Appropriation (music)

In music, appropriation is the use of borrowed elements in the creation of a new piece.

"Gino Stefani makes appropriation the chief criterion for his 'popular' definition of melody (Stefani 1987a). Melody, he argues, is music 'at hand'; it is that dimension which the common MusicAL competence extracts (often with little respect for the integrity of the source), appropriates and uses for a variety of purposes: singing, whistling, dancing, and so on." (Middleton, p.96)

"János Maróthy defines the 'folkloric' itself in terms of appropriation: the making, from whatever materials, of 'a music [or other folk art] of your own' (Maróthy 1981)." (Middleton, p.139)

Sources

• Middleton, Richard (1990/2002). Studying Popular Music. Philadelphia: Open University Press. ISBN 0-335-15275-9.
  • Maróthy (1981).
  • Stefani (1987).