After this week’s discussion regarding reproduction, especially in regards to the article “On the Rights to Molotov Man,” I came to the conclusion that yes, Susan Meiselas did deserve to be asked permission by Joy Garnett to use her photograph and to ultimately receive recognition for her work. By decontextualizing the image that holds greater significance than to be seen as a general anger and frustration statement, Garnett seems to be somewhat ignorant in her response that she had not seen the photograph in its entirety while searching for themes of anger in photography online. However, issues with reproduction are not present only in photography. One of the most popular types of media, music, is subjected to the world of copyright and reproduction as well.
Many of the songs we hear today are renditions of songs in the past. Many people know the popular saying “ma-ma-se ma-ma-sa ma-ma-coo-sa” from Michael Jackson’s song “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’,” which was sampled by none other than Rihanna in her song, “Please Don’t Stop the Music.” Rihanna did not essentially decontextualize the saying, as Michael Jackson’s song represented the idea of a party, while she did the same. On the other hand, “Through the Fire,” a popular song by Chaka Khan, had been remade into Kanye West’s first hit, “Through the Wire.” In this case, Chaka Khan’s song about unconditional love for another had been transformed into a song about the trials West underwent, specifically a car crash, before he became famous. West decontextualized Khan’s work by taking some of the same words of the original song and adding a personal connotation (his life experiences) instead.
Ultimately, in music, when an artist takes a part of another artist’s song, no matter how little, they have to ask permission and pay the original artist for his or her work. This is to ensure that the original artist can make approve the way their music is being sampled and essentially receive recognition for their work. Sampling is a frequent and completely necessary component in the music industry, but there are also rules that come with doing so. Why should a different concept apply for photographers and their work? In the end, no matter what form of media, especially photography, recognizing the work of the original artist is the right and necessary thing to do.
yea I totally agree! I've been listening to a lot of Korean pop songs over the summer and they seem to LOVE dancing on the lines of plagirising songs and sampling songs. There was one huge controversy that erupted with a korean pop star "sampling" Flo-rida's Right Round, but people were jumping back and forth to how far he went until plagirising can become the marker of his song.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLcByo9CbGI
Sampling makes for some really cool music but I also think consumerism plays a huge role in it. Especially for the korean pop star's case, it looks more like a marketing scheme to me. Now not only is he known in Korea, people who have listened to Flo-Rida's songs are curious or outrage, so they'll check him out, thus getting more exposure. Big props to those business minds.