Artist Nate Harrison produced a 20-minute video exploring the history of the "Amen Break," taken from the song "Amen, Brother" by the Winstons in 1969. He goes onto show how this 6-second break has been used in hundred of hip hop, techno and jungle records. He also delves into the issues of copyright and appropriation. A couple of points caught my attention:
"Not only does the innovation within a culture grow when copyright is flexible, so does its markets and capital."
and
"Culture is impossible without a rich public domain."
This video is well worth its 20-minute run time.
Finally, a hat tip to Dr. Lester Spence at Johns Hopkins for bringing it to my attention on his blog.
Enjoy!
2 comments
this is really old..
Fair enough. But it’s new to me. The important thing to remember is that this is how knowledge/information spreads: Somebody will be “first” and that means that everyone else will not.
In the meantime, thanks for stopping by and commenting.
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