Nuance and Elvis

On the subject of nuance, my professor gave me some interesting things to think about the other day. But first, I should preface with some background info.

In my non-fiction class, when we were talking about my essay and about appropriation, the topic of Elvis came up. Someone (it may have been me) brought up the fact that some of Elvis’ most popular songs weren’t his originally, but came first from black artists. Personally, I had learned that the original versions of songs like “Hound dog” or “That’s Alright Mama” were from black artists in a past class, so these claims were not unfounded, but perhaps placed too much agency onto Elvis himself (We’ll get to this later). Anyway, I think that our flippant discussion of Elvis’ appropriation may have been taken personally by one of my classmates, because they wrote about it that day. One of their main points seemed to be that Elvis was not racist and that it was unfair to classify him as such based on newer or lesser known information. 

Now, here is the part where I say something perhaps not so flattering about myself. I read their post and I took it very personally. I thought about it a lot that day. How was “stealing” the work of black artists not a racist thing to do? But then I began to think, “how much of that was Elvis’ fault?” I wanted to get into it. I often find that when I have an initial emotional reaction to something, it is best to leave and reevaluate with a cooler head and think about the nuance. I found that I partially agreed with their argument. I agree that Elvis’ should not be classified as racist simply for contributing to the appropriation of music. In fact, appropriation happens quite often among musicians. Take Doechii’s Anxiety for example. If in twenty years, people remember Anxiety and Doechii is more of a household name than Gotye, is that not also appropriation? Regardless of what royalties she paid to Gotye, is there not a similar occurrence of one artist profiting greatly off of another (Also, Gotye’s Somebody That I Used To Know samples a song by Luiz Bonfá that no one even knows the name of, so who’s appropriating who)? Maybe it’s not a one-to-one example, but it’s good enough for now. Anyway, here’s where that nuance comes in. It’s also where my professor’s email comes in too.

I brought up the idea of an essay about this to my professor and he sent me some interesting information about an argument against Elvis himself being racist. I thought it was pretty fascinating. It shed some light on things I didn’t know so much about, like the ways that the industry itself preyed on black people at the time. If we go purely off of that information (I can’t share it here, but you’ll have to take my word for it), we cannot classify Elvis as racist. However, he did operate within a racist system and his actions indirectly contributed to the oppression of black musicians. Can any of that fault be placed on him? I genuinely don’t think there’s an answer to that question. At least, not one that I have. Maybe it’s a no? There’s that pesky nuance again. 

(I have been told by a friend that I don’t use these philosophical ideas quite correctly. I’m mostly there, but not all the way, so indulge me a little because I mainly use them to try to explain my points. If I end up writing an essay on this, I will ensure it is more accurate).

I say I partially agree with my classmate’s argument, but I cannot say that I agree with all of it. There was one phrase in particular that bothered me and I hope they’ll forgive me for quoting it directly here for a desire not to strawman them, “Admiration is not appropriation; if Elvis was a racist, he would not be so open to taking elements of Black culture.” I believe that this statement is a logical fallacy called a “non-sequitur.” I am not well versed in the world of philosophy, so excuse me if am using the term incorrectly, but my understanding is that a non-sequitur is an argument that is not supported by its premises. I do not understand it well enough to explain well, so I’ll try to show you by writing it differently. Argument: If Elvis is racist, then he is not open to taking elements of black culture. Let’s put the inverse here as well: If Elvis is not racist, then he is open to taking elements of black culture. I personally think that it is presented poorly, which is why I had that initial reaction. A lot of people blatantly appropriate from other cultures with the intent to cause harm, which is why I initially found the argument foolish. If we go off of this understanding, then Elvis openly taking from elements of black culture has no bearing on if he is racist or not (we cannot determine agenda or intent from this statement alone).

However, I think my initial understanding was wrong. After some careful consideration, what I think my classmate is saying is that Elvis never claimed to have made these songs himself and was open about where his musical inspiration came from, which means it would be unfair to blame him for the lack of credit given to those original artists. I think it’s simply how my brain works, but I don’t think the classmate meant it how I initially took it. Racist people can appropriate from other cultures, but perhaps someone who is not racist would not be shy about crediting where they got it from. I don’t know Elvis and I don’t think my classmate does either (unless those rumors about him still being alive were true), so I don’t think either of us can say definitively that Elvis was not a racist man. However, there is plenty of evidence that he wasn’t, like this article or this one or this one or this one.

This leads me to another topic that I will get into another time (sorry for such a long post today). Is appropriation always bad? One criticism (a valid one) that my professor had on my essay was that I didn’t talk about the agency of the young white kids on tiktok that were doing the appropriation. If they are simply operating within a system that hurts black people, like Elvis, how much blame can be placed on them? Maybe none. Isn’t that a hard-ass pill to swallow? I’m still thinking about it.

I’ll see you Friday.