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March 01, 2005
The Beats Go On
After rambling on about copyright law and sampling last week, I realized that it had been almost exactly one year since I had put together a short audio track based around a copyright/sampling theme. In late 2003, the record label Illegal Art (a different entity from the online exhibit/website illegal-art.org) announced that they were accepting submissions for a compilation CD called Sonny Bono is Dead. The project was intended to be a protest against the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act that had prevented all sorts of 1920s-copyrighted works from falling into the public domain as they were supposed to after being copyright-protected for 75 years. As such, Illegal Art was looking for submissions that sampled either "works that would have fallen into the Public Domain by the year 2004 had the Sonny Bono Act failed" or the actual artistic output of Sonny Bono and/or "other artists who embraced the notion of copyright lasting forever".
Nothing on the would've-been-Public-Domain list really grabbed my imagination so I decided to go for the Sonny Bono angle. I took Sonny & Cher's big 1967 hit "The Beat Goes On" and looped the chorus ad nauseum while accompanying it with a succession of several of my all-time favorite hip-hop breaks/drum samples (beats that I may or may not have ever heard had certain copyright owners been a lot more aggressive or protective way back when!).
Philo at Illegal Art seemed to like my track when I first submitted it. But several months later he told me that things with the comp were up in the air and that they weren't sure about releasing it. I haven't heard anything about the compilation in the last few months, so I'm assuming that it probably won't be coming out soon, if ever. So here's an MP3 of my submitted track for anyone who wants to hear it:
If any music geeks or hip-hop heads out there feel like playing a fun little game of "name that beat", just use the comment section to name whatever characteristics you feel like naming: artist, song, most popular uses of the break as a sample, etc. Or if not, I'll just come back in a week and list these six ultimate beats that really do go on...
On a related note, the U.S. Copyright Office is currently asking the public to comment about "orphan works" - copyrighted works where the owner cannot be found. In contrast to the Sonny Bono-enabled extensions of copyright, this actually seems like a great chance for copyright to be made more sensible and less cumbersome for potential users of copyrighted works. The comment period goes until March 25th. Check out eldred.cc for all sorts of additional information about this.
Update: Here's an easy comment-submission form provided by the EFF, PublicKnowledge, and freeculture.org.
Posted by Tim at March 1, 2005 01:48 AM
Comments
Definitely heard Apache, Incredible Bongo...
thought I heard Hihache by Lafayette Afro Rock (would be sped up) and Funky Drummer...but then again I could easily
be wrong about the last two....Mark should have a sampling category some Thursday..
Posted by: MOD at March 1, 2005 07:16 PM
"It goes a one, two, three and... Jay's like King Midas, as I was told..."
Posted by: jesse at March 2, 2005 08:58 AM
my friend who lives in LA took his cat to the vet. he saw Chasity Bono there with her cat. her cat's name is Sonny Bono.
Posted by: jenn at March 2, 2005 11:26 AM
Thanks for playin'....the "Name That Beat" answers are posted here.
Posted by: Tim at March 12, 2005 06:20 PM