Blake Mills, Madison Cunningham, And The Pursuit of Gnawa.

It seems like the sounds of North Africa have suddenly made their way to the sunny shores of California. Gnawa music and it’s influence has shown up constantly in the music that I’ve been listening to. Whether it’s Blake Mills ‘Taka’ or Madison Cunningham’s ‘on and on’. The minor scale, stringed instruments, with a shout chorus from a choir in a low call and response have been making started to become incorporated into the modern day sound of indie artists/musicians. I think I’m into it. Is it problematic that highly skilled white musicians are embracing music that is rooted in North African Arabic traditions? I think yes and no. 

The tunes are nuanced enough that someone who wasn’t familiar with the musical genre would have no idea what is happening, but then that leaves us to a small group of critical people like me who can’t help but wonder if they should have approached it a bit differently. For one, I fucking love music from all over the worlds. The rhythmic and melodic traditions that are found in the Megrhab or in Caracas or Southern Sevilla, have so much more depth than the 2 & 4 of our homogenous american ways.

However, there is always a way to honor that. At the very least one has a duty to highlight and feature players of this music if you are going to try and incorporate it into one’s own identity, or at least pass through it. Because what we are talking about is identity, and scores of years that went into the cultivation of culture. It is white entitlement to think that we can use an identity at our convenience, to wear it for a quick second, only to abandon it after we have worn it. 

I’m not saying that Blake Mills or Cunningham have done this. For the most part they have done a great job of creating a musically compelling composition, but there are still holes that probably could have been patched. For instance: Madison Cunningham’s ‘Golden Gate’ starts with this Day Tripper type of vibe, but is so clearly using Gnawa music during the chorus. I think she should’ve had a Tinariwen feature on this track. It would’ve been more interesting and also better press in general for her. Or at least have lyrics that are related to a desert, and something that is more coherent.

The lyrics are already so incoherent, why not juxtapose the North African Desert with the climate of California, or figure out some type of connection which I’m sure you can find. It feels lazy and like a half-assed idea only to be masked by the incredible vocal and guitar talent of Cunningham. But as a song it really doesn’t make sense. As a side note: this is something that is so common in Madison Cunnigham songs. It feels as if she creates sections of tunes only to weave them together in a way that can feel overly jarring. For sure there are times where it works, and not every tune needs its sections to seamlessly weave into each other, but it is a theme that I’ve observed in Cunningham for a while. 

Nonetheless, back to my cultural appropriation edict. If you’re going to employ a style that has such strong cultural ties, you should at least:

1. Feature the musicians from that region

2. Find a way to connect it to your own story (whether musically or lyrically) I’d say Mills does a pretty good job connecting this to his own story. 

3. Ask yourself if you are just whoring the identity because you can. Really challenge yourself. White people from the U.S. are cold, calculated, shallow. When we smell something sweet we want to devour it despite the consequences or implications it might have. 

That being said, I have a huge Wixarica tattoo on my arm that I get in Mexico when I was 25. I didn’t consult anyone, and my parents hated it, but at least I felt like I looked cool…for a few days.