Music Sampling

Have you ever heard the song "Land Down Under?" My bet is you have. Now how about "Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree?" Again I would guess you have. Now compare the two. Land down under is a pop song that has a cool beat and a sweet flute section in the middle. Kookaburra is folk song for children. I think that most people would find these songs to be completely different. However, the people that matter feel like they are too much the same. Recently a case was made saying that the amazing flute part I mentioned in the beginning was stolen from Kookaburra. When I found this out, I was shocked because I couldn't believe songs that are so different could have any similarities. I also don't know why it took years before this was discovered. If there were more than twenty years between when it was made and when it was found why are the makers of the song being sued for millions of dollars? This hit will now be a flop because of a mistake that just recently became a huge problem.

Music sampling is the practice of taking a part of one song and putting it in another song as a background track with some alteration. This idea began with rappers in the eighties and has continued until today. For a long time this has been a respected practice of the music world but it has since become a problem. Record labels who hold the rights to the songs being used are suing those who sampled saying that it is copyright infringement. This has stood in some cases and seems as though it is becoming the status quo. There are some defenses however.

A song can be sampled in another song if that song has not been used in the same way it was orignally used or if it is significantly altered from it's original sound. This is where things get sketchy. What is significantly altered? What was the original use and is it different? The problem is that these questions could be answered either way and often have been in court cases. But if there is a time when sampling is legal then why is there not a clear line of when it is not? There is no specific amount of measures, words, or notes that say you have illegally sampled music.

You can also get permission to sample music or break copyright laws. People arrange pieces of music everyday. Te difference is that they ask permission to alter the music and/or they give the original author credit for their work. This changes things from illegal to accept in society even though they are almost the same practice.

So there are other questions that eventually come like when is music legally in the public domain and legal to sample. That doesn't happen until a minimum of ninety after the death of the copyright owner. So maybe the next question should be if that is too long for people to make money off of a song. In my mind that is way too long. You should never need to hold a copy more than about your life. When you die your music should go into the public domain so that people can appreciate and honor your death without have to pay for it.

So basically I believe that music sampling is a new style and a new way to show songs. Therefore, it should be legal to take parts of songs and use them in your music as long as they don't hurt the original song or use massive sections of a song.

Our Song

Do you know in all of those movies where there is a couple and they have "their song?" I have never actually understood that because I haven't ever had a song for my relationships. But I finally found that feeling!

In December last year, I started dating Briana Larson. I realized that I really do love her differently than anyone else I have ever dated. After a few months of dating, she introduced me to a song that she thought was really amazing. It was "Music of My Heart" by N*Sync and Gloria Estefan. I thought it was a good song but I didn't really listen then.



It wasn't until Jefferson High School's Show Choir Invitational that I truly learned why that song was special. At show choir competitions, they can sometimes sell shout outs. Shout outs are small messages that you want to say to one of the group members. My school had TONS of shout outs. I was about to stop listening when I heard my name. It was from Briana! I can't remember everything that it said but what I do remember is that she said " You are the Music of my heart," and that was when I figured it all out. That quote, although it proved that that was our song, was the basis for couples having a song. It is to show their love for each other through another media. Love has been said to make your heart sing, so you have to have a song that it sings when you are in love.

So, if you are looking for your song, try to listen to your heart and what it sings when you are together. Your song should be the music of your love just like Briana is the "Music of my Heart."

Micheal Reborn

Losing Micheal Jackson was a terrible thing. He was truly a great talent and he is dearly missed. I have always loved his songs and his amazing voice and I doubted that anyone could ever be as good as he was but I have seen that isn't true. This kid is a sixth grader at McKinley Middle School in Cedar Rapids, IA. His name is Shawndell Young and I know that he is going to be the next star. If you don't believe, or even if you do, here is the link to his performance. (I hate it when people disable embedding)

shawndell's performance

The Different Sides to us All

A friend of mine has been doing this great song for speech team and fell in love with it. I believe that we all have different sides even if it isn't as drastic as this song. What we have to do is not let the Hyde side take over us as Dr. Jekyll did.


 

A Weekend of Wonder

This weekend was the twenty sixth annual Jefferson Show choir Invitational. I was excited because it was the last local show choir competition of the year for Kennedy High School. The competition began with the vocal jazz ensembles. Our group, Moonlight Express, was amazing, and I am not just saying that because my girl friend had three solos in the group. The critique was pretty much praise and a few things that we might try doing that may or may not be necessary. It turned out that we got one of two outstanding performances from the night. That was the perfect beginning and it only got better. Next was Chamber Choir. They performed the next morning. I knew was a good sign when the critic, who had been super critical of the group before us, could only say wow. He gave compliment after compliment and in the end, Chamber Choir received first place. Our ninth grade show choir, Chanteurs, has been getting better and better this year especially and we already knew they were good but it became clear at this venue. We were sitting at the awards ceremony just waiting for there name in the prep division. Sixth, fifth, fourth and not the slightest mention of there name. When he got to third, the announcer said "and competing up a division...." and we knew Chanteurs had gotten third. It was an amazing accomplishment for our ninth grade only group to beat established Junior and Sophomore groups. What happened next was still better though. They kept announcing prep division awards and they kept coming to Protege, our Sophomore and Junior prep group. They received Best Male Soloist, Best Band, Best Choreography, Best Vocals, and Grand Champions of the prep division. When they went to the awards for the Varsity division I was scared. We had given it our best but our director said that the sound system was not on so we could not be heard very well. We were really hoping that we would do well so that we could have proof that we were a good show choir. Every time they announced a name it was a relief that it wasn't us. when they got to the captions, we got Best Band and then they announced that we had won the day round! We had done it even without a sound system so the next challenge was to keep it through the finals. We gave it our all and so did Protege.(plus the sound system was on) When they announced awards I had deja vu. They called sixth, fifth, and fourth without calling Protege's name. We had done it again. A group from Kennedy competing a division up had gotten third place. Then they did the caption awards. I thought we had lost it at first because Milton got Best Choreography but then they said Happiness inc had received Best Vocals and were the Grand Champions! We had finally done. Happiness inc 2010 had proved that they could be a winning show choir. We stormed the stage and everyone from Kennedy celebrated. In case you lost count, (cause I almost did), Cedar Rapids Kennedy groups had won every division and brought home 13 trophies altogether! It was truly the dream competition for my school and I couldn't have been happier.

What Happend at the Oscars?

I have often wondered whether I think the Oscars are given to the right people or movies or if it is just what the old, out of date Academy people think. It was an innocent question that I didn't think I would follow up on but that changed at this years Oscars.

I began by getting a list of the winners on Wikipedia. I think that I have only heard of about ten of the winners. That really surprised me. Why would the movies that everyone sees and enjoys not win the best picture? This thinking began after I watched the 2009 Oscars and saw Avatar lose. I was stunned by that. Avatar was a great story and a revolutionary movie with visual effects that were miraculously cool. But what makes it even harder to believe was that, in the history of the world, no movie has ever made more money than Avatar has made and it is still in theatres. Why would that not qualify the movie to be the best picture of the year.

I've thought about some of these things and there are some reasons for Avatar losing. One could have been the fact that it was a modern kind of story. The story itself is old and resembles that of Pocahontas with thats more action and twists. The problem is that this story takes place in a far away world over a hundred years in the future. The Hurt Locker, the movie that won best picture was about a real war in history not a fantasy war the someone made up. Avatar doesn't have real people playing the parts but CGI images so their emotions weren't actually theirs but the clever creation of an artist. I think that could have swayed some people, especially the Academy who seem to like traditional movies, to think that it was more impressive to see real people acting.

Although these reason I can see being way it didn't win, I still don't think that Avatar should have lost. All theatres charge the same price for movies and people go to movies that are good. So the best movies would make the most money right? The sad thing is that Avatar isn't the first movie to make billions and still lose out on best picture. Have you heard of Star Wars? How about Annie Hall? And yet the latter of the two won. It makes me wonder whether the academy takes a hint from the people around them or live in their own selfish minds.

I also hate that the movies that win best picture always seem to come out as close to the end of the year as possible. some come out New Years Day and can still win. People haven't even really had a chance to compare that movie to the rest from the year. I think that the Academy chooses the last movie they see because it is fresh in their mind. I can't find another reason for some of the movies that have won two win.

So what are your thoughts. Comment if you have anything to say. and if you want to learn about the Academy click here.