Music and Copyright By Ezequiel Perez

Transcript:

This project is for educational purposes only for an assignment here at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell

Sampling is influential within the music world. From hip-hop to electronic, every genre utilizes sampling and other songs to improve their own or create something new with it. The song in the background of this intro was sampled by one of the most influential hip hop groups of the 20th century. I’ll let it play out to see if you recognize it.

For those who don't know, this is the instrumental for CREAM by Wu-Tang Clan produced by RZA. When asked about the creation and the production of the song, he explains that “[the original song] Never took off back then. And when i got to meet Isaac Hayes iI told him “yo i sampled that song from the charmels as long as i got you!” You know what he did? He hummed the piano!... there's also three other samples thats colliding with this sample!” These obstacles that RZA had to go through back in 1991 are still impacting artists to this day in the music industry. As projects get delayed and unreleased songs come to light, one way or another, music takes a long time to produce, and without the right knowledge of music production and sampling, artists and producers are under constant threat of legal troubles because of the fear of copyright.

But what is there to truly be afraid of? What are these problems that modern day producers face? On today's episode of “Off the Record”, I want to delve into the history of music and copyright and how it has evolved nowadays. I want to start off by discussing an article about the history of copyright laws by Albreht Schneider. In his article, Schneider speaks on the evolution of World music and how the sampling of “traditional music” did not protect the artists who created it. He states, “well into the 19th century, "copyright" in many countries in Europe (taken in the strict sense of the word) resided with the printer or the publisher and stationer (of. Boytha 1983). Thus, "copyright" was not by any means always identical to authors' rights (droit d'auteur). And since "folk music" was considered to be a product of "the people," there was little need, as regards supposedly "anonymous" tunes, to worry about the question of "copyright"(Schneider, 307).

With the discovery and sampling of these older songs, Schneider makes the argument that the traditional “orientalism” of songs appealed to those folk and pop artists of the 19th century, leading them to borrow in quotes, beats, patterns, and sometimes entire songs. Because there were no laws in place to protect the original tribes and people who created these songs, there was no way to claim any of their rights to any of the new songs that sampled theirs. Although countries have implemented copyright protection laws to protect these older songs from future sampling, It still causes concern for the countries that have not implemented copyright protection for their older songs. With the constant improvement of technology, it gets more and more difficult to implement copyright protection laws for those that have created music in the past.

However, not everyone samples from “traditional” songs. So with the history of copyright and how it affects folk music, how does it affect other genres? If we start focusing on hip hop and rap specifically, we start to notice that a lot of these songs sample or transpose a lot of popular music. From the example that I played in the beginning of our episode, you can tell that sampling is core to hip hop and rap music, influencing the genre and evolving it over time. Hip hop and rap have a long history of sampling from older records and using those songs to continue their songs, but the history of sampling in hip hop also has come with major copyright issues in the past. An iconic example would be the legal battle behind Biz Markie “Alone again”. This case was influential in that it changed the definition and legal proceedings of sampling and mixing. Because of an uncleared sample of “Alone Again (Naturally)” by Gilbert O’Sullivan, Markie was taken to court and was found guilty of copyright infringement. This case set the precedent that any sampling without the permission of the creator, any sort of sampling would constitute copyright infringement. With this new rule, creativity and productivity within the Rap and Hip-Hop scene was stunted, as producers could not flex their creative potential of mixing or flipping songs due to copyright infringement.

his did not stop artists from sampling of course, it just forced producers to find alternate ways to clear samples in order to produce songs. Amanda Sewell, the music director of Interlochen Public Radio, writes about the legal issues that artists and labels faced after the proceedings of the Biz Markie case. She states that , “These lawsuits instilled fear in artists and record labels about the potential losses of millions of dollars per lawsuit. As McLeod notes, “The assumption is that any sampled sound of any length in any context is without doubt copyright infringement, unless it’s a parody” (83). Between the out-of-court settlements and the courts’ tendencies to rule in favor of the sampled plaintiff—except in the case of parodies—hip-hop artists found themselves accused of theft and vulnerable to six-figure lawsuits” (Sewell, 297). With the heightened fear that producers and artists faced with the increasing amount of lawsuits in the hip hop industry, Sewell started to conduct interviews with different artists to see how they would get around these new legal issues that faced them.

Through these interviews, there were always work arounds to these legal issues, from ,”Dr. Dre, [hiring] studio musicians to replay selected passages of music. After recording the studio musicians’ performance, they sample their own recording of the replayed material. By using studio musicians, producers only have to pay publishing—or songwriting—fees for the music.” (Sewell 298), to chopping and flipping samples, “These practices involve manipulating sampled material beyond recognition, either by shredding it to sonic bits or playing it backwards or upside down, as it were. As producer Vinroc explained to me, if a producer wants to sample a famous recording without having to pay for a license, he must “completely chop it to pieces so it’s unrecognizable.” (Sewell 298). Although these do provide alternatives to the sampling issue, there is one thing that producers do that interests me the most.

In her article, she mentions that, “some producers simply abandon a track if they cannot clear the samples it contains. In some cases, if they can not clear one specific sample, the producer will try to rework the track with different samples.” (Sewell 299). This sentence stood out to me because it makes me think of all of the leaked and teased songs that have just been missing off of some artists' discographies that should have been there in the first place.

The reason why some of these projects don't work out is because of the restrictive and controlling copyright laws that have been placed on the music industry after the infamous Biz Markie case. In another article by author Tim Brooks, he goes into detail the history of copyright and recording, stating that, “Copyright holders defend these restrictions as necessary to maintain control over their intellectual property. In an era when record companies are suffering from online sharing and easy digital duplication of their recordings, even archives are seen as a possible source of "leakage." (Brooks). Copyright holders sometimes will be too stubborn to let their work be used in other projects. These same copyright holders prevent the creativity and passion for other producers to shine. With the ever looming threat of copyright infringement over producers' heads, it gets extremely difficult to make the music they want to enjoy without worrying about sounding similar to a song that was made 40 years ago. This looming threat that producers face is the reason why albums get delayed, why songs don't release, why projects take so long. This is the reason that many producers are afraid to come into their respective music scenes. With so many restrictions and without connections, this wall that producers face feels so tall.

There is a light however at the end of this tunnel. Brooks talks about some changes to copyright laws concerning recordings and some of them aim to reduce the amount of stress that producers and artists might face when finding material to sample. One example he speaks about are “orphan works”, which are copyrighted works with no owner. Brooks states, “The Copyright Office proposed that if a potential user made a diligent search for a copyright holder and could not find one, that user should be permitted to use the item without fear of such a lawsuit. If an owner did later emerge (presumably a rare situation) the owner could reclaim the work and be entitled to a normal license fee, but not to punitive damages” (Brooks). This change would be influential, as it would prevent situations like Biz Markies and other songs that have had all of their revenue and credit overtaken by older songs.

Another highlight is that there is a rising organization called the Association for Recorded Sound Collection that aims to reduce the amount of strictness that is normally associated with recording and sampling. They have advocated for changes in copyright laws that encourage the preservation and usage of older recordings. Although they have a lot of support behind them, there is still a long way to go before change can be made, but change is coming.

Brooks states, “It is not about diminishing the viability of creators, but about preserving our audio heritage, and making it available to students and scholars today, not in some distant future time.” Artists and producers should be able to sample and mix recordings without the fear of copyright infringement and massive fines. Without sampling, we would not have classic tracks that people can remember fondly, or newer ones that get stuck in your head because of how catchy they are. Sampling is music at its core, and the more we allow those that create it to stretch, the stronger music will become.

Works Cited

Brooks, Tim. “Copyright and Historical Sound Recordings: Recent Efforts to Change U.S. Law.” Music Library Association. Notes: Quarterly Journal of the Music Library Association, vol. 65, no. 3, Mar. 2009, pp. 464–74. EBSCOhost, https://doi-org.umasslowell.idm.oclc.org/10.1353/not.0.0109.

Caesar, Daniel. “Hold Me Down.” Freudian, Golden Child Recordings, 2017. Spotify, https://open.spotify.com/track/4s76r7AbquJcTccqJiqdVu?si=85f9a56bfb7c4381

Dre, Dr. “Still Dre.” 2001, Aftermath Entertainment/Interscope Records, 1999. Spotify, https://open.spotify.com/track/503OTo2dSqe7qk76rgsbep?si=3a9583588b59498c

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Markie, Biz. “Alone Again.” 1991. Youtube,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OebqNsNRBtU

Markowitz, Douglas. “The 10 Most Controversial Samples in Hip-Hop History | GRAMMY.com.” grammy.com, 10 Aug. 2023, www.grammy.com/news/10-most-controversial-hip-hop-samples-history-lawsuits-videos.

Ngozi, Paul. “Nikzakupanga Ngozi.” 45,000 Volts, Now-Again Records, 2021. Spotify https://open.spotify.com/track/5mT3AFbNTqUYIczEkK7BJF?si=415f9a70b7104355

O’Sullivan, Gilbert. “Alone Again (Naturally).” Back To Front (Deluxe Edition), Union Square Music Limited, 1972. Spotify, https://open.spotify.com/track/54pvEYFocTlvIAQOfXSjqV?si=4c1115f3f21741f4

Sewell, Amanda. “How Copyright Affected the Musical Style and Critical Reception of Sample-Based Hip-Hop.” Journal of Popular Music Studies, vol. 26, no. 2–3, June 2014, pp. 295–320. EBSCOhost, https://doi-org.umasslowell.idm.oclc.org/10.1111/jpms.12078

Schneider, Albrecht. “Traditional Music, Pop and the Problem of Copyright Protection.” Music in the Dialogue of Cultures: Traditional Music and Cultural Policy, edited by Max Peter Baumann, Florian Noetzel Verlage GMBH; Verlag für Wissenschaft und Bildung; Noetzel; Edition Peters Group, 1991, pp. 302–16. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=mzh&AN=2006015241&site=ehost-liv

The Charmels. “As Long As I Got You.” Stax-Volt: The Complete Singles 1959-1968, Atlantic Records, 1991. Spotify, https://open.spotify.com/track/5f1dWtvWmx1RMP6ynU5PIH?si=0e3a851fc1f94ba0

The Chicago Kid, BJ. “His Pain.” Pineapple Now-Laters, 2012. Youtube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3RlkpI-2nk

“RZA Breaks down Production on Wu-Tang’s “Triumph” & “C.R.E.A.M.”” Youtube, www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrQPCKSWZmI. Accessed 10 May 2024.

Wu-Tang Clan. “C.R.E.A.M. (Cash Rules Everything Around Me).” Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) [Expanded Edition], Sony Music Entertainment, 1993. Spotify, https://open.spotify.com/track/119c93MHjrDLJTApCVGpvx?si=6750e5503cb84157