Blog #7

I believe copyright today isn't necessarily outdated, it just needs to be clarified somewhat. I do not disprove of people creating mashup's, sound collages, and remixes. I do however believe that permission to use the sound clips should be attained from the artist. Yes, using different existing sound samples to create a new sound clip can be considered a form of artistic creation but it is a compilation of other peoples art and ideas and requires permission from that person to build upon their original work. An example of a remix/mashup is this song by Cypress Hill.

This song uses the music from a song entitled "Cisco Kid" by the band War. The rappers simply remix the instrumental version of the original song while rapping their own lyrics over the remixed music. I believe this is a form of artistic creation because the rappers are using their own lyrics. While they are rapping over another groups musical creation they had to acquire permission from the original creators to use the music. This is a good example of old music being used in new music. I personally believe is an overly common theme in todays music. I would guess that less than half of all new music created today is purely a "new" creation. Most songs contain at least a small clip of somebody else's music. Some music like "The Gray Album" is created purely by using samples of other peoples music. I do not mind musicians creating new music using old music but I wish remixing and mashing songs together was not such a prevalent theme in todays new music. I wish there where more artists today who could create new and innovative forms of music by not using other peoples creations.