I flipped through the news this morning and noticed the MTV movie awards were last night. I decided to distract myself from readings on identity to flip through the images. I stopped at one particular image that annoyed me and led me to finding the video recap from last night. The image I found was one of Selena Gomez, wearing a bindi and dressed in some kind of South Asian inspired costume, along with her back up dancers. When I found the video I was even more annoyed; the dance moves were all remixed Bollywood moves, as were the costumes and even the back beat to her song. I felt this way I've seen one too many Bollywood remixes on television, in the movies, etc. lately and I feel like they are a parody of beautiful South Asian art forms.A few minutes later, a light bulb went off... wait a second, I've seen the same thing in films from all over the world. Bollywood, Tollywood, etc. etc. all borrow or sample seemingly western style moves. I don't watch a lot of these films but I have seen my fair share of Britney-esque dance steps integrated into several musical montages across these genres.All this led me to think about remixes... Do you ever need to be authentic to the originator? Is it possible to know, in this complex, rapidly changing, multi-layered world, who the original author of anything is any more? When does someone need to attribute? Or can we simply remix and move on without ever acknowledging the genealogy or path an idea, an image, a dance move traveled? Should I care an iota that Selena Gomez's (poorly choreographed in my opinion) dance performance draws on more classical dance steps that stem from art forms like Bharathanatyam? Should she? Does it matter people are left with different impressions?In a world where copyright and attribution seem harder to maintain, I'm led to wonder about how to be fair, straightforward and pragmatic about the blurry lines that emerge. It's impossible to be "true" to the original but it seems like sampling, remixing and adapting has gotten to the point that we are being sloppy or irresponsible. Or is a remixed idea always original?A note, this morning I woke up to post this blog and found a story on NPR.org that explicated some similar challenges. Their story is part of a series entitled, When Our Kids Own America, which is explores the implications of shifting demographics in America. The story uses the Harlem Shake meme as an example of what happens when something gets appropriated and potentially loses meaning. Upon further research, I found a video on youtube of people interviewed in Harlem who were asked about what they thought about the meme and they all were talking about how what was being co-opted as the Harlem Shake wasn't at all. So who gets to say what's real? Why? (Does anyone?)