Lana Del Rey, Radiohead, and the Difficulty of Making Original Music
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Re: Lana Del Rey, Radiohead, and the Difficulty of Making Original Music
#2This really reminds me of a short story someone on HN recommended a while ago: "Melancholy Elephants," written by Spider Robinson.
Re: Lana Del Rey, Radiohead, and the Difficulty of Making Original Music
#3[deleted]
Re: Lana Del Rey, Radiohead, and the Difficulty of Making Original Music
#4As a hobby music producer I just can't wrap my head around the logic behind copyright infringement. It's so arbitrary. It's illegal to steal a melody but sophisticated chord progressions are fine. It's illegal to copy the text of even the simplest verse but reverse engineering some complex synthesizer sounds is fine.
Although I personally strive for it, I don't think originality is a point worth discussing. Music is about expression first and foremost. The difficulty we have today is that you can't freely express yourself. Many of the great hip hop records of the 90s, for instance, couldn't be produced today because sample clearing would be a nightmare.
I do, of course, understand that each work requires, errm, work. So I am fine with some form of protection for the artist. But imho it should be a rather broad protection. That is, releasing a cover without permission or selling someone else work (i.e. 100% of the lyrics or melody or even arrangement...) as your own is not ok. But I think as long as there is any form of creative alteration involved then "copying" should be fair play. Especially when several years or even a decade have past.
Re: Lana Del Rey, Radiohead, and the Difficulty of Making Original Music
#5I think this is just the nature of music. It requires a rather rigid system which does not offer enough diversity to be completely unique. All musical genres need to at least share the same root elements for association.
Re: Lana Del Rey, Radiohead, and the Difficulty of Making Original Music
#6As a hobby music producer I just can't wrap my head around the logic behind copyright infringement. It's so arbitrary. It's illegal to steal a melody but sophisticated chord progressions are fine. It's illegal to copy the text of even the simplest verse but reverse engineering some complex synthesizer sounds is fine. Although I personally strive for it, I don't think originality is a point worth discussing. Music is…
That sounds reasonable but how do you define “any form of creativity/expression” legally? That’s the problem.
If you know anything about writing music you should know why chord progressions can’t be copyrighted. There’s only 12 notes, there’s not that many unique chord progressions to be found in the Standard I/IV/V pop music format.
Melodies and lyrics, on the other hand, there’s a nearly infinite supply.
The problem with limiting protection to only a few years is that would ensure an even more brutal cycle of song “remakes” for all pop music which would be even more stale than what we have now.
Re: Lana Del Rey, Radiohead, and the Difficulty of Making Original Music
#7For anyone who doesn't play the guitar, 'Creep' and the Hollies track is is derived from come feature a rather obvious chord progression. Physically it is the result of sliding an open E chord down the neck to produce higher notes then, la piece de resistance, taking a finger off. Radiohead added a killer feature of turning the gain up on the amplifier for the chorus, genius. It's the kind of thing teenagers everywhere find in their second month of guitar mastery.
It shouldn't even be copyrightable. The guitar is full of things like this that are not great feats of musical theory but simple physical movements that are bound to happen. This is why guitar music generally sounds so derivative, because there are a number of obvious steps that all players will find quite quickly.
Why should you get paid for the guitar equivalent of pressing all of the white notes on a piano?
Edit: typo
Re: Lana Del Rey, Radiohead, and the Difficulty of Making Original Music
#8I think this is just the nature of music. It requires a rather rigid system which does not offer enough diversity to be completely unique. All musical genres need to at least share the same root elements for association. https://youtu.be/Co9mW_9hH2g
This is not true. It may be true for modern pop, but I can give lots of examples where originality abounds:
Classical music, Jazz and its derivatives, prog rock.
I never understood why people listen to radio music and don't even know what is out there, it's like seeing the same dull basic painting over and over again.
Re: Lana Del Rey, Radiohead, and the Difficulty of Making Original Music
#9For anyone who doesn't play the guitar, 'Creep' and the Hollies track is is derived from come feature a rather obvious chord progression. Physically it is the result of sliding an open E chord down the neck to produce higher notes then, la piece de resistance, taking a finger off. Radiohead added a killer feature of turning the gain up on the amplifier for the chorus, genius. It's the kind of thing teenagers everywhe…
Chord progressions aren’t copyright-able. So no, that obvious thing isn’t.
What is subject to copyright is the melody. That’s what they got the claim on. The vocal melody.
Re: Lana Del Rey, Radiohead, and the Difficulty of Making Original Music
#10I think this is just the nature of music. It requires a rather rigid system which does not offer enough diversity to be completely unique. All musical genres need to at least share the same root elements for association. https://youtu.be/Co9mW_9hH2g
This is not true. There is nothing rigid about music. You can do whatever you want. Unless you care about being popular. Then what you run up against is what people enjoy.