Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Recently, I was on Connecticut Public Radio’s Colin McEnroe show, talking about the culture and history of the mashup. I gave my usual enthusiastic endorsement of the practice. My friend Jesse Selengut, an ace jazz trumpet player and all-around music master, had some responses.
Filed in Composition, Copyright and Authorship, Music, Recording, Sampling
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Also tagged appropriation, capitalism, collage, Composition, dj earworm, hip-hop, jesse selengut, mashups, memes, Music, ownership, production, Recording, rolling stones, Sampling, susan blackmore
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On Tuesday, July 17, I appeared on the Colin McEnroe Show on Connecticut Public Radio to talk about my pet topic, remixes and mashups. The great DJ Earworm was on the show too, which I was totally geeked out about. You can stream or download the show here. Or listen to my remix of it: [...]
Filed in Autobio, Copyright and Authorship, Sampling
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Also tagged dj earworm, electronica, Evolution, girl talk, hip-hop, mashups, memes, Music, npr, pop, remixes, self promotion
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I recently saw Under African Skies, the documentary about Paul Simon’s Graceland, and it was spellbinding. The music is so beautiful, the politics are so agonizing. I watched it with my mom and sister, which is appropriate since Graceland was in heavy rotation through my childhood. Mom isn’t a big pop scholar and knew next [...]
Filed in Autobio, Composition, Copyright and Authorship, Improvisation, Key Musicians, Music, Race and Identity, Recording
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Also tagged accordion, africa, apartheid, Bakithi Kumalo, bass, chevy chase, graceland, guitar, judaica, ladysmith black mambazo, Music, ownership, paul simon, Politics, race, ray phiri, south africa
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This post is longer and more formal than usual because it was my term paper for a class in the NYU Music Technology Program. Questions of authorship, ownership and originality surround all forms of music (and, indeed, all creative undertakings.) Nowhere are these questions more acute or more challenging than in digital music, where it [...]
Filed in Composition, Copyright and Authorship, Key Musicians, Music, Music Business, Politics, Recording, Sampling
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Also tagged ableton, afrika bambaataa, amazing grace, amen break, authenticity, bach, beatles, beyonce, biz markie, brian eno, classical, compulsory licensing, danger mouse, david shields, dj, dj earworm, dj premier, double dee and steinski, entropy, Evolution, fairlight cmi, fugees, girl talk, grandmaster flash, harold bloom, hip-hop, informationtheory, jay-z, jesse walker, john coltrane, jonathan lethem, linkedin, looping, marcus boon, mashups, memes, midi, missy elliot, mohawks, nas, nyu, originality, plato, plunderphonics, questlove, reason, Recording, remixes, richard dawkins, Sampling, sasha frere-jones, stravinsky, susan blackmore, theodor adorno, walter benjamin, william gibson
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Thomas Wuil Joo. A Contrarian View of Copyright: Hip-Hop, Sampling, and Semiotic Democracy. 44 CONN. L. REV. — (2012) As both a fan and a producer of sample-based music, I’m naturally sympathetic to Lawrence Lessig and the free-culture movement, a group of legal scholars advocating reforms to copyright law that would make it easier to [...]
Filed in Copyright and Authorship, Music, Music Business, Politics, Sampling
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Also tagged beastie boys, biz markie, de la soul, DJ Kool Herc, george clinton, girl talk, linkedin, nyu, Politics, public enemy, Sampling
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The first time I heard Manu Dibango’s “Soul Makossa” was courtesy of Motorcycle Guy, a prominent Brooklyn eccentric who drives around on a tricked-out motorcycle bedecked with lights and equipped with a powerful sound system. I encounter him every so often and he’s always bumping some good funk, soul or R&B. One night, he was [...]
Filed in Composition, Copyright and Authorship, Dance, Key Musicians, Music, Sampling
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Also tagged a tribe called quest, big daddy kane, bjork, boy george, boyz ii men, cameroon, charles hamilton, dance, david mancuso, digging the crates, duala, eighties, Evolution, fugees, funk, geto boys, jay-z, kanye west, kool moe d, lord tariq and peter gunz, manu dibango, memes, michael jackson, poor righteous teachers, pop, rihanna, songwriting, soul makossa, thriller, will smith
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I don’t enjoy Girl Talk’s music all that much — I find it overwhelming, like watching someone flip channels on a TV. But I think he’s really important, and anyone who cares about music, technology, originality and ownership should be paying close attention. Adam Bossy raised an intriguing idea in his answer — describing an [...]
Filed in Composition, Copyright and Authorship, Dance, Key Musicians, Sampling
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Also tagged audio editing, girl talk, hip-hop, hipster, inspiration, linkedin, mashups, memes, pop, rock, songwriting
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Sunday, September 25, 2011
Last year, I spoke on a panel about sampling with a few academics and copyright lawyers. One of the panelists was Martin Schwimmer, a partner in a law firm practicing trademark and copyright law. A big part of his job is going after copyright infringers. Schwimmer assured the audience that no one will ever sue [...]
Friday, September 9, 2011
If you had to name the most influential drummers in contemporary music, who would you pick? If you’re a rock fan, you might go with Ringo Starr, John Bonham, or Keith Moon. A jazz fan might talk about Max Roach, Elvin Jones or Tony Williams. You probably wouldn’t think to name Gregory Cylvester Coleman. He [...]
Filed in Copyright and Authorship, Math, Music, Sampling
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Also tagged amon tobin, aphex twin, curtis mayfield, david bowie, digging the crates, dillinja, drum n bass, drumming, eighties, electronica, futurama, golden ratio, hip-hop, jungle, looping, luke vibert, lupe fiasco, mantronix, Math, memes, nineties, nwa, powerpuff girls, recycle, reggae, rnb, salt n pepa, Sampling, snow, soul, the impressions, the winstons
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Why does folk music collector Alan Lomax have a copyright interest in “Takeover” by Jay-Z? I learned the answer from Creative License: The Law And Culture Of Digital Sampling by Kembrew McLeod and Peter DiCola. It’s a companion book to the invaluable documentary Copyright Criminals. The story of Jay-Z and Alan Lomax isn’t quite as [...]
Filed in Composition, Copyright and Authorship, Music, Music Business, Politics, Recording, Sampling
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Also tagged alan lomax, blues, chain gangs, digging the crates, folk, funk, grand funk railroad, hip-hop, jay-z, krs-one, rock, Sampling, the animals
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