For this week’s segment I listened to Nate Harrison’s audio about the Amen Break drum beat that is, as he says, ‘a ubiquitous piece of pop culture soundscape’. The beat comes from “Amen Brother” by the Winstons that was recorded in 1969. It has since popped up in techno, rap and hip hop, commercials for Jeep and major pharmaceuticals. No one can be quite sure what to attest its catchiness to, but it’s there nonetheless.
He goes on to talk about the copyright and how it’s evolved because many considered the beat to be part of our culture and it could be used by others to build on. After noticing the popularity a UK Company came in and made sample CDs that were copyrighted. These sounded nearly identical and through the appropriation, they pretty much own it more than The Winstons do! It’s so crazy to me how these loopholes of laws can protect and exploit information like this.
This completely reminds me of the issue that Robert Van Winkle (Vanilla Ice) had with “Ice Ice Baby” and the hook sounding a lot like Queen’s “Under Pressure”. Van Winkle said he had added an extra note and that changed the entire thing so he shouldn’t have to pay Queen or reference them to use it. He has since gone back and changed it to give credit where it was due. However, I wonder, if it would have been Vanilla Ice going after Queen, would there have been the same success? In law it seems that he with the most money and power will win. Is anything really safe from being copied once it’s released? Isn’t imitation the highest form of flattery?
The problem with the evolution of copyright that you address in your post is very interesting and relevant to our world today, in terms of people recycling or reusing others’ music for their own benefit. The example of Vanilla Ice’s “Ice Ice Baby” that you use is perfect to illustrate one artist duplicating another’s work; many artists today use this method of tweaking a previously copyrighted tune or “hook” in order to avoid paying or referencing the original work. Another example of this process is Bruno Mars’ song “Treasure”, which is obviously a rip off of the song “Baby I’m Yours” by the band Breakbot; apparently Mars asked the band to cover their song prior to making Treasure, but when they denied him he came out with his own song that has uncanny similarities to Breakbot’s. I think this scenario plays into your thought that who ever has the most money and power will win an argument over the issue of copyright. If Breakbot had more money and popularity would they have pursued this matter of copyright against Bruno Mars? Regardless, I think there is a fine line between imitation being a form of flattery or disrespect to the original creator of the work. If the maker is asked, then adequately paid or referenced for their influence and inspiration, then I think that imitation is acceptable.
Similarly, many leitmotifs and snippets of musical compositions are reused in different movies and television shows all the time. Modern composers like Hanz Zimmer have songs that are very similar to older classical works by incorporating certain movements into their own work. A famous example of music being reused is Bernard Herrmann’s composition for the shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s film Psycho. This eerie tune is heard in many different shows and videos, although I am sure that they at the very least reference the original composer. Another example is the first season of the television show American Horror Story. In this season alone the creators use music from Psycho, James Wan’s film Insidious, and Bernard Herrman’s “Twisted Nerve” which is also used in Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill. Obviously recycling and remixing work is a large part of the current media, encompassing film, music, and advertising. As long as the original creators are being asked to use their work and compensated for it then I do not see why this is a problem. Unfortunately the process of avoiding copyrighting is becoming more and more prevalent today so people are becoming negligent about it.
Your post is spot on and very thought provoking. Nicely done!
Alexa~
Thank you for such an awesome reply. It was really cool learning about all of the other places music is remixed into our media and you clearly know your stuff about it! I agree that it’s important that the original creator get the credit, but as you noted, that’s not always the case. Especially when it comes to older pieces.