Thursday, April 24, 2008
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?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
I think that the lawsuits are pretty ridiculous in some respect. Many rock bands use the exact same song structures and chord progressions as other bands - so much that nobody knows where it originated. I think sampling should be perfectly legal because there really is no line to draw when determining what is 'copying' and what is 'new' in music. Guitarists will often sample a riff from another song during a solo - then sell live cd's with those on them. Since it is too hard to draw a line I think it should be legal for the sake of creativity.
Hey, I agree with both of you that the music industry, and some of the artists who are making the most money off of large mainstream audiences are getting really nuts about trying to control their products. A lot of this stems from fear about all these changes. In particular, the fear that in the near future it will not really be possible to make money off of music in the same way that artist have currently. Actually, I think that Mai's documentary has a few really interesting comments about these changes--- maybe you guys can get a copy from her to review on the blog? One artist mentions that musicians are no longer making money on "recordings" per se, that the recording industry is dying but music and musicians are still thriving in live venues and through merchandising. Huge shift. What would it mean if music itself, in the near future, was always free?
I agree especially with the Hip Hop industry. If you ever pay attention to the beats behind hip hop music, they are all similarly the same. Like I said in the previous blog, too many artist are collaborating with many other artists (or even artists that the artists themselves do not know). Take for instance, you may hear a Jay-Z hook on T.I.'s song "Bring em Out". I believe a lot of artists are already accepting the use of sampling because it is giving them market-free exposure to other audiences. We are getting to the stage where a lot of beats, hooks, and even guitar sequences have been duplicated because there are only limited ways to make melodies.
I agree with what your saying. There have been so many times when I hear a song on the radio and I swear I've heard it before from another artist. I so strange how someone could be so against sampling yet at the same time they've done it themselves.
Post a Comment