In the art world, it’s understood that no artwork is entirely original—every artist is influenced by past works and often “remixes” them to fit their own style and vision. This concept applies to music as well, yet it seems the music industry is treated differently. In both the fine arts and music, inspiration is drawn from others’ work, and artists transform these influences into something new. To me, this is no different from remixing in the art world, where so often artists take elements of the past and create something original.
Plagiarism only occurs when someone directly copies and claims another’s work as their own without any changes or acknowledgment. But when an artist is inspired by another’s song and remixes it with their own unique touch, it’s not plagiarism—it’s a part of the creative process. Think about when artists make collages. We don’t see graphics artists hounding down that person for a royalty on using the piece of the page layout they designed. So, why does the music industry have such strict rules and regulations, while other art forms have more freedom to build upon the past? It seems that the industry cares more about money and control, often exploiting artists in the process.
Laurence Lesik, the person who wrote the manifesto that inspired the film states “theres no way to kill technology, we can only criminalize its [technologies] use,” meaning that as media become more and more widespread so do the regulations and limitations on its users. In turn with a wider range of data to pull from, artists are thrown into this regulation game that in the end only stifles them. This idea of remixing also applies to writing, where we often cite quotes from other authors. While we take their words directly, we’re not “copywriting” every essay we write, as long as we acknowledge the source. Likewise, remixing in music can pay homage to its origins without requiring the rigid systems of copyrighting that seem to stifle creativity. In the end, the rules around music copyright should be reconsidered, as many other forms of art already embrace the idea of building on what came before.