Blog
Where I'm Going (By Dressing Up As A Dragon)
I’ve included some legal/law websites in this list as well some for the most obvious reasons and others because they are friends’ websites. For example, one should never get too serious about the creation and dissemination of music without thinking about----COPYRIGHT andTRADEMARKSo I included the U. S. Copyright Office and the U. S. Patent & Trademark Office.Now I am pondering a few more things with respect to the nature of my Resources:1. Should the Resources be more focussed and contain fewer non-music sites, or2. Should the Resources contain more sites that are not primarily music or entertainment industry, and if #2 holds, then3. Resources will be more a reflection of me as I love to connect things that some think are not so connected. For example, all of us intersect daily with law, business, technology and communication. That seems to give me the kind of carte blanche to just post away, and fun away!
John Lennon - "I Got Resources On My Fingers!"
Tonight I've added a new section to www.emichaelmusic.com - one called, "Resources." It will be a living document. I'll update it frequently and I look forward to adding readers' suggestions as well. I've been compiling resources like this for years and dividing them into categories. I've posted these in various places. The College Music Society has posted my resources for the past 5 or 6 years. I've also included some of these in some of my course syllabi at different universities. As of tonight, the first installment resides here at my site.The first of my Resources is a list of music and entertainment industry sites that I visit - almost all of which I value. Some might be included for good reasons - because I like or love the content at the sites, others because I feel that they should be there, and still others because they will irritate or irk people. And why not? Doesn't the Bible suggest that we should afflict the comfortable?
Did Big Happens Here Do Digable Planets?
I know that many traditional jazz players, especially in the early and mid-1980's, would not likely latch on to a short phrase, repeat it many times and make this small and almost "throw away" motif into something big. This tiny melodic gesture, in the hands of an outsider (with respect to a musical tradition), could become the most important part of the melody, or sometimes the only melody that matters to someone from outside of that tradition. This "how does a foreigner view our music" idea is one I will explore later. I'll include myself in this - how and why did I get into hip hop, or Senegalese, Malagasy, Brazilian or Cuban music.All of this to get back to that famous Digable Planets song that samples some jazz.
Big Wind - a set list for Hurricane Sandy
In honor of The Big Wind (and Rain), I thought I’d compile some of my favorite songs about wind into a set list. These songs are carefully arranged by my mood - what I want to hear and what feels right following each song. The styles often don’t flow according to those who restrict themselves to a single style or two. But I restrict myself to music and sound that I can perceive - I love as many varieties of music as I do varieties of food, people and geography.Here goes:1. Florida Hurricane - St. Louis Jimmy2. The Wayward Wind - I have & love 3 versions - Neil Young, Gogi Grant & Patsy Cline
Igor Got Game: A Musical and Legal Comparison of The Beastie Boys and Igor Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky’s “Pulcinella” (1918) drew heavily upon music composed by Giovanni Pergolesi and others in the early 18th century. The Beastie Boys, an extremely popular rap/hip hop music group since the mid-1980’s, in their best-selling CD, Hello Nasty (1999) drew upon the music of Stravinsky by means of the digital sampling of Stravinsky’s “Firebird.” Both of these “borrowings” share important similarities and differences. Furthermore, these borrowings shed light on several seemingly unrelated disciplines and fields of study. These include music composition and the nature of creativity and originality, the intellectual property law of different times and societies created to protect authors from appropriations of their original works, the means by which borrowed music may be used and transmitted (sampling, digital streaming, MP3, etc.), and the business (financial, licensing, retail, broadcast, etc.) considerations involved in such borrowings.
The Order Of Songs On An Album - Part 1
...my simple point - this is how one should do song placement on an album:You put the four (4) best songs in these places. And it's often best to think of the album as a two-sided/two-headed entity, you know, like a 33 rpm vinyl record. For many of us raised in the Album Period (1965-1999), albums will always have (or NEED) two (2) sides. CD's are approximating albums, and mix tapes and set lists can also approximate 2-sided albums.
Baseball and Music - The Right Songs for the Right Season
I thought of calling this post, "15 Songs for the Soul." But that thought lasted for two seconds. Elvis Costello's great lyric from "Alison" came to mind, and rescued me: "I'm not going to get too sentimental like those other sticky Valentines."I also liked the title, "I see St. Peter wave ," but decided against that too. If you don't know, that is a short phrase from a song by They Might Be Giants. "I see St. Peter wave" then led me to the rest of the song which burrowed its way perfectly into this post. And I love the messages the songs below convey. They are perfectly suited for this day, don't you think?
University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, flamboyant red shoes, Harvard Law School
Late this afternoon I'll be speaking to students at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. The subject will be copyright and music - some real nuts & bolts stuff from my perspective. Because I've been in the middle of a lot of copyright issues, questions and disputes, I've been forced to think and make decisions. It's always amazing to think that federal law is used to evaluate and appraise someone's creative expression - that the law would say EXPRESSION X is of more value and worth more "protection" than EXPRESSION Y, and that I'm asked to do the evaluating of expression.
As Apple Annoys Again
Apple is a great company for brilliant U.I. and ease and fun of use of their shiny silver toys. This feature and its obscure location, however, makes one realize that Apple plays by rules that aren't benevolent or consumer-friendly (Apple loves us, don't they?). Apple has sold us another expensive toy, so that we can buy into an expensive monthly marriage with a telecom and then sell us to as many advertisers as possible. And in addition, millions of us are now choosing to rent the music and books we have already purchased.
When You Don't Know What To Say...... (Part 1)
Surely, the Crash Test Dummies song in its prenatal stage, did not need forty (40) statements of “mmm.” Please. Go ahead. Insert the forty (40) syllables you think Crash Test Dummies should have sung! How can one waste forty (40) words, potentially, or forty (40) syllables, actually, when trying to covey the three (3) short stories the song’s lyric seems to be conveying? [If you study the lyrics, you’ll understand the three (3) short stories contained within the song. Or you can cheat and watch the video as it telegraphs the story conveyed by the lyrics.]
Angie Aparo v. Five For Fighting (Part 3 of 3)
PART 3 of 3We left off in this cliffhanger with the promise of an ending in this highly abbreviated fictionalized account of what could have been a copyright infringement action brought by Angie Aparo and affiliated parties against Five For Fighting and affiliated parties.Plaintiff: What country song features 1-2-3-5?Defendant: “Tomorrow Never Comes” by Ernest Tubb does. Conway Twitty’s “I’m Not Through Loving You Yet” also features 1-2-3-5.Plaintiff: What rock song features 1-2-3-5?Defendant: “I’ll Follow The Sun” by The Beatles.” The Beatles‘ “You Won’t See Me” also features 1-2-3-5
Does Five For Fighting's "Superman" Infringe Angie Aparo's "Seed? (Part 2 of 3)
Defendant’s expert states that the melody in common is not copyrighted because it can be found in many songs written before the Plaintiff’s song.Plaintiffs demand Defendants’ expert witness prove that the melody in question is not copyrighted.Defendant’s expert witness shows that the melody is found in the music of: Bach, Borodin, Brahms, Dvorak, Foster, Guonod, Haydn. Lear, Mendelssohn and Mozart.Plaintiff demands specificity.Defendant specifies....
Does Five For Fighting’s “Superman (It’s Not Easy)” Infringe Angie Aparo’s “Seed?”
We teach our children to STEAL other peoples' thoughts without asking permission. (I'm referring to what some teachers and professors do - make their students write "papers" that consist of their own thoughts mixed with the (better, older and more respected) thoughts of others. We FORCE THEM TO STEAL. All we ask is that our students have to correctly indicate (cite) their exact source(s). We would not allow them to even ask for permission.
Welcome!
Welcome to EMichaelMusic.com, a place for the exchange of ideas on a multitude of subjects. Because I am paying for this website and registered it, and you just discovered its existence, I’ll start...Is it OK for a songwriter or composer to copy music and/or lyrics from someone else?Do you have a favorite example of a songwriter/composer copying music and/or lyrics from someone else?Do you have a LEAST favorite (or hated) example of a songwriter/composer copying music and/or lyrics from someone else?