Grey Tuesday and an Ian MacKaye Interview
So, today is Grey Tuesday. For those
not in the know:
DJ Danger Mouse created a remix of Jay-Z’s the Black Album and the
Beatles White Album, and called it the Grey Album. Jay-Z’s
record label, Roc-A-Fella, released an a Capella version of his Black
Album specifically to encourage remixes like this one. But despite praise
from music fans and major media outlets like Rolling Stone (”an
ingenious hip-hop record that sounds oddly ahead of its time”) and the
Boston Globe (which called it the “most creatively captivating” album
of the year), EMI has sent cease and desist letters demanding that
stores destroy their copies of the album and web sites remove them from
their site. EMI claims copyright control of the Beatles 1968 White Album.
So today many, many sites are posting the Grey Album for download. I
think this is the right thing to do, but I don’t have the bandwidth to do
itand I’m sharing it for today, enjoy. I have heard the Grey
Album and while I’m not a huge fan of rap
and hip hop I do find it intriguing. That EMI thinks they can stifle such
innovation that appears to be legal under the fair use clause of our copyright
code is just deplorable. What do they have to loose? How many people that
would purchase or download that album are now going to not buy the White Album?
Zero. Could someone that hears the Grey Album go on to buy the
White Album? Possibly. Ah, retarded corporate culture
strikes again.
While looking at downhillbattle.org,
the folks that created Grey Tuesday and a music activism site, I found a cool
interview with
Ian MacKaye from Fugazi and Dischord. Great stuff, specifically this quote:
When people who are songwriters say ‘That’s my property and if you give it
away for free then I’ll lose my incentive,’ then, well, good riddance.
