Hip Hop on Weinberger

David Weinberger to Microsoft:

When it comes to creative works, we are not "consumers," and we are not users. Rather we appropriate creative works, that is, we make them our own. We apply them to our own context. We get them somewhat right or entirely wrong. They become part of us. That's how how we learn and how culture changes.

If you look at the Hip Hop scene, this seems to be precisely how many of the musicians are now operating. Some well known names seem to exist only on other artists' tracks. Or, the "same" song is done with one or more others, then remixed, then laid down again with some other people.

The one-to-one correspondence of artist to "work of intellectual property" that once ruled in pop and rock is, for the moment anyway, displaced. The scene matters more than any single "celebrity." Eminem uses D12 brilliantly to decelebritize himself.

But that means that creators should lose control of their works as quickly as possible. Obviously, creators need to be be paid for their work, but not for every bit of value they create: You shouldn't have to pay me if you re-read my book or lend it to a friend, even though you are getting more value from my book.

Couldn't one argue with equal ease that the book is gaining value by reaching more readers? That a song acquires added value by being performed variously by different combinations of people? The thing about Hip Hop remixes and multiple recordings is, how do they track who gets paid what? Perhaps Microsoft and other DRM folks could look at what is happening there.

...publishing creates the public...

Yes and more than the public -- it creates worlds. It is uncool to be a solo Hip Hop artist right now. One big success is working on stuff under an assumed name - in part just to avoid the tedious syndrome of the former regime of Stars and Hits.

Current Hip Hop recording practices have produced a promiscuous scene in which artists (at least, in appearance) jam freely and openly in some unending mammoth recording studio where small, loosely jointed groups hang, work and create and sometimes develop splendid animosities, giving them fuel for further songs and remixes (bloggers take note).