There was an interesting discussion starting toward the end of another post "Stolen Video Game Music” and before it got locked up I was intrigued to see where it was going to end up. Now, of course, I don’t condone stealing, but I think the idea is interesting enough to explore that is “What should be the role of music in this world?” Before you jump the gun and answer like some scared police officer, let me elaborate a little bit by giving you the context to what I mean.
Although he likes to troll a bit, @SnowTeddy has an interesting point which should be explored even further. He stated, "Vaporwave is to liberate the commodity and oppression of toxic music culture, the so called 'originality'. Nothing is original. Not even your so called genius composition. The whole purpose of vaporwave is to protest the consumerism and capitalism, the parasites that ruined music itself.
Now take out the genre Vaporware, and just put “music"in its place. @deckersan has the viewpoint, which a lot of us have, that is to value the artist’s work financially and with respect as to leave the rights of the artists in their control, but I don’t think Snowteddy’s viewpoint is merely a "political ideology” as deckersan has put.
I think the idea goes much deeper than that which I would agree with in a philosophical perspective. It seems if one does their research that composers ranging from Beethoven, Chopin, and all the way to Philip Glass, they would say music is something that comes from outside of oneself. And that genius in an ancient greek perspective was not from within, but rather that one merely has genius as opposed to being one.
Now, I could take Chopin’s quote out of context in trying to say that money shouldn’t be our focus in writing: "I'm a revolutionary, money means nothing to me.” But of course money is important because we all need to eat. However, I also find it silly that an artist would be all consumed about their work as if it’s the greatest thing anyone has ever heard and in return would be so possessive in controlling how others treat it. Take Disney for example in the many stories they would borrow from and presuming that they were the sole original creators by slapping a long copyright on those works so that others can not borrow from just as Disney did before them. And if one finds their music to be “stolen,” that’s a good sign that their music is getting recognition. It seems to be the curse of the successful, the rich, and famous that is they will always find others using their music in ways that they would not approve of. For example, if someone bought and paid for my music, credited me, and used it for a white supremacy propaganda video, I certainly would not approve of it, but one cannot control such usage if it became a popular piece. It seems that if a piece of music would ever achieve such status of recognition, the music really doesn’t belong to the artist but rather to the collective universe-- if I were to take such a romantic view on it.
I haven’t made up my mind personally as I find pros and cons for both viewpoints in how to treat music. Of course, one should credit and support the artist financially whenever possible, but one could go to the extreme of continued copyrighting a music long after one’s death. It’s a funny thought in how possessive people can be especially when it comes to the intangible. But we must all realize that eventually we will leave here the same way we came, and to merely let things possess us is futile. As Edgar Allan Poe once alluded to even with a tighter clasp in our hand the grains of sand will still slip through our fingers. And now Eminem is making a bold move by selling shares of his music to the public. Click here for reference.
I’m really just interested in reading people’s thoughts about the matter and how they personally view music on whether its more of a profit, charity, or consumer mentality when it comes to listening or writing music. And feel free to use as much rhetorical devices in your arguments, especially Ad hominem as that would make this a more interesting read, imo.
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