Accessing Music In Today's Society

In the book Remix, the beginning few chapters go into much detail about how John Philip Sousa predicted that by copyrighting music and the musical culture itself would not only harm the composers of the music but also the consumers of the music along with it's culture. Sousa made a very strong claim that "we will not have a vocal cord left". This however has proved to be wrong on a few different levels. The first being that people today although they do go about downloading music the wrong way, illegally by using things such as Napster, Lime wire, or Frost wire. However they are sharing music that many do not know about by finding ways to download it and then getting that artist's name out there for others to really hear. I myself tend to download a lot of music illegally. It is not because I am trying to go against the law or copyright act, it is because a lot of the music that I hear is either not available on Itunes, or you have to go out and buy the entire album of a particular artist when in all reality I just wanted one song.

Another reason why Sousa's statement about not having a vocal cord left has been proven to be wrong in today's culture, is due to the fact that a lot of new and different types of music is being created. We have people such as DJ Earworm who mashes up billboards top 100 songs into one song and creates a completely new song. Then there are others such as Girl Talk who has become nationally known for his mixing of songs such as older songs with newer ones. The creator behind Girl Talk, Gregg Gillis, gives thanks to all of the artists that he uses samples of their songs for his own songs. However although this has proven to be something that the music industry has embraced and many people feel that what these people are doing is alright, there are many people who disagree with it all and just like Sousa, feel that it is taking away from the music culture and the core of what making music was all about. As many music businesses begin to grow faster and faster within our society today, Lawrence Lessig points out that they are also changing us, just as the music industry is changing with times. They can change everything whether that is how we get our music or how we listen to our music, along with what we do with our music. All of these aspects play a major role within the music industry. So why are people so offended or against getting music other ways than paying for it? This is something that we may need to ask the artists themselves. These are people who are making a living off of making music for people, such as myself to enjoy, however when people start to access that music by not paying for it how will these artists continue to be paid? Many people, such as myself tend to argue with this question because when you think of a musician you think of someone who is very wealthy and so then why would they need my money when they have so much more? I am still listening to them and promoting them by telling all my friends and family about them, I just am not directly giving money to them.