"Sampling" In-Class Writing

As a class, we will listen to two songs, "Mother Nature's Son" from the Beatles' White Album and "December 4th" from Jay-Z's Black Album. Students will create a two-column chart (one column for Beatles, one for Jay-Z) in which we will discuss the elements of each song (instrumentation, lyrical topics, tone, etc.). Once the chart is completed, we will listen to DJ Danger Mouse's mash-up of the two songs. As a class, we will discuss a number of questions:

- What elements does he take from each song? What does he leave out? Why did he choose these elements?

- Why do we think he chose to mash up these two songs? What elements from the songs makes us believe this?

- Should we consider this a new creation? If so, what makes it something new? If not, why?

- Even if we consider it a new creation, should we also consider it plagiarism? Why or why not?

This final question will transition into a one-page in class writing where the students will either have to defend the new song from or accuse it of plagiarism. They will have to use specific elements from the song and evidence from readings that we will have done for homework. BrianMcallister

Music Plagiarism Case Study

Students will access the Columbia Law Library Music Plagiarism Project and research a music plagiarism case of their choosing. In their blogs, students will summarize the elements of the case:

- Who are the plaintiffs/defendants?

- What is the song(s) in question? What is the complaint about that song?

- Is this a case of another musician sampling without permission? or is it of a commercial company using a song without permission? or something else?

After the blogs are written, we will discuss the differences and similarities between each of the cases. Some questions we will discuss include:

- Is it any less unethical for another musician to sample than it is for a company to use a song? Why or why not?

- Listening to the samples of the songs, were there any cases in which the similarity between the two songs was extremely slight? What was the decision in those cases?

The purpose of the discussion is to focus on the role of creativity in the alleged plagiarism. Do courts notice this distinction? BrianMcallister