“Amen Brother” and Other Funky Breaks

by Jim Harper on March 5, 2007 · Comments

Against Monopoly points to a YouTube video tracking some history of the “Amen Brother” beat and sampling generally.

The video reminded me again of the upwelling of creativity that occured in the late 80’s before sampling came on the the radar screen of copyright holders.

“Amen Brother” is important, of course, but there are many other beats that contend for top honors. I went looking for James Brown’s “Funky Drummer” beat and came across this list of beats, calling itself “The 30 Greatest Hip Hop Drum Breaks & Samples of All Time.” Well, I’m not so sure, if it doesn’t have Funky Drummer, but listening to the beats connotes the dozens of songs that succeeded them. It’s an exciting window into our culture.

Finally, after much searching, I came across the Funky Drummer beat on this list. Enjoy.

The point? Creative works are not just outputs of creative people – they’re also very much inputs to new creative works, a point made well by Greg Lastowka and Dan Hunter in their Cato Policy Analysis Amateur-to-Amateur: The Rise of a New Creative Culture.

Comments Posted in: Copyright

  • This is very true in other areas as well, and I would especially add the field of Architecture as one in which we are all very much improving one what has been done by others, incrementally.

    This, of course goes against the popular mythology of the Architect as portrayed in such idiotic, but popular books, such as The Fountainhead.

    Even the work of Frank Lloyd Wright had clear antecedents in the work of Louis Sullivan.

    Note especially that Architects don't very often patent their works, as copyright is quite effective at controlling their work which is deeply resistant to copying, which I explore further here:

    Copybot Resistance
  • Charles
    A good video, quite informative. The only thing I heard in there that made me feel uneasy was the bit about creative commons being described as:

    "an alternative to copyright"

    CC is not an alternative, but an extension of copyright. It's a way for artists to, while retaining copyright, decide to which extent they want their art to be able to interact with the rest of the artistic community.

    It might seem like a moot point which probably most if not all readers of TLF appreciate already. Still, when I see writings like Chris Castle's blog, I can't help but think that this misconception makes the debate more difficult.

    At least, there are still artists like Thomas Hawk who appreciate the significance of CC.
  • Jim Harper
    Good point, Charles. Creative commons is a use of copyright, not an alternative. The video is a little loose on the property concepts. As I wrote in a recent book review (on net neutrality), "Many proponents of 'openness' and 'free culture' sound anti-property themes, but most of their preferred modes of production are no more an attack on the concept of property than donating clothing to charity is." Overall, I thought the video is a good illustration of the fascinating reflection and refraction of culture you get through sampling.
  • wisefire
    he said an alternative to copyright control.. not an alternative to copyright itself..
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