Description
Rubén López-Cano
MÚSICA DISPERSA
Apropiación, influencias, robos y remix en la era de la escucha digital
Quotes, allusions, paraphrases, appropriations, collages, arrangements, adaptations, covers, versions, samplings, remixes, and memes; these are all ways of revisiting pre-existing music, appropriating some of its elements and reusing them—legitimately or otherwise—to produce more music. From Hildegard von Bingen to DJ Danger Mouse, all musical cultures from all eras have employed such resources. But while there are only several procedures, which have not changed much throughout history, their evaluation and relation to aesthetic ideals, legal principles, and authenticity discourse and artistic legitimacy have all gone through radical changes. So, if using constant references to the pieces of past greats was an aesthetic value in itself for the composers of the courts of Avignon or Milan in the 14th and 15th centuries, under current laws governing intellectual property, Beethoven, Schubert, and Brahms should be treated as common felons.
