Blog
Three Songs (5/4) & Some Thoughts (7/4) About Dave Brubeck (9/8)
One of the important features of a lot of Dave Brubeck's music is his use of rhythm and especially uncommon time signatures. Brubeck met with resistance from Columbia Records when he insisted on having songs with unusual meter/time signatures on his brilliant million-selling album, Time Out. Fortunately for music, the public and Columbia Records, they gave in.I have selected three (3) Dave Brubeck songs, each in a different and unusual meter. 5 beats per measure, 7 beats per measure and 9 beats per measure are far less common than the most common meter in Western music - 4 beats per measure. In keeping with the idea of three - 3 different time signatures/meters - I have also compiled three (3) sets of three (3) songs each. In each of these three 3-song sets, I have chosen a Brubeck composition and followed it with two (2) other compositions that share the same number of beats. In each example, the songs I have selected are not of the same style.
Harvard Law School Lecture - December 5, 2012
I will be speaking at The Harvard University Law School today between noon and 1:15 PM in Wasserstein Hall 3036. The subject will be my work in, and take on, music copyright, intellectual property, tech and entertainment issues. This is a great honor and I am very happy to have been invited.This blog post will also double as my notes or at least a guide to the order of subjects. I'll be able to see this post on a monitor or my iPhone while my iPad plays the music. I'll also bring a DVD or two, unless I choose to access the same material on the Very Wide World Spider Web.
Copyrightable Introductions - Willie Nelson, The Roots, Oingo Boingo, Beach Boys, Desert Rose Band, Beatles
I want to go in the opposite direction from the last two posts - from introductions that are not very copyrightable to those that are very copyrightable. These are introductions that feature substantive musical expression, not the kind that is often associated with introductions. Again, these subjects - copyrightable intros and uncopyrightable intros - came up during this blogging process. I'm very glad they did as I now have more fun topics to explore.
Uncopyrightable introductions - Part 2, William Shatner obliquely, Martha Stewart to me
I should add that I feel that Sandals.com consciously, carefully and deliberately copied the intro to Beatles' Getting Better. Sandals.com did not accidentally derive this introduction, or independently create their introduction. Some composer labored over this...I am trying to establish that one can copy INTENTIONALLY without infringing copyright. Sandals.com copied The Beatles and it was not copyright infringement. I think a statement like "one can copy INTENTIONALLY without infringing copyright" could be controversial.
When Is A Musical Introduction Copyrightable? Katy Perry, White Zombie, The Pixies, Neil Young, Isaac Hayes
I thought I would start to listen more carefully and analyze introductions to songs to find the least and most COPYRIGHTABLE introductions, as well as the "in-between" introductions, i.e., introductions that would exhibit some copyrightable elements. I believe that there is a sliding scale of copyright protection - that some introductions are not copyrightable as musical compositions, some slightly so, some more so, and some extremely so. The length of the excerpt, both in terms of temporal length as well as number of attacks and/or articulations, as well as its originality would also be factors used in determining how copyright protection should be afforded an introduction.
I've Had The Time Of My Life & Do I Owe It All To Sandals.com Ripping Off The Beatles?
Q U E S T I O N SDoes Sandals sound like The Beatles?Does Sandals rip off The Beatles?Does Sandals infringe The Beatles?Does Sandals sound too much like The Beatles?Is the Sandals/Beatles issue a copyright problem?Is the Sandals/Beatles issue a right of publicity problem?Is the Sandals/Beatles issue an unfair competition problem?...
Talk Amongst Yourselves, Turn Me On, Beatles One Louder, the Buttocks Bowl
How can you get one's attention? Play a Beatles recording. Play something loud and very noticeable. Maybe the intro to a Beatles song. If one wants to hear a loud, striking, very original opening of a Beatles song, one that will really hit the ear, there is one song that WILL not do it. It would be the WORST BEATLES SONG, worst only in terms of making a listener notice. What is the Beatles song LEAST likely to get one's attention?
Being Thankful on Thanksgiving, Thursday, November 22, 2012, from Louis Armstrong to Hank Williams
I thought to celebrate this wonderful day of Thanksgiving, I'd compile music with lyrics that express thanks in various ways.I would like to have included at least one more - Bach - Now Thank We All Our God. Even though I have great recordings of Now Thank We All Our God, I couldn't find one I liked as much on YouTube.Here is my Thanksgiving wish:
Love Street, A Century of Women on Top, TimeHop, Mikasa
Three years ago today I wrote -"With today's copyright laws, most great composers - Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Stravinsky, Ives, etc. - would be as criminal as Girl Talk, Negativland, the Evolution Control Committee or anyone who finds creative preexisting elements and uses them."I still agree. I'm even more fervent about that.
Copyright From A - Z, Crime Before Thanksgiving, my 19th Annual Berklee Lecture, Inna & The Farlanders
At some points today, I'll select some topics for my two-hour presentation. I'll choose from these questions and issues and more:Can One Copy A Bass Line?Can One Copy A Chord Progression?Can One Copy A Guitar Solo?How To Break The Law/How To Get Away With Crime (Crime? "Fair Use" or The Perfect Crime ?)What Is Fair Use?Fair Use Done Right/WrongWhat Is Satire?What Is Parody?What Is Right of Publicity?Can One Sample?What Is A Mashup And When Are Mashups Legal/Illegal?
How NOT To Write A Hit Song (Pt. 3/3), Ernő Rubik, Bob Dylan, Iannis Xenakis, Whitfield & Strong
Do you think the eleven (11) constructs/stipulations are good advice for a songwriter? For a composer? (What’s the difference between a songwriter and a composer? This is a question to be explored in future posts.)Could you write a a great piece of music following these eleven (11) points?If you wrote a song that followed these exact eleven (11) stipulations, would you be infringing copyright? That's an enormous question and one that could lead to debate, certainty, uncertainty, anxiety, anger or confusion. Of that, I am certain. If you'd like, please start off that discussion below. I promise I can add to whatever discussion begins. :-)I expect that an attorney in the future will ask me this specific question at a deposition. (Rather than answer this question now, I'll leave it in this post just to annoy an attorney or two. I have also inserted a few statements in previous posts to see if attorneys or their paralegals are paying attention. This includes a factual omission I'm almost certain they'll never catch - smile smile!)
How NOT To Write Great Music - Part 2
NOW, here are the final five (5) steps:7. make sure that there are no chords (and, therefore, no chord changes) in the entire song8. make sure that the principal solo instrument in the song is an instrument that is not a preferred one – it should be an instrument that the audience for this song does not especially like.9. make sure that this song has appeal to U. S. and international audiences10. make sure that the subject matter of the lyrics is about a person who has no redeeming qualities11. make sure that this is not a love songTo repeat and expand from yesterday's post...Do you think the final five (#7 - #11) constructs/stipulations are good advice for a songwriter? For a composer?
How NOT To Write Great Music - Part 1
How do we create music? What are the best and worst ways to create music? Is it possible to answer these questions? I try to answer them in my own life and will begin a discussion with this post. So, here goes. I hope that the end result is laudable. I know the answer/end point and will concoct this path to get to the end. The way I'll approach these particular posts is to examine what NOT to do. By examining what NOT to do, we might better deduce what TO DO.
Do The Macarena (On A Fishing Boat In The North Atlantic With An HP Printer)
While working on a project, I heard this HP Office Jet Pro commercial and looked up. What distracted me and attracted me to the commercial was the manner in which it referenced the way-too-big hit song from the mid 1990's, "Macarena." (When I just wrote, M-A-C-A-R-E-N-A, Wordpress thought perhaps I meant, "Macaroni," or "Macaroon." No, I meant M-A-C-A-R-E-N-A. It might take a few more years to convince the world of words that Macarena is Macarena, just as it took a long time to make "Beatles" not be "Beetles.""Macarena" features its hook at these eleven (11) places in Macarena:
Haiku 101, Intellectual Property Haiku (IP Haiku)
My haiku obsession - haiku career - began that way. I've gone through periods of writing hundreds in a few hours. Sometimes my haiku tell a story. Other times they are related to a theme, and still other times they are disconnected and without any purpose, like my life. (I do not have a purposeful life - I have a purpose-less life. An ambient free-form, drifting life. Enough of this theme.)I used to get reprimanded by poets and scholars who knew better than I (knew better than I about everything - just ask them). Even my Japanese girlfriend told me that haiku were supposed to be about nature, not vehicles for telling deranged and absurd stories that would be parodic and unauthorized episodes of - - - -The Dating GameLeave It To BeaverThe Brady Bunch orLove Boat
Mrs. General David Petraeus, Your Husband Is Cheatin' On Us; The World Wide (spider) Web
What have I heard about the blues? Things like this:Blues is realBlues is lifeBlues is real lifeBlues is the story of lifeBlues tells the story of our livesBlues reflects our timesBlues tells the truthThe blues chases away the bluesThe blues is a womanAnd when it comes to lovin', cheatin', hurtin' and schemin', the blues has that covered too.In the past few days I've come to realize that blues is intrinsic to, and helps tell the story of, THE BIG DEAL at the Central Intelligence Agency. The CIA is in the center of all news right now (Monday, November 12, 2012). General David Petraeus, the Director of the CIA, resigned last week because of an affair. We are now finding out more.
Did Taylor Swift Steal A Lyric From Matt Nathanson? Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Andy Williams & Tony Bennett
My first impression is that I would side with Taylor Swift as I think two (or more) authors could come up with those very similar words independently, i.e., without copying. And if one did not copy the other, it is not copyright infringement.These two short lyric excerpts from larger songs are of a style of lyric writing I have seen before, one in which a clever literary device is at play. Songs with these literary devices are fairly common in Nashville, country and pop. It reminds me of songs and song titles like these:
Unfair Competition, Election Night 2012, Swimming at 57 F / 41 F
An example of unfair competition would occur if an unknown musician, or any non-Beatle, released an album of 13 supposedly original songs, whose titles, in order, were:“Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”“With A Little Help From My Friends”“Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds”“Getting Better”“Fixing A Hole”“She’s Leaving Home”“Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite”“Within You Without You”“When I’m Sixty-Four”“Lovely Rita”“Good Morning Good Morning”“Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)”“A Day In The Life”
Minotaur Shock, Band Of The Day App
This morning I was listening to the podcast (from Stitcher) of This Week In Tech: Episode 378 from TWIT.TV - it's a good, fun episode - when I found out that I had some apps to update on my iPhone 5. Of course this little iPhone 5 machine can update away while I'm listing to Stitcher, so I proceeded to give my blessings so the updates could update.Next, "Genius," the Apple app Recommender-In-Chief that I've wisely enabled, suggested a few apps I just had to have. Check. Got them.Next came another Genius app recommendation - BAND OF THE DAY. Band Of The Day, according to its own statement of honest hype, "unearths the best new music by delivering one new artist a day, every single day.
Watching Me Walk Around Naked
Directv has created and is airing a sticky - to be more concise, "ICKY" - television commercial that only succeeds at showing a young couple in their loveless relationship. And the "zinger" line, aired by the male, is mean spirited and aimed at demeaning the woman. It suggests danger, discomfort and intimidation, not exactly positive qualities to connote by means of a television commercial. When I first saw this commercial, I was shocked and thought, "he didn't just say that, did he? Yikes, this is one ugly and disturbing commercial."