In the 1950s - despite the best efforts of Elvis - there wasn't much to listen to on UK radio besides the shipping forecast. Here's what the pirates have done for us lately. This challenge requires a change of attitude, because sometimes piracy isn't the problem, it's the solution, as my new book, The Pirate's Dilemma, explains. William's last name? Fox.įrom CEOs to struggling artists, in everything from health care to entertainment to education, many of us are being challenged by the problem of others sharing and using our intellectual property without permission. These pirates continue to operate there, albeit legally now, in the town they founded: Hollywood. This caused a band of film-making pirates, including a man named William, to flee New York for the then still wild West, where they thrived, unlicensed, until Edison's patents expired. That opinion prevailed until a system was established so everyone could be paid royalties a system that formed the backbone of the recording industry and which is still in place today.Įdison, in turn, went on to invent film-making, and demanded a licensing fee from those making movies with his technology. When Thomas Edison invented the phonographic record player, musicians branded him a pirate, out to steal their work and destroy the live music business. This is happening in the music business right now, even though the industry was created by a "pirate" in the first place. Sometimes we see people like Redwood as innovators, while in other instances they are regarded as pirates. In many cases we implicitly understand the value in remixing, redistributing and making copies of other people's content. Thanks to the efforts of people like Ruddy Redwood pushing new ideas from the fringes of pop culture, the way we use information looks very different today. People have their cars "remixed" on MTV's Pimp My Ride, while people are busy illicitly re-editing and reposting television clips online every day. Companies like Facebook that are based on user-generated content are worth more than manufacturing giants like Ford. Boeing's new Dreamliner airplane was designed in collaboration with 120,000 volunteers who signed up to help through the corporation's website. Video game code is deliberately left unlocked so fans can tweak and improve it. The remix was born.įorty years later, the idea behind the remix is everywhere you look. That night the crowd made him play the dubplate so many times it got completely worn out. That night, using two turntables, he switched between the original mix and the vocal-less version of the song, giving the MC more room to manoeuvre and the crowd space to sing along between verses, sending them crazy in the process and hacking the structure of a song live for the first time. Intrigued by the instrumental version, he took it with him. Apologising for his mistake, Smith was about to throw the faulty disc out when Redwood stopped him. In his haste, Smith forgot to pan up the vocals on the mixing desk, cutting just the backing track on to the dubplate, and accidentally recording the world's first "12-inch instrumental". Recording straight from the master tape on to an acetate disc, also known as a dubplate, the track was for a local deejay named Ruddy Redwood to play at a dance that evening. Just over 40 years ago in a recording studio in Kingston, Jamaica, a sound engineer named Byron Smith was busy cutting a new song, On The Beach by the Paragons.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |