I found the documentary on Girl Talk to be extremely interesting, because it raised a lot of good questions from both sides of the argument on the legality of mash-ups. On one hand, I feel bad for artists like Girl Talk, who are obviously doing something fresh and innovative, but on the other, I can understand why people have a problem with his unusual methods.
I think what Girl Talk critics have the biggest issue with is his use of the actual recordings themselves, even though they are just chords played by instruments when broken down to their core. As seen in the documentary, artists across generations have used chord progressions and beats similar to songs of the past. If Girl Talk was using his own instrumentation but the same chords as the songs he's sampling, it's doubtful his critics would still be complaining about his music.
For Girl Talk's side of the argument, he claims that songs are "fair use" and that he has the right to use portions of them in his music. He spends hours turning clips of songs into his own creation, so he has the right to defend his art, but their is something unmistakably iffy about his right to use the songs without the artist's permission. I believe there should be a legal amount of a song mash-up artists can use without having to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on to get official permission from record labels. I feel like a lot of artists would be okay with this, because given from what we saw in the video, it was actually the labels who cried foul.
After some consideration, I take Girl Talk's side on this issue, mostly because of the idea of "transformative use." This concept claims that a "derivative work is transformative if it uses a source work in a completely new or unexpected way", and I think it's safe to say that Girl Talk's music is completely new and unexpected. He edits and splices songs together in a way that they bear no resemblance to their original forms, so to my ears, his songs are completely original. At the end of the day, Girl Talk is an artist too, and deserves the right to create like one too.
Great post Hayden! I completely agree with you how both sides of the case can be challenging. I feel Girl Talk's music and other artists like him should have the right to mash-up music as long as it's transformative and sounds completely different. On the other hand, I understand the struggle artists have of people using their music for their own use. It's a battle, but I feel I have to take the side of mash-up music. As long as their music sounds completely different and becomes their own original music/song, I feel there is nothing wrong with it.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting post Hayden! I agree with you that it seems the Copyright Law pendulum could swing either way in the case of Girl Talk. On the one hand he is not technically creating his own chord progressions and beats, but on the other hand he is generating wholly new songs from the samples of other artists songs. This transformative use is what keeps him safe by the law. I think your proposal for a "legal amount of a song mash-up artists can use" before they have to pay extensive copyright fees is an interesting and tangible solution for mash-up artists.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Girl Talk's songs are completely original because they sound like nothing else. I like that you mentioned that he is an artist, it is an art form to remix all of these songs in a way that makes a great track. It takes a creative process to do it and I think that transformative use gives him the right to be able to use these songs to create his art.
ReplyDeleteI also take Girl Talks side n the case. He is changing beats, chord progressions, and the overall tempo of the songs. When he's finished, the song sounds extremely different. It really does take the gift of creation to do what Girl Talk does.
ReplyDeleteI also take Girl Talk's side with this issue. I believe if an artist spends hours of their time on something as creative as a mashup, they shouldn't be penalized for it, at least if they're not making any money off of it.
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