Vampire Weekend Is Rad

Vampire Weekend

Thanks for asking this! That is a good question, and one that I have thought abt a lot myself! I do not believe vampire weekend culturally appropriated their music, but their writing style has been influenced by the style of African music. My explanation is long forgive me.

Some music critics in 07-08 assumed that vampire weekend’s success was from stealing African music and that they were entitled, rich ivy leaguers with no creativity of their own. Criticisms like these were done with only cursory research on the band and on the surface seem true. 

VW, like all other bands, has many musical influencers. They are by no means exclusively African, but include South African artist Brenda Fassie’s music for example. Other artists VW were influenced heavily by are Peter Gabriel, and the Talking Heads who themselves were influenced by African music. This is just to name a few… The style of African music VW is influenced by is characterized by the use of rhythmic base and long regular guitar riffs. Also with congo drums for percussion. This style can be used without stealing from a culture, just like other genres of music. Ezra Koenig has done several collaborations with African artists, which seems to prove cultural appreciation and not appropriation in his approach to music.

The band formed at Columbia Uni, which is in New York City, which is very diverse, so it would be nearly impossible not to be influenced by other culture’s music when living there. An example is reggaeton music, which was popular during VW’s college years and is another one of their influences. 

Critics of the band imply that the members of VW were not creative/talented enough to come up with their own music. This is not the case since 2 members have 4 year degrees in music from Columbia, and are proficient with several instruments. The band also implements heavy elements of classical music, which are originally composed by Rostam. 

And Ezra claiming that he had a ‘right’ to music sounds a bit out of context but he was probably referring to the freedom all artists should have to create original music while still having influences? (If you want to hear it in his own words Ezra answers this in many interviews) (or Ezra has an entire spiel on his views on multiculturalism on internetvibes)