Write your own music...

After discussing in class how the beach boys stole Chuck Berry's guitar riff to produce "Surfin' U.S.A." I was shocked. Nothing aggravates me more than seeing musicians and become famous off of other artists work. We even see a little of this now today. Although Chuck Berry was in jail when the Beach Boys stole this outstanding guitar riff, that still doesn't make it right. This makes me wonder did race have anything to do with this? Were the Beach Boys racists? Or did record companies think that the song would be much more successful if five young white boys from California wrote lyrics to it? What do you think?