But can you, really, dance to it? Alan Wexelblat says yes, but the copyright part? Some pretty complicated steps:
I think that modern dance music, particularly the mash-up [based on DJs who use various technologies such as turntables, mixers, and effects boxes to produce sounds using two or more original recordings], is one of the most Copyfight-challenging and lively art forms out there. And since it has hit the mainstream media, finally, I expect to see more public culture clashes over it this year. . .
The notion that DJ/remixers are just blindly copying or reusing without innovation is just flat-out wrong. Apprentices may copy without much added skill, much as apprentice painters sit and copy masterwork paintings for hours on end to learn their craft. But as they learn they also learn to add their own creative elements and styles, producing new works that are based on the source material in the way so many art forms of past decades have done.
Alex makes it clear in this post that he’s planning an extensive exploration–musical as well as legal–into this mashy business. (If he’s already begun that beguine I can’t find it on his blog, which is to blog navigation what I am to Terpsichore.)
I hope he tells us when it’s over, and what the answers are.
Ron
Thanks for the back-link and the kind words. My musical maunderings are currently looking for a blog home. I might just put them up on Blogger so they’re easily found in one place.
I don’t know if I’m personally going to get that extensive in putting musical things on Copyfight – I rarely have a long-term plan for what I’ll blog there – but I do spend more time than ever before listening to and thinking about modern musical production and of course its copyfight implications. So I expect I’ll end up posting more of it, and as I noted in the blog entry I expect to see more mash-ups in the mainstream with the inevitable collisions to follow.
Best,
–Alan (not Alex)
You’re welcome, Axel! 😉
Are you saying your musical blogging is veering too off topic for Copyfight? I guess that would make sense. Good luck, and keep us posted on what you end up doing with it.