hi.
sitting here in madrid, thinking about these dance cd’s i’m listening to.
the issue of authorship is really interesting these days, especially as far as music is concerned.
i’m listening to a cd by two dj’s, so i credit my reaction to the cd to them, but they didn’t write any of the music, but without their involvement i wouldn’t be hearing this nice, minimal techno.
or even on my records. on ‘another woman’ for example. i took barbara lynn’s vocals and recontextualized them, but i didn’t alter her original performance at all. i just juxtaposed it with new music that i had composed.
and these ‘soundclash’ remixes (you know, like nirvana-vs-christina aguilera remix sort of things, basement jaxx-vs-velvet underground, etc). and hip-hop. and sampling. and etc.
the idea of authorship in the 21st century confuses me to no end.
i guess at the end of the day the only truly significant criteria for evaluating a piece of music is the emotional reaction of the listener. but for so many eon’s there’s been this very specific notion of authorship attached to the presentation of music.
and it’s funny, but i can’t give 100% of my attention to this issue cos there’s this really cool minimal-techno cd playing.
so here’s a scenario:
one person records some drums
another person samples them and makes a record based around the drum sample.
another person samples this record and makes a new record based around the sample of the original drums.
a dj plays this new record on a mix cd.
another person samples the song off of the mix cd and makes a new song.
another dj plays this song on another mix cd.
another person does a remix of this song with another song that has been created in the exact same way.
another person samples this remix and etc etc.
how does one define/establish authorship in the face of so much usage and recontextualization? i guess that the legal understanding of this is the best, in that the legal understanding grants weight to original creation and collaboration. so, legally, when i sample a vocal and write a song based around it i share the authorship, to some extent, with the original musician/copyright holder.
but, as i said earlier, all that really matters is the emotional reaction of someone listening to the composition, regardless of authorship.
or am i mistaken? does authorship carry some ontological and/or ethical weight that i’m not grasping? and can one make a compelling, objective case that authorship can be evaluated according to a hierarchical scale of value?
like i said, my head hurts.
maybe i’ll go play with the golfball soap.
-moby