Recording Technology and Musical Freedom

Write down your answer to the following question. Include two reasons why:

Should downloading music be free?

Vocab: ethics

Vocab:copyrightsampling

digital sampler

Vocab:sheet musicphonograph

recordtapeCD

mp3file sharing

network

Lesson Essential Question:Can we argue both sides of copyright

and sampling issues?Lesson Essential Question:

How did sampling inspire creativity and copyright law?

Lesson Essential Question:How has recording tech advanced?

Concept:Copyright Ethics

Concept:Sampling

Concept:Technology

How has recording technology effected musical freedom?

Unit Essential Question

Advances in recording technology took away musical freedom, then gave it back, and inspired copyright laws

Key Learning

Sheet Music

-In early America, music was sold as Sheet Music

-Took time to learn

-Open for interpretation

-Most sheet music produced in area of New York City called Tin Pan Alley

-Sheet music usually featured artwork on the front and advertisements for products or more music on the back

The Phonograph

-Thomas Edison invented the phonograph

-Sound entered through a cone on the machine

-Needle engraved vibrations onto a wax cylinder

-Extremely sensitive, so drums are rarely heard on these early recordings

-Difficult to preserve cylinders

Records

-Records were engraved much like wax cylinders.

-They could produce a louder sound, and were easier to store

-Records were made out of many different materials until 1950

-Records are made out of vinyl today

Abbey Road- Best-selling record of 2009,2010,2011(Released 1969)

John Coltrane- Blue Train

Tape

-German engineers invented tape recording

-Allied Forces recovered tape recorders from the German military during World War II

-These tapes were very large

-The Phillips Company introduced the compact cassette tape in 1964

Compact Disc

-Digital Recording led to the invention of the compact disc (or CD)

-The CD was small and held more information than the cassette.

-At the time they were introduced, CDs had more capacity than computer hard drives

Compressed Digital Formats

-Advances in digital file compression led to file types like the mp3

-With these file types and the increasing popularity of the internet, file sharing networks like Napster

-Napster was eventually renamed Rhapsody, and inspired other programs like Pandora and Spotify

Listening

# 1

#2

Napster

-Napster was a file sharing program that operated between 1999 and 2001

-Users could create a username/account and share their music library with anyone else on the network

-This means that one person could buy a CD, rip the tracks onto their computer, and share them for free with any of the 25 million users

-At its peak, Napster had 80 million songs

-Napster was shut down because artists and record labels were not recieving compensation for downloads

Legal Issues

-Rock band Metallica sued Napster when they noticed their song "I Disappear" on the network before it was officially released. The song was being used in the movie Mission: Impossible 2

-Metallica claimed that this advanced availability, as well as the fact that users were downloading the song for free affected their profits

-They requested that Napster remove all of their music from its network

-Dr. Dre, who shared a lawyer with Metallica filed a similar lawsuit

-Metallica and Dr. Dre even submitted a list of usernames that downloaded their songs

-Napster and this lawsuit gave a new definition to the word "pirate."

Answer the questions below on a blank sheet of paper:

1) How would you feel if 25 million people were listening to your song for free?

2) Would your answer to question #1 change if you were already extremely rich?

3) Was it wrong for Dr. Dre to submit a list of usernames and subject them to potential legal consequences?

Warm Up

In your group, arrange the different recording technologies in order

Pre 1900 1910 1964

Vocab: ethics

Vocab:copyrightsampling

digital sampler

Vocab:sheet musicphonograph

recordtapeCD

mp3file sharing

network

Lesson Essential Question:Can we argue both sides of copyright

and sampling issues?Lesson Essential Question:

How did sampling inspire creativity and copyright law?

Lesson Essential Question:How has recording tech advanced?

Concept:Copyright Ethics

Concept:Sampling

Concept:Technology

How has recording technology effected musical freedom?

Unit Essential Question

Advances in recording technology took away musical freedom, then gave it back, and inspired copyright laws

Key Learning

Review

-mp3s are compressed music files that can be stored on computers and portable devices.

-Napster created a copyright controversy concerning consumers by allowing them to exchange mp3s over the internet without paying these guys.

-This was the most recent controversy regarding copyright issues, but copyright laws have been challanged and changed since they were established to govern sheet music.

-Here is a familiar song that caused some copyright debate

sample:noun

a small part of anything or one of a number, intended to show the quality, style, or nature of the whole; specimen.

What is a sample in regard to hip-hop music?

-A sample is a musical idea from an existing song that is borrowed and used to make a new song.

Here is an explanation of how hip-hop artists started sampling

Can you think of any (clean) songs that use samples?

whosampled.com

Kanye West- Through the Wire

Rihanna - S.O.S.

Duck Sauce- Barbra Streisand

Jay Z- Show Me What You Got

Can you own a sound?

-Can you copyright a sound?-Length?-Complexity?

-What is the difference between using a sample in your music and downloading a song for free on Napster?

Theft or Tribute?

-Is sampling an easy or less impressive way to make music?

-Is a digital sampler an instrument?

-Does Clyde Stubblefield deserve credit for the samples of his playing, or do the new artists and producers?

Sheet Music

-Back when pop music was sold only as sheet music, the consumer could play it however they wanted.

-This led to many different variations on the same song

-Consumers could change notes or lyrics, combine the song with others, and choose what instruments to use

Song ReaderBeck's

-Beck is an alternative Rock artist with many awards. His songs mix hip-hop and techno sounds

-Beck released an album this year that doesn't make a sound. It is all sheet music.

-The album is called Song Reader, and the people who buy it can choose their own way to play the songs.

-The pages even look like old sheet music with art on the front and advertisements on the back.

"Eyes that Say I Love You"

performed by Theories of Everything

performed by Portland Cello Project

performed by Annemiek Beex

"Just Noise"

performed by Song Preservation Society

performed by Beef Wellington

Vocab: ethics

Vocab:copyrightsampling

digital sampler

Vocab:sheet musicphonograph

recordtapeCD

mp3file sharing

network

Lesson Essential Question:Can we argue both sides of copyright

and sampling issues?Lesson Essential Question:

How did sampling inspire creativity and copyright law?

Lesson Essential Question:How has recording tech advanced?

Concept:Copyright Ethics

Concept:Sampling

Concept:Technology

How has recording technology effected musical freedom?

Unit Essential Question

Advances in recording technology took away musical freedom, then gave it back, and inspired copyright laws

Key Learning