Good Copy, Bad Remix Part 1.0

The documentary Good Copy Bad Copy closely examines both sides of the war with copyright and what is a remix and where is the compensation. I learned a good deal about copyright last semester in WEPO and we watched a video with Girl Talk in it. However, I was still learning a great deal in this documentary where my standpoint on this subject is further tested.

The documentary opens with Girl Talk at 1:59 as he demonstrates what I believe is the most appropriate attitude regarding sampling and remixing. He thanks each and every artist that he samples and acknowledges that while he created something wholly original, it is from previous works. He goes further and says that his fans or whoever listens to his music can enjoy the new remix, but also recognize where it came from. His listeners are inherently participating in a "past, present, future" type of ordeal. They reminisce with the beats they recognize, enjoy the remix at hand, and can search the songs they don't recognize or spread the word about it in general. This is something I had not thought about thoroughly before as a large part about the documentary deals with the political motivations behind remix and copyright.

Danger Mouse's "The Grey Album" (8:49) was something I had never heard of before but peaked my interest from the documentary. The very name of the album I feel sums up the entire purpose of remix. The combination of "The Black Album" and "The White Album" creates "The Grey Album," in other words, remix and sampling can make us see, perhaps, between the gaps. Two genres of music separated by many years come together and form a new sound and maybe new cultural significance (which it did do). The professor in the segment says that 'the album might've been the number one album had it been on sale in that year (2005).'

Finally, one of the more astonishing segments in the film is when Nigeria is mentioned. An entire country operates in a different circumstance, and thus more freedom with expression is present in this regard than in the U.S. At 29:00 one of the men in the video discuss how the pirated versions and "legal" versions run for the same price and thus, there's creative freedom and no issue regarding the money. This made the video come full circle at the end when another man says that 'if the world operated in such a way that where you paid so much money a year like a subscription, everybody would get their money and people could have creative freedom.' But, this doesn't happen.