Your comments on West Indian music culture makes me think about the special contribution a vocalist adds to a track. I became aware of an issue regarding performing artists recently that many people are not aware of. Did you know that royalties do NOT protect an artist who performed a song unless they either wrote or produced the music? What that means is that someone who gave a masterful performance on a song would not get paid when the song comes on the radio unless they created it in some way. Could you imagine someone like Aretha Franklin not getting paid for “Respect” if she did not write it?
This is a serious loophole that slants favor in the direction of the record company. Some of the songs we love to listen to from back in the day apply here. Radio stations continue to play songs that they made popular but they are struggling to survive after their life of touring ends. Several artists have gone before Congress to get this corrected but record companies are angling to prevent it. They have lost tremendously in the digital revolution and do not want to do what is right for the artists who performed on songs like no one else could.
Chris Flo performing an original song at the ARTLC, May 2010
JeVaughn Jones wrote:
Although I can agree that many copyright issues have suffocated the creative flow of many musicians and artists, I can see where it is needed to protect the artists from not being rightfully compensated for something they worked hard to create. At the same time I have so many questions regarding copyright and I am sure that I am not the only one which is why there is such a wide spread of copyright infringement especially when it comes to aspects such as re-mixing music.
The videos for this week were quite enjoyable. I was very interested in all of the copyright issues within the rap/hip hop industry. Since most of the music is based off of sampling, I can understand how it must be looked over with a fine tooth comb. One would think though that it must be getting more difficult to accomplish this task as technology becomes stronger. 6 seconds of an original song can sound completely different with a little editing.
I come from a culture where music is essential to day to day functionality however, many West Indian artists uses American music as a canvas to create something new. Although the lyrics are the same but the tone and all of the musical aspects are different, does this fall into copyright infringement or fair use since only the lyrics or a portion of the lyrics are used? Since the music that is used in these remixes are created by popular mainstream artists, these would all be under copyright laws and not under creative commons. At the same token, I am not sure of what the copyright laws are in Trinidad and if the laws would even be transferable.
Follow me to Jevaughn's blog
No comments:
Post a Comment