After watching that little documentary on the whole copyright fiascos in hip hop music in the early 90's I didn't really know what I thought about the whole thing because I legitimately understand both sides of the argument and I really don't take a stance on the issue as cowardly as that is. I do think that it is important to acknowledge famous artists who have provided you the tools to create your own kind of music because one must be respectful to music in general. I mean anyone wants to get credit for something that they created right? I mean, I know I would.
But who is the person who gets to take credit for making a sound? Isn't sound, kind of, all of ours? Granted melodies and certain drum beats are very very individual and personalized which I totally understand. But don't you think at some point we are going to have trouble coming up with new beats, songs, even noises for that matter. There are only so many things that we can make up out of nowhere and at some point we are going to have to recycle old material. I think a lot of the uproar back in the day was about money. Everything seems to stem back to money. People have lost the love for the music and care about music to simply make a profit. I think that kinda takes the fun out of music in general coughMETALLICAcough.
I know people work hard for their craft and all but don't people just make music because they love to? And if they can make a living off it they can? I mean, arent most big time musicians millionaires anyway? We made them millionaires. Now of course there are those who are not and still do play music because they just love to. And they deserve their name on a record that uses their specific beat or whatnot. But money shouldn't have anything to do with I think. Now I understand that my perspective is coming from someone who knows nothing about the music business, has no specific talent, and can't read a note of music. So anyone can steal and use all the musical fusion that I create all they want. Knock yourselves out man.
The actual purpose of copyright law is not to protect intellectual property for the individual creator: It's to make sure that the creativity of the culture in general is being nurtured. This is where the clampdown on sampling, and on Napster (coughMetallica indeed), failed. The freedom to sample sparked an incredibly fertile period of musical creation in the '80s and '90s. I agree that some of it was lazy. But much of it was not.
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