It was during an average week in February that two guest speakers with different perspectives came in to talk to us about their work and opinions. Andrew “DJ Freshkills” Kilgour and Don “the man” Hogarth each spoke of new concepts and ideas, unaware of the other one’s visit. After these combined two and a half hours of explaining and debating, I can safely come to the conclusion that at least part of my musical perspective has changed.
Andrew Kilgour, or DJ Freshkills as he is called, talked to us first about his style of music. One that involves splicing tiny sections of records together, dating back to DJ Kool Herc’s massively trippin block parties. He showed us how his use of a mixer can turn an ordinary Bo Hanson organ track into a very danceable club song. When it came to copyright, he vividly expressed his support for the artists. How sampling is not a crime, and how a “totally legitimate” art form becomes a problem once money is involved. For example, he told us of funkmaster George Clinton, who was sued for sampling himself, or when Lupe Fiasco stole one of Freshkills’ very own beats. Sometimes artists will be forced to destroy the masters of a song and pay a fine for “hurting a brand”. The issue stigma remains, but the producers continue to stick to their guns, and talk of making ‘em the way they used to make ‘em. When shown with this, we are left with two questions. Is there an original idea left? Is it easier to create from the subconscious? The world may never know.
Don Hogarth was the next one up, a PR man who started out as a reporter. He’s no stranger to trouble, as every camera was on him during an infamous Bell meltdown. I initially pictured him as “the man”, but I soon found that he was very open in terms of personal opinions. Throughout the class, he told us many informative things about both sides of the story. About how many artists are harmed by piracy and have to work two jobs to make ends meet. Also about various types of copyright laws, problems, and the 2 million artists on Myspace. Perhaps the most damning thing that he told us was about the perception and fact of the record companies themselves. While they are seen as beasts who rank below the tabaccoo companies in terms of public opinion, the true story is much different. The workers are very passionate about music and they’re not always driven by financial gains (especially the indie labels). He also talked of the shades of grey in remixes and sampling, and the principals that are always in black and white. The owner of the rights deserves to be respected, how you implement it is where the shades are grey. It’s a cool thing where someone makes something new, but something should flow back to the original (a right which they hold, a formula for sharing).
The combination of the two visits has taken my opinion to a 50/50 split. While I do think that copyright is good when it is protecting the , it is a dangerous weapon when being used by greedy CEOs against average mashup artists.
THE END.
