speaking of plagiarism, a song just came up on Spotify that i absolutely thought was Elastica’s 90s hit, Connection. a few bars in i thought, “never heard that bassline.” turns out it’s a song called Three Girl Rhumba by band called Wire.
i was telling my husband that i remember an Elastica interview where they said the band’s concept was to revisit 80s-style stuff. turns out they were re-working riffs and arrangements from other British ‘art punk’ bands (including another band, The Stranglers) of that era who they were in the scene with—shared studio space.
telling my husband all this and he looks up Elastica’s wiki page and finds that their PUBLISHERS all got into a fight which was unwelcomed by the bands. here’s what Stranglers’ bassist JJ Burnel had to say: "Yes, it sounds like us, but so what? Of course there's plagiarism, but unless you live in a vacuum there's always going to be.”
and this is my fav part, he says, “It's the first thing our publishers have done for us in 20 years, but if it had been up to me, I wouldn't have bothered." 💀 Another member of The Stranglers, Jet Black, even thanked Elastica in Melody Maker for bringing attention to his old band.
okay, so PUBLISHERS suck. they’re the worst rentiers of the music business, at least in my experience. you wouldn’t believe the contracts i’ve seen.
but when it comes to visual arts like painting 1) of course it’s BS to say a painting of a photo is plagiarism, but also 2) visual arts don’t work in a strict labor-oriented sense. when i paint something i’m *making a thing.” i’m not producing labor for someone else. it’s most likely no one even wants to buy my stuff. but the value is in the thing that hangs on the wall…usually of my friends’ homes. they can either love it or hate it or paint over it. i don’t care.
the only way i can think of that artists are paid in exchange for labor is commissions (which few of us ever get), or wage labor in commercial arts (which was my career; i don’t recommend it to others).
those visual artists i know who’ve LIVED from their craft have been kids of “important ppl” who inevitably know gallery owners b/c that’s how towns work. there’s also the craft artists who travel around the art show circuit…which is basically my retirement plan 😁 (still, it’s selling a THING that has value b/c ppl want to take it with ‘em).
speaking of plagiarism, a song just came up on Spotify that i absolutely thought was Elastica’s 90s hit, Connection. a few bars in i thought, “never heard that bassline.” turns out it’s a song called Three Girl Rhumba by band called Wire.
i was telling my husband that i remember an Elastica interview where they said the band’s concept was to revisit 80s-style stuff. turns out they were re-working riffs and arrangements from other British ‘art punk’ bands (including another band, The Stranglers) of that era who they were in the scene with—shared studio space.
telling my husband all this and he looks up Elastica’s wiki page and finds that their PUBLISHERS all got into a fight which was unwelcomed by the bands. here’s what Stranglers’ bassist JJ Burnel had to say: "Yes, it sounds like us, but so what? Of course there's plagiarism, but unless you live in a vacuum there's always going to be.”
and this is my fav part, he says, “It's the first thing our publishers have done for us in 20 years, but if it had been up to me, I wouldn't have bothered." 💀 Another member of The Stranglers, Jet Black, even thanked Elastica in Melody Maker for bringing attention to his old band.
so, there’s that 😝
okay, so PUBLISHERS suck. they’re the worst rentiers of the music business, at least in my experience. you wouldn’t believe the contracts i’ve seen.
but when it comes to visual arts like painting 1) of course it’s BS to say a painting of a photo is plagiarism, but also 2) visual arts don’t work in a strict labor-oriented sense. when i paint something i’m *making a thing.” i’m not producing labor for someone else. it’s most likely no one even wants to buy my stuff. but the value is in the thing that hangs on the wall…usually of my friends’ homes. they can either love it or hate it or paint over it. i don’t care.
the only way i can think of that artists are paid in exchange for labor is commissions (which few of us ever get), or wage labor in commercial arts (which was my career; i don’t recommend it to others).
those visual artists i know who’ve LIVED from their craft have been kids of “important ppl” who inevitably know gallery owners b/c that’s how towns work. there’s also the craft artists who travel around the art show circuit…which is basically my retirement plan 😁 (still, it’s selling a THING that has value b/c ppl want to take it with ‘em).