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!
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.
Posted by: Rob Fields | March 14, 2007 at 12:57
this is really old..
Posted by: keets | March 14, 2007 at 12:48