The Source I used in my blog is from Kirby Ferguson’s video series “Everything is a Remix”.
Artist’s should do their research and take the time to check the copyright laws to avoid ripping-off someone’s work. Artist’s should always be careful with their music and making sure that the line of stealing someone else’s song is not crossed since it can result in something very serious, such as a lawsuit. I think when an artist enjoys a melody or beat of a song and desire to create a remix or simply takes inspiration of another artist,it is completely fine, as long as the artist is being acknowledged or given credit for their work. I believe that the guideline of copyright infringement is very narrow and needs to broaden on what is acceptable and what is not. In this view I one hundred percent understand the dispute of Zeppelin being rip-offs, copying other artists work. I believe this due to what I have previously stated, Zeppelin’s incorporation of instruments and melody.įerguson explains that “When Zeppelin used someone else’s material, they didn’t attribute songwriting to the original artist” and “Zeppelin didn’t modify their versions enough to claim they were original.” While other artists would do the opposite such as covers-“performances of other people’s material” or knock-offs- “copies that stay within legal boundaries”, these are all considered as legal remixing.
Now using Kirby’s definition of remix- “To combine or edit existing materials to produce something new”, I do consider this song of Led Zeppelin,”Stairway to Heaven”, to be a remix of “Taurus” and doesn’t infringe on the original work’s copyright. Zeppelin transformed Spirit’s slow instrumental into a rock song by fading out the slow guitar riff in the beginning and incorporating a stronger guitar rhythm, adding in drums and an electric guitar. One distinguishable difference is that “Stairway to Heaven” is a song that contains lyrics whereas “Taurus” only incorporates an instrumental. Though the guitar riff in the beginning of “Stairway to Heaven” is the same as the guitar in “Taurus” chorus, Zeppelin does transform and incorporate different instruments and rhythm’s into their song.
“Stairway to Heaven” noticeably has the same guitar riff, at the beginning of the song, as “Taurus” does. “Stairway to Heaven” was released in 1971 and was stated to be a rip off of an artist named Spirit’s song “Taurus”. One of the most famous being “Stairway to Heaven”. Many of their songs apply lyrics and music from existing material. Though Ferguson mainly focused on the artist Led Zeppelin, who is often considered as one of the greatest rock bands of all time, and was known to frequently rip-off numerous songs. He further explains how remixing is extremely easy and can that anything can now be remixed. He starts off by defining the term remix as, ” To combine or edit existing materials to produce something new”, and that remixing was originally applied to music. In Ferguson’s part one of the series, “The Song Remains the Same”, he looks into the music industry to explain remixing. Ferguson uses the concept of ” copying materials, transforming them, and combining them” to explain his view that nearly everything in the media is an alternation of existing material- everything is a remix. “Everything is a Remix” is a video series by Kirby Ferguson. Check out Part 1 of Everything is a Remix (Link) :
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