West Newton Cinema

Today we attended a media viewing at the West newton cinema where students from the video productions classes were able to show their work to their peers and family. Many of the productions were much more complex and much more detailed than i had exected. One of my favorites was stalker. At first it just seemed as if the video was going to be about pranking a girl by having a group of friends follow her around videotaping her all day. But in the end they revealed that someone else had been stalking here. I had actually thought it was over when the kid in the black hoodie passed her in the end, and i was extremely surprised when she was grabbed up at the very end. Another video I found quite interesting was the story of the man who could only walk backwards. I feel that the idea is so original, and quite an interesting concept to create a film about. Overall, it was a good experience and would suggest that students next year attend.

Bentley End of the Year Film Festival *Final Blog*

Today my group and I attended the Bentley Endo of the Year Film Festival at the West Newton Cinema. All in all the short films and documentaries that were presented were very well done but there was one documentary in particular stuck out as being very representative of what we have been trying to convey in this blog throughout the semester. The documentary was an observation of what musicians and other artists are doing to combat the tone set by the record industry in light of plummeting record sales in recent years. Many of the artists represented conveyed the idea that the main reason for which they create their music is no longer for monetary gain, but to make it possible for the greatest number of people to experience their music. One of the artists even said that he would be willing to make his music free if it meant more people would be able to enjoy it. While our group isn’t advocating that all music be free, the tone set by these independent artists is a step forward to a more understanding environment to the creative process which has evolved today.

Greed and Hypocrisy

Earlier in my blog postings I spoke of how the recording industry has recently become more vigilant in pursuing legal action against artists who sample music they own the rights to. Unfortunately it’s not only the industry that is up in arms about unlicensed sampling but also the artists. That’s right; there are some artists out there who are furious that their music is used in any way without permission from them or their label. But guess what? Some of the artists who complain about having their music used without their permission sample!!! Now you might be trying really hard to think of whom this hypocrite could be but I will save you some time and just tell you that it is beloved sampling hip-hop artist Dr. Dre. Back in the late 90’s there was this website you might have heard of called Napster, you might have heard of it LOL. Well we all remember how Metallica complained to Congress about it because they felt it infringed on their copyright. Well Dr. Dre also complained, a lot. He filed suit against Napster and another site called Musicmaker.com. Now Musicmaker.com had a contract with Dr. Dre’s former label Death Row Records. It provided its users with the ability to alter tracks on its website and download the finished product. Sounds a lot like sampling doesn’t it. Well as you may already know, the rap industry is very big on sampling and funny enough one of Dr. Dre’s most popular albums “2001” begins with a sampling of the famous THX “deep note.” Consequently, Dr. Dre never received permission to sample this sound from the owner of the THX “deep note”, Lucasfilm. Now Dr. Dre is slapped with a lawsuit for that infringement and the vicious circle continues. We need to acknowledge that the problem is not only the big corporate executives in this industry. If artists don’t get on board with this movement it can never take off. Sampling and altering of music should not be something that we have to pay for. If you’re going to make money off the track and it’s an obvious copy then I can understand. But if you have some start up DJ who is just trying to branch out his creativity, what is the problem with him taking an already existing sound and completely twisting it and distorting it to make his own unique sound? As an artistic society we need to ask ourselves what we create for. Do we create for our own personal gain or do we create to entertain and inspire those around us?

Copyright Laws and Mashup Music

Since I haven't been able to go out lately i decided to do some research online about the concerns some musicians are having. I was able to find an article specifically talking about this issue at http://dir.salon.com/story/ent/music/feature/2003/08/09/mashups_cruger/index1.html . Apparently the concern is whether or not copyright infringement is occurring when a track is sampled and transformed into something new by a completely different artist. In this case the artist is the DJ, which samples instrumentals and lyrics of other artists. There hasn't been any clear cut line where laws can declare some mashups as infringing the copyright of the original score that was sampled. The already tricky laws of the courts are becomming even more unclear to understand and interpret.

Copyrights and the Public Good

Many of the landmark new inventions that are still relevant in my lifetime (e.g. VCR, FM Radio,and copy machines) are a product of someone sampling existing research and trying to either make it more efficient or to reinvent it somehow. I believe that music and more specifically DJ beats are no different. By exaggerating inflating the power of current copyright law, we make thieves out of the creative class. Even some of the most famous pieces of art were influenced by popular icons of their respective times. Take Andy Warhol's "Campbell's Soup" piece. Do you think that the estate of Andy Warhol should have to pay royalties to Campell's Soup or to Marilyn Monroe since he used their images in his artwork. What contemporary copyright law needs to understand is that there is a big difference between blatantly ripping off someones idea and sampling it to make it better. By making it illegal to sample existing art, the courts hinder one of the oldest influences to art as we know it.

Copyrights and What They Mean for Creative Expression

In 2004, a federal appeals court ruled that rap artists should pay for every music sample included in their work - no matter how minor or unrecognizable. Many of the DJs that work in and around the Boston area use "samples" from other songs as filler and beats to their own original pieces. The record industry feels that any kind of sampling from songs to which they own the rights, entitles them to royalties. This is a grealy restrictive precedent that has been established by the federal appeals court because it would place significant hinderances on the crativity of artists. These "all rights reserved" copyrights make it literally illegal for a DJ to take a beat or even one lyric from a song and alter it or use it as a background. Rap artists have been famous as of late for using sampling to completely revamp their own creative works. I believe that the current copyright laws are overly restrictive and will only have a negative affect on the music industry. Here is a hypothetical question i pose to the others who want to respond, Should it be illegal for a DJ to play top 40 songs at an event he/she is paid to perform at without the given consent of each of the artists?

DJ Wayne & Wax

Monday night my groupmates and I went back to the Enormous Room to interview the DJ's performing that night. In an interview with DJ Wayne & Wax I found out the following about him.

Musician turned DJ, Wayne & Wax, began his music career in a blues band but slowly made his way to towards the flashy lights of Hip-Hop. He states hip-hop has always been his love and inspiration to DJing. When he first started playing around with beats and vocals, Wayne & Wax messed around with popular hip-hop tracks. As his skill began to develop he switched over to making his own beats which he would use to mashup.

When I asked him about problems he may have had with dtistributing his work and copyrights, his response to this was that he hasn't had any problems because he doesn't try to make money at all off his albums. Every copy of his album has been free and he also puts them on the internet for free. By distributing his albums for free and performing in pubic settings Wayne & Wax has found a way to get around the issues of copyright. On the other hand if Wayne & Wax were to go mainstream with his music he would have to deal with copyright laws head on and end up paying royalties to those whom he has sampled.

Enormous Room

Located on Mass. Ave., across from the Middle East, the Enormous Room provides a more personal feel than your normal pub feel. Every Monday night from 9-1 you can experience beats from DJ Flack and Wayne and Wax. We hope to get in touch with these DJs and provide you all with more in-depth information on them soon.

Welcome to DJ Research

Welcome,
We made this blog for our New Media Class. In this blog we will be providing information and feedback about Boston DJs. Our research is focused mainly on the Center Street area of Mass. Ave.