Do Not Read Me

All music already exists. It has no form, but every aspect of music is already in the universe. The only thing musicians do is put form to what is already there, kind of like putting water in cup. Nobody can own music or the parts that make up music. Music is a mixture of several elements that are as natural to this world as dogs eating each other's poop. Rhythm, sound pressure, dynamics, accents, tempo, harmony, dissonance, consonance, tonality, atonality, frequencies, silence... the list could continue. As musicians, we manipulate these elements. As music producers and remixers, we re-manipulate these elements. I would argue that as digital technology advances, it allows more people the ability to re-manipulate content thus allowing them a sort of creative freedom experienced by the initial musicians. This leads to creative expression through music by more people than ever before, but not the extension of music as artisan skill in the same sense of the original manipulation of the elements. Remixers are not musicians. They take musicians' manipulations and use a computer to manipulate that to their own means. That doesn't mean it is any less creative, but they are not the same. Remixers should give credit to those they sample though. One could look at it and say, "Hey, why don't you come up with your own shit? Oh that's right. You aren't a musician." That's not to say that there aren't remixers who are musicians. I just know very few who are musicians more than they are computer geeks. Like I said before, more people can participate in this re-manipulation of the manipulated elements of music. It is a decidedly more inclusive culture, and possibly a little too "lowest common denominator," So much to the point where so-called piracy and copyright infringement is as widespread as the legs of the old woman who lived in a shoe.

My point: In terms of music, nobody owns it. The music has been around longer than any of us and will be around long after we are gone. Drum beats aren't created by people. They are discovered through creative manipulations of the elements. If I want to sample a six second drum beat, then so be it. It is a fucking drum beat. It is fucking music.

I don't even know where I'm going with this post. Music is music, no matter how it is created. Anyone can do it. If you're gonna sample someone's shit, give them some credit, not because they own it, but because it is respectful. It isn't hard.

There is no such thing as intellectual property. It is a farce.