Popular Music in the Post Modern Era - Essay Example

Contemporary issues facing Popular Music in the Post Modern Era Drugs, Alcohol, Money and now Copyright! An inquiry into the downfall and commercialisation of popular music in the context of rock, grunge and rap music in the post modern era Table of contents 1. Chapter 1 Introduction 2. Chapter 2 Literature review Understanding popular music in the context of post modernism Role of the legal framework The response of the music industry Self regulation on the internet to prevent IP infringement Digital Rights Management Systems 3. Chapter 3 Methodology Interview design and Interviewees Limitations of method of primary qualitative research The interview questions Chapter 4 Findings and Results Summary of the views of Tony Peter:Interview 23rd January :Grunge Night at the Club Summary of the views of Greg Reynolds:Interview 4th of February 2008 Summary of the interview with the lawyer (anonymous) 4. Chapter 5 Analysis and Discussion 5. Chapter 6 Conclusions and recommendations 6. References 7. Appendix A Background of the musicians discussed in the interviews for the convenience of the reader. The business success of Eagles Kurt Cobain's melancholic music: drugs and suicide Eminem: "I can be your superman!"1 8. Appendix B Interview questions Chapter 1 Introduction At the outset my choice of grunge rock and Rap music would see an odd combination for my research. However both these genres have seen the zenith and fall of many great musicians and talented artists. Much respect is to be paid to the late Grunge rocker Kurt Cobain ring in my ears when he sang in his famous song Aero Zeppelin and was probably screaming with his ulcer infested stomach at the crass commercialism which has become a part of the post-modern music "All I know is just a fact, Where the world is nowadays An idea is what we lack , doesn't matter anyways" At the same time whether its grunge rock, or Rap music both have emerged as a reaction to the system. The musicians seethe with anger, remember their frustrating lives before they had a break through and so on. Despite their frustrating pasts which manifest themselves in their lyrics most of these bands have lived a commercial success through their bands and have entered the well known world of fame and fortune. At the same time the money and publicity brought with them sex scandals, drug addiction and public disorder. Few post modern bands have been prudent with their fame and fortune but the music world is full of sad tragedies like Kurt Cobain's unfortunate suicide. In this vein my research will explore to what extent are Rap and Grunge bands a victim of drug effects themselves other than the alleged promotion of a culture of sex nudity violence and culture. On the other hand we have another recent trend which has taken over the industry and this is due an exogenous factor that is the rapid development of the copyright industry and the subsequent action recently taken against peer to peer file sharing. In this vein this work also explores a number of issues in the context of the intellectual property rights issues particularly in the context of the music industry's historical and present reliance upon the law of copyright to acquire commercial value and basically how the advent of new technology has threatened such reliance on copyright law. The digital age seems to have compromised the concept of copyright material and has had negative outcomes for the publishing, music and the computer industries. An important example of this is the peer-to-peer file sharing system of copyrighted music. The Napster and Grokster cases are a good illustration of the legal response of the industries .The copyright industries themselves have responded with new business strategies by providing legal download services. The methodology of my work pertains to a few anonymous interviews with representatives of two local bands which play successfully at a nearby club. Their phenomenal success and popularity inspired me to explore their perspectives on the post modern era. They also gave some useful insights on the current desirability of the copyright law and it should be said at the outset that these were some very interesting insights. Chapter 2 Literature review The aim of this literature review is to discuss the issues and bands which will be discussed in the interviews in advance. The literature review was prepared after the interviews to become an aid to the understanding of the musicians concerns and perspectives. This includes the insights into the copyright music industry and the DRM(digital rights management technologies) and they have affected the commercial aspect of the age of the popular music. Understanding popular music in the context of post modernism Post-modernism has cut off the present from all futures. The daily media add to this by cutting off the past. Which means that critical opinion is often orphaned in the present" John Berger (English Painter, b.1926) This section addresses the definitional and historical premises behind post modernism and its influence on modern music media . Visionaries like C. Wright Mills (1959) were looking ahead when they described the post-modern period as one where there would be a growth of tertiary sector and the services industry would boom in the era of multi nationals and a rise in capitalism. The modern musician makes profound reflections in his lyrics but the advent of drugs and crass commercialism seems to be promoting an empty and shallow culture and essentially a sign of quasi-intellectualism .However proponents of pluralism and a strong influence of post modernism insist that the modern Music is a bulwark of the modern liberal man with his right of freedom of speech.(Anderson 1990).One would not know who to trust in this regard however if we look at how Simon Cowbell and Howard Stern have proved popular for their blatantly and at times disturbing comment to participants on their show. So is diversity/pluralism of expression devoid of relativism the way ahead for the modern music Role of the legal framework The development of copyright law can actually be traced back to a time when there was no technology or mechanism by way of which it would be possible to replicate copies of written material. It was not possible to achieve any large scale infringement of copyrighted material as it is today from the comfort of our homes on the internet. Within British legal history it is said that the King used the Royal Prerogative as far back as 1662 to pass the Licensing Act of 16622. The first real Copyright protection Act however came as the "The Statute of Anne" giving the author copyright privileges for a fixed time period. On an international level the Berne Convention in 1887 defined the scope of copyright protection and is still an important part of international intellectual property law.3 The advent of the photocopier, followed subsequently by, home audio recording, video recording, and finally the Personal Computer (PC) allowed digitised and rapid copying. The modern Copyright Infringer does not need a large factory of copying machines to create illegal copies of, copyrighted material.4 All in all the challenge for copyright holders has never been greater. The law provides legal remedies available to copyright owners to prevent others from copying the product and to protect original works involving some degree of skill, effort and judgement. In England The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 gives protection to books, films, videos, plays, music and drawings, all of which can make it onto the internet in some form or another. This law protects computer software as a form of literary work and even large data bases form copyrighted material have been given protection under the Copyright and Rights in Databases Regulations 1997.Under the Rules the copyright owner can apply for an injunction to prevent misuse of his copyrighted material and to order the infringer to return the infringed "intellectual property" and maybe a grant for damages. All this however looks very nice in the Statute books but the power of the internet to disrupt Copyright mechanisms has often been compared to a force which is always connected and is everywhere and anywhere all of the time. Very often copyright owners feel helpless in the face of technologically sophisticated infringements. For example in the famous case of Napster music files were created in MP3 format and Peer to Peer file sharing began. Within months 50 million people were using a service which was a blatant violation of copyright laws.. The company behind Napster argued it was only an intermediary and this posed new challenges for copyright law. Subsequently Europe passed the new Copyright Directive to close Napster-type loopholes. After the closure of Napster, other ventures like Gnutella found success by their "swapping method" of file sharing and operating decentralised networks. A bigger threat to copyright users in the form of networks like Freenet is that the copyright infringers are impossible to trace and identify. Essentially Digital technology facilitates the distribution and use of computer programs, graphical works, sound recordings, audio-visual works, and database products. This has inevitably created new commercial market opportunities, but ones compromised by the great ease and low cost of making and even disseminating unauthorized exact copies. There has been a long going tussle between the entertainment industry and internet file sharers. The past many decades have seen how there have been several forms of industry-shaping confrontation: legal enforcement actions brought by copyright owners against the distributors of file-sharing software, internet service providers and file sharers themselves and even political actions to regulate peer to peer file sharing as have been seen already and will be examined further below. The response of the music industry The copyright industry has developed a host of legal, educational, public relations and technological strategies to keep its profit base from collapsing. Modern age DVD's are encoded to try and prevent copying even though this mechanism has already been circumvented. Software giants like Real Networks, are promoting the use of copyright music over the internet. Other challenges consist of procedural difficulties. That is, in cross border infringements it becomes very hard to gain control over an infringer who resides in or takes refuge in a jurisdiction where that is not an offence.5 Self regulation on the internet to prevent IP infringement More importantly the industry's response in the form of self regulation to prevent such infringement.Self-regulation can be defined as a kind of delegation of governmental power to the internet world actors although the relationship between the industry and the state will vary.6Self regulation is goo because it does not on national laws and state governance as such, and is based upon accepted norms across borders by the main players in a particular sector, 7 Secondly, self-regulation is frequently based on contract. As we have seen, it is easier for private parties to enforce a contract across a border than it is for a state authority to enforce public law in another state. Based on Lawrence Lessig's model there can be four forms of self-regulation: Codes of Conduct and Use of a Trusted Third Party Regulation by the market Regulation by technology Regulation by control over an asset OF more importance here is the regulation by technology which refers to the fourth of Lessig's modalities of regulation: architecture or code.8 Lessig says that cyberspace' can be used to regulate human conduct. Technology plays a crucial role in regulating people's use of the Internet, limiting or enhancing, as the case may be, what people can see and do on the Internet. Law and policy will inevitably try to lay bare the effects of technology on the parties' respective interests and powers and for the law to adjust these power imbalances. An example of this is the DRMS which has already but briefly been discussed above but it has had a massive effect on the music and entertainment industry. Digital Rights Management Systems The internet and digital technology have always posed a threat to copyright, since they enable users to make perfect, identical copies of content files and to disseminate these quickly and conveniently at (almost) no cost. The response by copyright holders was to develop new technologies-Digital Rights Management Systems (DRMS). 'Digital Rights Management Systems' (DRMS)9 can then be described as software and hardware tools enhancing copyright and can include both tools controlling access and controlling use and tools providing information about copyright in a particular work. A component of DRMS is, e.g. digital watermarking, which will leave a 'stamp'- code embedded in the digital data, which carries information concerning copyright and data authentication and which allows the content to be tracked on the Internet. Another component of DRMS is encryption technology, which controls access (by e.g. giving access only on payment of a fee or for a limited time) and copy protection. An example for encryption technology is the Content Scrambling Systems used to protect DVDs from unauthorised copying. The DRMS can be contained in or attached to the digital content distributed over the Internet or otherwise (software, e-book, video or audio files) and allow the copyright holder to both confine use of the content to the licensee and to determine what the licensee can do and cannot do with the protected content. The aim is to prevent unauthorised copying, passing on the content to another person or transforming it into another format. DRMS extend the control of the copyright holder over his or her work. The 1998 US Digital Millenium Copyright Act and the 2001 EU Copyright Directive10 protect DRMS. Both pieces of legislation are implementing the 1996 WIPO Treaties11, the WIPO Copyright Treaty (WCT) and the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty (WPPT). Each of the WIPO Treaties in almost identical language imposes the obligation on Contracting States to prohibit the circumvention of technological protection measures.12 They also obligate Contracting States to prohibit the tampering with copyright management information, such as digital watermarks.13 Chapter 3 Methodology The methodology of this research involves two interviews with two representatives of different genre bands and a lawyer. The reason I have chosen interviews are that they would allow me to facilitate the collection of both reliable and valid data that can serve as answers to research questions and objectives. In popular research there are three types of interview; structured, semi-structured and unstructured interviews .or this study, semi-structured interviews were conducted with both interviewees. The reasons behind the choice of typology of interview were that: They are flexible and non-standardised - this allowed a natural flow in between the interviewer and interviewee, encouraging the interviewer to introduce spontaneous questions that may have risen from the interviewee's answers and opinions on the planned questions. They give the opportunity to discover issues that may have not considered or known previously. Interview design and Interviewees There was a use of four to seven questions (dependent on the respondent) which were open ended and they pertained to a number of issues to allow the interviewees to expose their opinion and beliefs of the questions asked and to bring up any other factor, matter or issue not previously considered with the secondary research (i.e. literature review). Interviews were approximately 25 minutes long and were done face-to-face, and were tape-recorded and then transcripted with the aid of the downloadable software 'E-speaking'. The three interviewees were: Tony Peter 42 retired drummer from a local grunge rock band who still plays for the local Night Club.(Real Name not disclosed due to data protection and preference of Interviewee.) Tony Peter is a retired drummer from quite a few local grunge bands and based on his experience he was able to give us a lot of insights as to how research pertaining to popular music has been paced and changed by the advent of the Internet and by the development of numerous journalistic and fan-based outlets for serious primary research in which the United Kingdom has mainly led the other jurisdictions Greg Reynolds 27 Aspiring white rapper and part time Project Manager for a copy rights law firm.(Real Name Not disclosed due to data protection and preference of Interviewee. I chose Greg Reynolds due to his unusual background which came as a surprise. Firstly the fact that his father had been a fan of classic and film music.He was able to remember his days listening to his father admire Andrew Webber's works often and his musicals like Jeeves, Evita and the Cats, and Phantom of the Opera.Greg also admired the where his use of humour and parody of Andrew Webber as a composer and director but when I asked him what he was doing as an amateur White rapper his answer was humour Interview with the Lawyer.(Name withheld) This was a telephonic interview and was indispensable to getting a legal analysis and insight into the recent events in the music industry and his over all view upon commercialism in the industry generally. Limitations of method of primary qualitative research The limitations of the primary qualitative research collection were primarily the bias of the chosen interviewees by the interviewer. These were not chosen fully randomly, but in a convenience manner. This could be considered as potentially making the research partly biased. In addition to this the lack of structure and open-ended questions made the results difficult to analyse and interpret without the researcher interpreting the results in his/perception Furthermore it was only possible to get a hold of other interviewees based upon their busy schedules. The author is grateful for that. ____________________________________________________________________ The interview questions The interview questions pertained to the performance experiences of the two musicians in an environment of drugs,sex and violence and whether they had embraced this as a form of music culture. Essentially would the nature of Grunge rock and Rap change without the popular use of drugs .Other questions pertained to their own performances,whether they equated popularity of a band with commercial success and finally how they perceived the recent ban on online peer to peer file sharing.This was a melting pot of questions but once the results were analysed it could be see how this fit into the greater picture of the entire post modern music scene.(See the list of questions asked in the Appendix below) Chapter 4 Findings and Results Summary of the views of Tony Peter: Interview 23rd January :Grunge Night at the Club .Our interviewee turned out to be an avid reader of The Journal of American Culture and periodicals such as Discoveries, Goldmine, Mojo, Record Collector, and Uncut. His second commentary was upon the massive scale of online copyright infringement as the internet has been famously defined as a network of networks, and the denser these networks become; the more complicated it becomes to prevent the bane of copyright infringement and other intellectual property violations from occurring. He referred to the Napster Saga and was of the opinion that people should have a right to fair use of the music as long as there is no commercial dishonesty.He wasn't too happy with the modern legal suits and circumvention measures on music and stated that music should be enjoyed freely.When asked about his views on the post modern world he remarked ""The post-modern media has on the one hand manifested itself as a large source of information but information alone cannot replace critical reflection, and philosophy and culture which should be an important part of the modern information world.This is something I agreed with him on.Secondly he spoke about the Eagles and their sad break up and other reunions and was of the opinion that the Eagles have remained one of the few bands who have handled success with lesser drugs unlike Kurt Cobain whose heroin and cocaine addiction did not allow him to go far. In relation to his daily routines he told me that he played at different locations three times a day. An observation of his drumming style revealed heavy influences of Nirvana and although he denied taking any drugs he was a heavy smoker. Tony also made us aware of the increasing trend of teenagers to form small "nirvana" worship bands even two decades after the band collapsed. Tony also sang a few covers of the Sound garden and Alice in Chain bands which were inspired by Nirvana.The man was a huge nirvana fan although he was not prepared to admit so. This interview gave me valuable insights into the grunge rock scene of the post modern world and ended with a pleasant cover by his band of a recent hit by "puddle of mudd" called Away from Me which unsurprisingly was sung in the classic grunge style. Summary of the views of Greg Reynolds Interview 4th of February 2008 The way ahead for popular rap and grunge rock music . His talent displayed a number of qualities like his imitations and covers of the Beastie boys and then a switch over to the more squeaky complaining tone of Eminem.He admitted that white rappers are unable to match the vocal chords of Black rappers. When asked if Rap music should be a trademark of Black Culture he believed that although white rappers had matched their success on a more commercial level it would take quite a while to match the real talent of the black rappers.He was sceptical of Eminem's songs although his cover of superman and lose it was fabulous along with his imitation of the annoying burping voice of Eminem.I saw very little influence of British Music here at the Club. Maybe this was because both my interviewees had a rather transatlantic back ground.Greg also pointed out that in his experience of his fellow band mates and audience young people who listened to rap and hip hop music had more problems with alcohol, drugs and violence and condemned the use of the alcohol industry to use rap and hip hop to market products.Greg noted that even when he sang these lyrics with all the profanity and swear words he was careful not to encourage his young audience.As a management consultant for a copyrights law firm he was quick to dismiss the proponents of DRM as "corporate vampires" and hoped that they would do something more ethical like reforming the Rap culture which the young generation is acquainted with.Greg also admitted that there had been three incidences of under age sex and rape during his performances and the parents of the children who had managed to gate crash the club had blamed the Rap environment the club. Summary of the interview with the lawyer (anonymous) Age 42 -Prominent commercial and intellectual property lawyer This was an interesting interview and was conducted over the telephone. I was given some interesting insights over the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and how the Act actually prohibits "actual circumvention of access restrictions and not the circumvention of use restrictions." He also referred to the example of the case of United States of America v Elcomsoft Ltd14 it is possible to understand some of these issues which started with the arrest of the Russian programmer Dimitry Sklyarov on 16 July 2001, while attending a computer security conference in Las Vegas. For him the case was yet another example of how technological measures affect legal rights of parties and how technology can introduce new power imbalances. He also felt that the EU copyright directive was not good enough in preventing online music infringement. Finally he felt that major artists like Madonna and Eagles in their promotion of their respective hits were ignoring public fair use merely to enjoy commercial interests. He admired the way Kurt Cobain's music has still kept his memory alive despite his death more than a decade ago and this is because his "estate" had not been greedy enough to push copyright requirements upon the die hard fans. The lawyer believed that due to such stringent and commercial copyright issues the artists would lose their real fan base in the long term Chapter 5 Analysis and Discussion The interviews of all three interviewees showed a single trend.That is that the Music industry was never so commercialised which is something seen in the literature review aswell..If Music has to be marketed and marketing involves manipulation there needs to be a strict control of such advertising.The good practice regulations of the club where I interviewed Greg and Tony were laudable where as young children were not allowed under 16.However the teen years are formative and Greg was a heavy smoker.He had had problems in drug rehab aswell.Similar insights were gained from Peter. The interview with the lawyer also showed that There have been many recent examples of the tension between those who want to control the manner in which digital content is distributed and those providing technology to enable content to be used in different ways.You only need to look at the content industry's ongoing war with peer to- peer networks for high profile evidence (MGM v Grokster 545 US 125 (2005) in the US and Universal Music Australia Pty Ltd v Sharman License Holdings Ltd [2005] FCA 1242, 5 September 2005 in Australia). While the music industry is only just getting to grips with some of the challenges of using DRM (the recent controversy over the 'Rootkit' DRM technology used by Sony- BMG in its music CDs), the computers games industry has much more experience. A recent decision made by the High Court of Australia in the case of Eddie Stevens v Sony Kabushiki Kaisha Sony Computer Entertainment [2005] HCA 58 (6 October 2005) held that it was not an infringement of s. 116A(1) of the Copyright Act 1968 to modify a games console (with a mod chip) to enable infringing copies of games and games purchased in other regions to be played on it.This is against the position in the UK where it is clear that, while s17(2) of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 requires reproduction in a 'material form', a transient copy is sufficient to infringe copyright - this was discussed in Kabushiki KaishaSony Computer Entertainment Inc v Ball [2005] EWHC 1522 (Ch).This was an unsuccessful application for summary judgement by Sony (Kabushiki Kaisha Sony Computer Entertainment Inc v Ball [2005] EWHC 1522(CK)). This case considered the law both before and after implementation of the Copyright Directive. Mr. Justice Laddie refused Sony's application for summary judgment on the grounds that there was a further evidential burden to be discharged by Sony, which could only be done at a full hearing. Both the DMCA and the EU Copyright Directive go one step further than the WIPO Treaties in protecting DRMS in the context of entertainment and educational issues.. They have not only prohibited circumvention of technical measures, but in addition prohibit the manufacture and sale of devices allowing such circumvention. Although, this makes the protection of DRMS more effective, this makes the realisation of fair use exceptions more difficult.15 According to Lessig as mentioned in the literature review therefore regulation by technology bears the risk that legal standards are set by technologists and therefore raises the question of how to protect fundamental values and how to protect public interest values such as fair use exceptions from copyright.16 With regards to music copyright infringement it should also be noted that the lawyer was right in saying that the DMCA only prohibits the actual circumvention of access restrictions and not the circumvention of use restrictions. There is a provision for fair use, so that the circumvention of a technological measure preventing copying is not prohibited. Although the DMCA allows for mere circumvention of anti-copying measures, it prohibits the sale or making available of circumvention tools, even if these tools are designed or intended to enable fair use. Arguably, this legal protection of DRMS, which is only subject to very narrow and very specific exceptions17, can disable fair use. In practical terms, most users will have to rely on other persons making available circumvention tools to enjoy fair use exception. Furthermore he also pointed out rightly that the EU copyright directive may look promising but it is limited as it only applies to some of the exceptions; and secondly it only refers to user rights, not access rights.18 Chapter 6 Conclusions and recommendations I conclude that the Rap and Grunge scene has been much tainted by crass commercialism and the media which promotes sex and violence as a part of such music.It is about time it was realised by the media and the post modern state that Music as we know it and have come to cherish it does not have to promote a culture of violence and drugs.My point is that the music industry has to be able to consider moral philosophies to play a pivotal role in the shaping of marketing decisions. There has to be a stress on corporate values influence many aspects of an organisations decision making when it comes to advertising drugs ,sex and alcohol as we can see the complaint emerging for a less "sexed up" music scene. The development of copyright and patent laws has come a long way. It is indeed a noble rationale to protect and artists or writers work from being literally "stolen" by illegal copies or plagiarism. What has to be seen is whether the copyright and patent industry has driven the restrictions to become so rigid that it seems that the rationale is purely to protect the profits of large publishers and software and music corporations. It is a valid criticism that very often the artists are not as possessive of their works as the companies who are their agents or publishers. The use of DVD's (which cannot be copied) ,worms, cuckoo's eggs and the very famous "PDF" documents just hinder the innocent consumer's enjoyment. The copyright infringer who can actually damage the industry is always a specialist and not a lay person. Therefore it makes little sense to try and prosecute a teenager enjoying a copy of a pirated song rather than the vendor who is making such large scale copies and making them available whether physically or online. The response of Copyright laws and technology has therefore been equally strong to prevent copyright infringement but this has no exactly been done consistently. It should be appreciated however that the law has evolved quickly to cater to the problems created by the internet age in the form of the EU copyright directive and the Digital Rights Millennium Act in the US and copyright is not exactly an undermined concept because of the efforts of the copyright industry in the legal field by lobbying for better legislation and pursuing its infringements seriously. References 1. Anderson, W.T. 1990. Reality Isn't What it Used to Be. San Francisco: Harper and Row. 2. Doherty, W.J. 1991. "Family Therapy Goes Postmodern." Networker, September/ October. 3. Regulating online content: a global view, C.T.L.R. 2007, 13(6), 173-178 4. From Berne to national law, via the Copyright Directive: the dangerous mutations of the three-step test,E.I.P.R. 2007, 29(12), 486-491 5. Rethinking Copyright: History, Theory, Language ,E.I.P.R. 2007, 29(10), 439-440 6. ISPs not to disclose the identity of their users: a green light for file-sharers Ent. L.R. 2008, 19(1), 19-20 7. Computers and internet (October)Bus. L.R. 2007, 28(10), 267-268 8. Colin, Nasir,Taming The Beast Of File-Sharing - Legal And Technological Solutions To The Problem Of Copyright Infringement Over The Internet . 9. Mills, C.W. 1959. The Sociological Imagination. New York: Grove Press. 10. O'Hara, M., and W.T. Anderson. 1991. "Welcome to the Postmodern World." Networker, September/October. 11. Shorter, E. 1975. The Making of the Modern Family. New York: Basic Books. 12. Norris, Christopher: What's Wrong with Postmodernism: critical theory and the ends of philosophy (Hemel Hempstead: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1990) 13. Uncritical Theory: postmodernism, intellectuals and the Gulf War (London, Lawrence & Wishart, 1992) 14. McGowan, John: Postmodernism and its Critics (Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 1991) 15. Rorty, Richard: Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity (CUP, 1989) 16. Kellner, Douglas: Jean Baudrillard: From Marxism to Postmodernism and Beyond 17. Baskerville, D.(1995) Music Industry Handbook. 6th Edition. Sage Publications 18. Davis,S. and Laing, D. (2001) The Guerilla Guide to the Music Business. Continuum International Publishing Group 19. Harrison, A. (2003) Music The Business: The Essential Guide to the Law and the Deals. Virgin Books 20. Kemp, C. (2000) Music Industry Management and Promotion. 2nd Edition. Elm Publications 21. Krasilovsky, W. and Shemel, S . (2000) This Business Of Music. Billboard Books 22. Music Managers Forum (2001) The MMF Guide to Professional Music Management. Sanctuary Publishing 23. Laurel Canyon The Inside Story of Rock-and-Roll's Legendary Neighbourhood 24. Marc Eliot To the Limit: The Untold Story of the Eagles,: 25. Monroe E. Price and Stefaan G. Verhulst, In Search of the Self, Chapter 3 in Christopher T. Marsden (ed) Regulating the Global Information Society Routledge, London 2000, p. 58,< http://www.gbde.org/index1.html > last visited on 31. October 2003 26. Lawrence Lessig, The Law of the Horse: What Cyberlaw Might Teach, 1999 Harvard Law Review p. 507 27. Lawrence Lessig, Code and other Laws of Cyberspace Basic Books, New York 1999, Chapter 4, p. 30 28. Clare Sellers, Digital Rights Management Systems: Recent European Issues, 14 (1) Entertainment Law Review 2003pp. 5-9 29. Brett Glass, What Does DRM Really Mean, PC Magazine April 8, 2003 available from< www.pcmag.com/solutions > last visited on 31. October 2003 Electronic sources http://arts.independent.co.uk/music/news/article3109890.ece http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/article676369.ece http://personanondata.blogspot.com/2007/11/building-imperfect-beast.html Wikipedia.com Appendix A Background of the musicians discussed in the interviews for the convenience of the reader. The business success of Eagles The Eagles Band has remained active in Music Business for the periods of 1971-1980 and from 1994 to present.. The American Rock Band is a very successful business venture in terms of strategy and revenues and originate from in California .The Band currently boasts of five Number 1 singles and four Number 1 albums.The band gained immense popularity in the 1970s and its album was rated number 37 in the Rolling Stone list "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time"..Since its break up in the eighties the band does not make any new albums but tours together often. However in 2007 they have released their first album in three decades called the Long Road out of Eden and it is currently on of UK's top 40 Albums.The business career of Eagles encountered several legal battles(which gave them great revenue set backs as well).This began when Don Felder sued for $50,000,000 in damages after being dismissed as a band member in 2001 for wrongful dismissal, breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duty. A leading entertainment and intellectual property lawyer Wallace Collins (who was also a recording artist for Epic Records)19 has thus remarked about the legal and business battles facing the eagles, "It is very difficult to form a good band and to achieve a successful career in the music business. Any group of two or more musicians working together would be well-advised to create and sign a good Internal Band Contract so that the band does not later self-destruct over money and ego issues and forfeit its hard-earned career success." Kurt Cobain's melancholic music: drugs and suicide Many would view Kurt Cobain as fresh breath of innovation in the stale post modern breeze. Here is a man who embraced his clinical depression and lack of masculinity and rejected the dominion of traditional rock masculinities. He expressed his anger and frustration with songs like "rape me", I hate myself and I want to die" .Songs like paper cuts show his resentment to his mother and other songs like "Francis Farmer will her revenge will have her revenge of Seattle" present a social message. Many people think however that the legend was wasted by his addiction to drugs which was said to ultimately lead to his suicide. Others have commented that his success would not have been possible without his drug addiction which brought out the torture artist with in him. Eminem: "I can be your superman!"20 The third musician widely discussed in the interviews in the context of sex and violence and drugs was Eminem the popular white rapper whose claim to fame are his controversial, at times antagonising lyrics and the fact that like the majority of the rappers he is not black.His songs will generally carry a parental advisory due to the sexual and violent content of the lyrics although his videos are thought be humorous by many.He is also anti-gay and is known to speak out against gay people and electronic music in his songs. Appendix B Interview questions 1. Hello there and thank you for taking this interview. 2. Please state your name and age. 3. Tell us a bit about your occupation 4. What is your view of the current state of popular music as a business 5. Will the DRM law and systems change popular music as we know it 6. Do you think the copyright law takes the popular away from the "popular music" 7. Greed and fair protection of copyrightWhere would you draw the line 8. I have chosen three popular music artistsEagles Nirvana and Eminem You are free to comment on any one of them. Read More