You know the “fortnite dances” as people are referring to are like, all popular dances from hip hop artists that were taken without credit, acknowledgement, or royalties right?
Black artists specifically
Almost every single one of them were thought of by black people and artists, then fortnite trademarked then without credit. This is literally cultural appropriation.
I dunno if they trademarked them but they ABSOLUTELY monetized them with no royalties paid out. Like I still don’t support bothering little kids over Fortnite dances or whatever the fuck but check this out:
Even the dance that is often classified as THE Fortnite dance was straight up stolen from black actor and performer, Donald Faison. He improvised the dance for an episode of Scrubs in 2006.
Y’all still don’t know how copyrights or trademarks work.
^^^^ like y’all can’t trademark a dance. If that’s the case every single one of y’all hitting any dance on tv finna get sued.
Ever hit the moonwalk? You going to jail buddy
No you can’t copyright a dance (not technically), but let’s not act like there was no way to acknowledge and compensate the dancers who originated these moves. They could pay to use their likeness, but that would mean majority Black characters lol. They could pay them to use them as models for the motion work they have to do for the game even if not use their likeness. They could hire them to choreograph new dances. They could give them a fckng credit on the game so the original dancer could use it to promote themselves. They could acknowledge them by paying them to promote the game or be in commercials.
There are sooooo many ways 🙂
So many people in the notes are conflating a person vs a corporation. A corporation doesn’t dance. It’s inanimate. They created a product that uses the intellectual/artistic work of others. They have no real life dancers dancing. The characters are computer animated. So while it’s fine for people to dance based off what’s popular etc., that doesn’t equate to a corporation manufacturing a product. This isn’t a performer being inspired by their favorite dancer and imitating them. It’s a business. You can’t look at a corporation take that Donald Faison clip wholesale! (Like no interpretation whatsover) without having credited him or compensated Scrubs (cause frankly that’s who owns that clip) and think that’s completely fine. I don’t understand how they could have done it without paying whoever owns Scrubs to use it…tbh I’m convinced they must have and we just don’t know about it
The broader point of OP’s critique, which remains valid, is that corporations and American popular culture thrives off of the intellectual and artistic work or African Americans and Black people while giving no credit to us!
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