Below is an excerpt from the copyright documentary Good Copy/Bad Copy where mashup artist Girl Talk discusses his creative process and creates a new work by remixing a song which was in itself a remix of an original recording.
In the video Girl Talk (AKA Greg Gillis) talks about how he does give credit to every artist he uses, but argues that to actually license a sample would be far too costly and would cripple his ability to have a viable career. With this in mind, is a shift in thinking necessary when it comes to copyright law? Is the idea of musical copyright an antiquated notion in a world where media and audio technology are cheap, widely available and easy to use? Gillis thinks so, stating that 'I basically believe in that idea (of Fair Use), that if you create something out of pre-existing media, that’s transformative, that’s not negatively impacting the potential sales of the artist you’re sampling, if it’s not hurting them in some way, then you should be allowed to make your art and put it out there' (Kosner, 2012).
This is without even mentioning the effect that peer to peer filesharing and torrent sites have had on how people access music in the first place. Examples of how the two come together to cause concern for the music industry can be seen in the developments of 'Grey Tuesday' where the widely acclaimed mashup of The Beatles' 'White Album' and Jay-Z's 'Black Album' (Danger Mouse's 'The Grey Album') was released for free download on mass, much to the chagrin of record labels and managers of the artists involved.
With all this in mind, do the rules surrounding music sampling and copyright need to be adjusted to reflect the times? Should we adopt the kind of fair use model that Gillis suggests?
References
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=tjHj-f6gLkI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2l-dvU9tOw&list=PLrsVBazougi53WxEEZv60Fg9EGdCKtF91
Kosner, A 2012, Girl Talk's Greg Gillis on Copyright, Curation and Making Mashup Rhymes, retrieved 17/8/13. http://www.forbes.com/sites/anthonykosner/2012/10/07/girl-talks-gregg-gillis-on-copyright-curation-and-making-mashups-rhyme/
hey dean, it's clear to see you're obviously a fan of girl talk and feel passionately about the topic of copyright and/or music . I thoroughly enjoyed reading your post as I too feel passionately about these topics. However, I take the opposing view when it comes to copyright and believe that sampling music should be considered stealing, as copying any form of art, music or otherwise, to me is plagiarism, no matter how little amount you use. The video link provided was well chosen and added extra depth and evidence to your opinion and post as it provided a point of view from some one in the industry. Maybe another link to a girl talk song would have also added to the post as then people could see the extent to which he samples peoples music. all in all I think you have written a really well structured and informative blog post here, keep up the good work!
ReplyDeleteHi Dean,
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with your point of view. Your piece reminds me very much of the DJ scene in Melbourne, and how dj's use other people's work in their mixes at clubs. They themselves agree that if they didn't produce the songs, they are simply 'playing other people's songs' which is essentially what it is. They should be allowed to do this and not be hassled by copyright law.I think Gillis' contention is correct and copyright laws need to take into account the difference between dj's using others' songs for mixes and actually 'stealing' or downloading content from the web. There is a difference. Great piece- it was enjoyable to read.