Bridging the Gap: Mash-Up Artists and Copyright Law
Nov 24th
In 2003, Danger Mouse, a.k.a. DJ Brian Burton, took music samples from the Beatles’ “White Album” and edited in Jay-Z’s vocals from his “Black Album,” creating the “Grey Album.” This record became one of the first mainstream mash-up albums, and Rolling Stone Magazine called it “the most talked about musical event of 2004.”
Mash-ups, the genre that the “Grey Album” is a part of, fall into a legal middle ground. Downloading, sampling, and distributing recording artists’ music violates copyright laws, which are still trying to catch up to this new technology. Sampling and remixing music isn’t a new phenomenon, but only recently became a complicated legal issue. The music industry is now suing its consumers, despite the fact that few current laws regulate this kind of music sharing.
(“What More Can I Say” by DJ Danger Mouse)