White Stripes, White Rock: The Uncontested Blues Appropriations of the White Stripes

Abstract

ABSTRACT Despite the prevalence of the cultural appropriation debate in popular music discourse, white, popular rock band, the White Stripes, appropriated African-American Delta blues culture, particularly from Son House and his song “Death Letter Blues,” without causing contestation. Appropriation of Black culture has occurred ubiquitously throughout recent music history, causing widespread contestation due to power disparity and misrepresentation. Through reviewing literature regarding cultural appropriation, and semiotically analyzing the band’s 2003 performance of “Death Letter” at Sydney’s Livid Festival, we find that the White Stripes’ intentional methods of respectful representation and stylistic disguise mitigated the perception of cultural appropriation in their performance. We posit that the band emulated a pre-established process of transculturation whereby Delta blues traits were absorbed into the 20th century evolution of rock music.