Academic Articles Summary

Loren White

Comp. 106

6 October, 2009

Academic Articles Summary – Musical Genius

While deciding upon my research topic I chose to start some “scouting” in regards to musical creativity, copyright laws, and the effects they subsequently have on one another. I was somehow able to stumble across a few interesting articles which, incidentally enough, are usable for the summary assignment. Each article, while having similar subject matter, is specific to one aspect of musical creativity and design on the whole.

The first of the three articles relevant to my topic of choice comes from the American Music journal, Vol. 27 - Number 2 (2009). In the article ‘Only in America:

The Unique Status of Sound Recordings under U.S. Copyright Law and How It Threatens Our Audio Heritage,’ authored by Tim Brooks, there can be seen a review of and an overwhelmingly negative stance against United States copyright law. The article itself contains three main sub-ideas which help to back the claims Brooks makes. The first of which denotes a general history of copyright law on audio recordings in the United States for the past 120 years. He also presents his argument that the copyright laws of modern America have nearly barred access to historical recordings in the United States under common and state law. Brooks mentions that “laws have become so skewed toward the interests of present-day "rights holders" that…most of the recorded past has been locked up for generations to come—perhaps forever.” The second item Brooks chooses to focus on involves a representation of copyright law in a graph comparable to a modern business model and explains how, through a study, he found that there was a large demand for such music/audio from the past and that most recorded audio prior to World War 2 are owned by SonyBMG. The last few parts of this article discuss recent attempts to change copyright laws on historical media as well as ways to possibly ‘fight’ the laws in a peaceful and law-abiding manner. He concludes by reiteration of his key points as well as some personal insight into the possibility for change in copyright laws and describes an ideal situation where everyone in the United States can benefit from free access to all historical and present-day music/audio.

The next article I chose to take care explore was found in the International Review of Applied Economics, Vol.23 – Number 6 (2009) of all places. The article I found, ‘Economics and the ecology of creativity: evidence from the popular music industry,’ is written by Patrick Cohendet, David Grandadam and Laurent Simon. Although the title of the journal has an overall broad focus on economics, one of the major discussions of this article explains the creative development of music through a territory or interactions of three sub-groups – the Underground, the Middleground and the Upperground. The article takes a very economic approach by regarding the creative process of musical development as a marketable innovation and further expresses the idea that creative success in general is a difficult and varied process that cannot be achieved on a small, introverted scale. The article then breaks down the creative musical process through its individual descriptions of the Underground (i.e. the culture, individuals with ideas), the Middleground (others with similar ideas/approaches acting as a catalytic medium), and the Upperground (the “system” who turns music into a marketable career). Finally, the article concludes by giving examples of the creation and expansion of two influential genres of musical expression: Rap music in New York and Soul music in Detroit. The article then concludes with a recap of its overall idea that creativity is influenced by location and is generally a non-individualistic feat.

The final article I chose to read and discuss is found in the Journal of Business Research, Volume 62 – issue 10. Within the article ‘“To buy or to pirate”: The matrix of music consumers' acquisition-mode decision-making,’ authors James R. Coyle, Stephen J. Gould, Pola Gupta and Reetika Gupta explore the underlying factors to why some music fans contemplate and are eventually driven to pirating music rather than purchasing it legally. The article, arranged in an outline-esque format, discusses several factors including ethics, legality, economics, and consumer behavior, which have varying degrees of influence on pirating overall. The article also discusses a survey of 204 American business students created in order to gain a general understanding of how many students actually do pirate music (based on a rough definition of piracy); the results showed that roughly half of the students had committed piracy from 6 months previous and that half would pirate music again. Lastly, the article expresses some final information explaining that key factors in pirating music as no longer strictly ethical, but as a more complex and time or money saving process.