Feld

Feld discusses the "Africanization" of American music as parallel to the Afro-Americanization of African Music. Right off the bat, I would have to disagree with the notion of American music being "africanized" seeing as how most music genres considered American (rock, RnB, blues, jazz, gospel, hip-hop, soul) are simply rooted in African American culture, they were not original musics that increasingly became "africanized." He focuses on Paul Simon's album Graceland and the politics that surrounded is formation. While Paul Simon contributed greatly to exposing South African music to the west (the U.S. in particular), Feld had a problem with the power structure Simon had over the South African musicians. He felt as though Simon's work bordered on exploitation. Racial, social hegemony is obviously transcendent in the arts as it relates to industry. Feld presents a sort or back handed complement by praising Simon's contribution to South African music in monetary support but condemning him for handling the business aspect of the music (holding the copyrights). Feld did not provide a lot of detail outlining this situation, but I wonder if Simon's holding of the copyright was completely out of malice. Did the pros outweigh the cons in this situation?