Blog #7-Confessions of an Intellectual Property

McLeod, the writer of "Confessions of an Intellectual Property," has a few different thoughts on the copyright of today. He has this idea that copyright today is outdated. Do I agree? I'm not really sure to be honest. I find the whole concept confusing. For example the "Grey Album" by Danger Mouse was highly publicized and deemed illegal because he uses samples from other artists. McLeod says, "Under the current copyright system, owners insist that it’s illegal to sample without permission, even if one offers to pay royalties" (McLeod 2). However, McLeod discusses Eminem's tracks being put over an 80's pop song "Come on Eileen" and that's completely legal. In fact, McLeod adds, "His powerlessness illustrates how he, as an author, has little control over how his music is received and understood—that he literally does not have the final word, as Roland Barthes would say—no matter how hard he tries" (McLeod 6) I find this whole spectrum here rather confusing. Therefore, I suppose I do agree that copyright is outdated. There's so many different elements that come into play, that it's hard to even tell what's legal and what isn't. In addition, there's a lot of jargon that comes into play that might be used to confuse some, so they don't have the best grip on what is legal, or what needs to be obtained for legality purposes.

In terms of "mash-ups", I actually really enjoy them. There's a lot of people in the industry now that work with compiling different artists together, and when it's done well, it's really enjoyable. For example, lets look at the artist Girl Talk. Girl Talk is completely all just mash ups. He has four albums now, and every song is just artists on top of other artist's songs, and the way they all fit together is phenomenal; it's like the song was meant to be recorded that way in the first place. I chose the following example for a few reasons. One, Eminem has a part in this Girl Talk song (called "No Pause"), and Eminem was referenced in McLeod's piece, so I thought it would fit well together. Next, I find this song incredibly well done; if you go to wikipedia and look up the song, there's 26 different artists, all with segments of their songs playing over each other. However, it's compiled so well, that it all fits perfectly, sounds great, and seems like the song should have been made this way originally. I find this work incredibly hard to do, thus requiring much talent in sound editing. I applaud these types of musicians from breaking free of the typical norm of making music and finding a new medium that's interesting, sounds professional and is fun to listen and dance to.