Basic Electroacoustics II: Electronic Sound in Art

 Music G6602Y
Spring 2003

Professor: Douglas Repetto, douglas@music.columbia.edu
TA: Johnathan Lee, jlee@music.columbia.edu

Our Motto: "Why, then how."

April 10th, 2003



Sampling and Copyright

(Johnathan Lee lecturing!)


The gritty legal details (in the US, that is):

Publishing rights vs. recording rights
Derivative use
Fair use
Parody
"Transformative" use
Clearing the rights for a sample (publishing and recording)
"Free" samples

References (NOT legal advice):
http://www.utsystem.edu/OGC/IntellectualProperty/cprtindx.htm
http://www.artslaw.org
http://www.alankorn.com/articles/sampling.html
http://www.alankorn.com/articles/copyright_infringe.html
http://fairuse.stanford.edu/multimed/
http://www.negativland.com/intprop.html

Approaches to using samples (particularly samples that are presumably copyrighted):


1. Playing "hide the source material": make your sampled sounds as unrecognizable as possible. Use multiple iterations of effects; munge those samples beyond all recognition.

Examples:

Sometimes deliberately hard to find, no?
Johnathan F. Lee, Semblance of Ritual II (http://music.columbia.edu/c mc/music/4.mp3)
Fernando Gomez Evelson, Ex Nomos Alpha (http://music.columbia.edu/ cmc/music/14.mp3)
Chris Bailey, Ooogaaah: Dungeony Specimen Spaceship (http://music.columbia .edu/~chris/sounds/oog.mp3)

Motivations: this method allows someone to take certain characteristics of a particular sample, but shape the final sound according to the whims of sound designer. Although by definition the "hidden sample" does not try to call attention to the original identity of the sample, some residue of the original sound will be there at some level. Also has the nice, possibly intentional side effect of being a relatively "safe" (as in it becomes less likely for you to get sued) method of using copyrighted material. However, just because you've munched up a sample in all sorts of crazy ways doesn't mean that you aren't supposed to clear the rights for it. However, if you don't declare it and never tell anyone else, it may become that much easier to get away with it.


2. Using EXTREMELY esoteric samples, or playing "sample hunter": this means fishing through the bowels of very old record stores or other recording archives and using samples that are so out of the mainstream that everyone else will be hard pressed to immediately recognize the sample when it appears in a pure form. Some popular ways of doing this are using recordings from music of other cultures, extremely old popular (or unpopular) music recordings, taking music from a relatively unpopular genre and putting it into another (this does not mean the "unknown" sample or quote is definitively unpopular or obscure; it only has to be for the audience the final work is intended for - lots of post-modern contemporary art music take advantage of this effect)

Examples:
Radiohead, Ideoteque (http://www.musi c.princeton.edu/paul/radiohead.ml.html)
The Freight Elevator Quartet, Vindication
A LOT of drum breaks used in electronic dance music and hip-hop/rap (take your pick - one of my favorites is the drum break intro from Tower of Power's Squib Cakes and Moby)

Motivations: this can cater to any connoisseur tendencies that one might have, and can be seen as a way of helping people discover old, new or "other" music that they might not otherwise have contact with. You can take advantage of aspects of the source material in a more obvious way. One thing to note, however, just because a sample is obscure or old (even REALLY old), doesn't mean that you can't get in trouble by not clearing the rights for it.


3. Playing "recycler" or "let's put a bare relatively untouched sample that a lot of people might know into a new context": this method deliberately takes advantage of the audience's knowledge of the original source material, and often uses extremely prominent features of a given sample in an undisturbed way. A key lyric, melody, or riff or sound can be used precisely for its ability for someone to say, "Hey, I know that! What's that doing there?" This is often used in pieces that juxtapose or reorganize different recognizable samples, thereby putting a new "spin" on them.

Examples:
Emergency Broadcast Network
Negativland (http://www.pfony.com/html/fony neg.html)
John Oswald (http://www.plunderphonics.com)
illegal art (http://detritus.net/illegalart/)
detritus (http://detritus.net)

Motivations: The material is already there to be used, and by using them relatively untouched, you can spend less time mucking them up and spend more time thinking about how they will appear in a work. This approach also can easily take advantage of the aesthetic of using collage. This is also a way to play with people's expectations, memories and knowledge of preexisting material, and can also reveal certain aspects of a sample just by its placement in a different context. There is also sometimes a subversive element to this approach (and also possibly a link to a style analogous to "pop art") that may be very deliberate. By using samples out in the open like this, and by using samples that many people might recognize, this approach is probably the most controversial in terms of dealing with legal issues.


Things to consider:

These are just some narrowly defined categories, and in a lot of ways they depend a lot on the perception of the audience. Even the most deliberately subversive piece with tons of copyrighted material in it chopped up all over the place to make a point about the commerciality of popular music radio might not mean anything to someone who doesn't feel connected to the samples that are being referred to. And likewise, there is always the possibility that even a sample that has been run through the meat grinder will be recognized by a savvy listener (kind of like those radio contests where they play the tiniest snippet of an obscure part of a pop song and have people calling in to make the ID). And then there is always the potential for legal problems.

Assignment: There is an open call for submissions at a festival featuring sample-based pieces. What kind of piece would you want to do? Choose a bunch of samples you would like to use. Explain what makes those samples important for you, and how you would deal with them in your proposed work. Address the following issues in your proposal:
1. What does using samples buy you? Convenience? A recognizable object to reference? Potential for legal hassles? At what point would you not want to use preexisting samples for a work's source material?

2. How much do you have to do to a sample before you can call it your own? Is it enough to just frame the sample, or would you feel more comfortable messing with the sound of the sample itself?

3. Is it important for you that your intended audience recognize the original source of a given sample, or are you just interested in a particular characteristic of the sample?