American blues music — it sounds like Led Zeppelin! Because it sounds like who they are. It's like if you write a script for a movie and give it to five different directors, you're going to get five different movies, even with the same script. We each have our own way that we do the things that we do, and it's always different."
The podcast episode can be heard below. The discussion of appropriation starts around the 42-minute mark.
Rubin shared these thoughts in a conversation with Rosalía on the June 28 episode of his podcast Tetragrammaton. Rosalía asked him directly what he thought about appropriation, and Rubin responded, "I think it's an impossible idea. It's crazy. The only reason you make something like something that someone else has ever made is in tribute to that. You're never undermining that thing; you're shining light on it by doing something like it, because you think it's so beautiful. … I think we can be inspired by anything, and it's only good."
Rubin was referring to musical influence, and never got into the colonial implications of theft and appropriation — such as, say, wearing a headdress to a music festival, or Elvis becoming far more successful than the artists he directly borrowed from.
Rubin's good-faith interpretation of musical appropriation doesn't address power or privilege. "If you tried to directly copy what somewhere else does, it's going to be different when you do it than when they do it," he argued. "If you look at the history of music: the Beatles wanted to do music like Motown, like American music. It doesn't sound like it — it sounds like the Beatles! Led Zeppelin wanted to do American blues music. It doesn't sound like American blues music — it sounds like Led Zeppelin! Because it sounds like who they are. It's like if you write a script for a movie and give it to five different directors, you're going to get five different movies, even with the same script. We each have our own way that we do the things that we do, and it's always different."
The podcast episode can be heard below. The discussion of appropriation starts around the 42-minute mark.
