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?