Gallery Walk- Action Project tEST WEEK
Justice PRoject
Part One: Issue Research
Research Questions-
1. Why was this an issue? Why did EMI sue 30 Seconds to Mars?
2. Where have cases like this been seen in the past?
3. What are valid vs. invalid contracts?
Offer and acceptance: One party presents something of value in exchange for something else of equal value, and the other party must either accept or decline.
Consideration: The benefit that both parties attain, can be monetary, service, an object, or anything else of value.
Mutuality and Intention: “Meeting of minds.” Parties intend to create a valid, enforceable agreement.
Legality: Must not contain unlawful promises or considerations. In other words the contract can’t require or ask of anything illegal.
Capacity: Person signing the contract must have the legal ability to do so.
4. What was the outcome of breaking contract with EMI?
-Demanding Payment Virtually Any Time Music Is Played in Public
-Reducing Sound Quality So You Perceive a Song as "Louder"
-Straight Up Paying to Get Their Song on the Radio
-Manipulating the Charts to Make a Song Look Like a Hit
-Inflating Prices, Then Screwing the Artists
1. Why was this an issue? Why did EMI sue 30 Seconds to Mars?
- TSTM (Thirty Seconds to Mars) broke their five album deal with EMI by failing to deliver their third album in the deal.
- Thirty Seconds to Mars blew up when they released the album titled, “A Beautiful Lie,” and then sold millions of albums worldwide. However, “There was a point after we had sold millions of records around the world, where not only were we never paid a single penny, but we learned that we were millions of dollars in debt,” Jared Leto told the LA Times. to find out that they were actually millions of dollars in debt.
- EMI basically had so much power over TSTM because the contract they signed basically said that EMI had all the rights to the music delivered and produced while under this 5 album contract.
- Entertainment companies this large who also control the publishing of the artist on their labels, often trick artist and bands to sign corrupt contracts that seem fine because signing to major labels like this puts you on top of the industry and provides things like multiple tours and mass publishing. However signing to major labels almost always means that they own the rights to the music written or recorded at any point in time during the duration of the contract.
2. Where have cases like this been seen in the past?
- Pink Floyd vs EMI
- Tom Petty vs MCA
- Johnny Cash vs Columbia Records
- Radiohead vs EMI/ Parlophone
- These cases and lawsuits above are all extremely similar examples of bands getting thrown to the outfield by their labels and publishers. In all of these cases there was confusion over the contracts that each artist was or still is signed to, which exemplifies the way that major companies like this are good at pulling the wool over artist who are just trying to make their way through a crazy fast industry.
- As you can also see in these examples, these artist are all internationally famous and all of the entertainment companies are major worldwide entertainment conglomerates.
3. What are valid vs. invalid contracts?
Offer and acceptance: One party presents something of value in exchange for something else of equal value, and the other party must either accept or decline.
Consideration: The benefit that both parties attain, can be monetary, service, an object, or anything else of value.
Mutuality and Intention: “Meeting of minds.” Parties intend to create a valid, enforceable agreement.
Legality: Must not contain unlawful promises or considerations. In other words the contract can’t require or ask of anything illegal.
Capacity: Person signing the contract must have the legal ability to do so.
4. What was the outcome of breaking contract with EMI?
- You know, just a 30 million dollar lawsuit.
- This case was settled and TSTM ended up re-writing the contract to something of more financial fluidity.
- Thirty Seconds to Mars wrote a flawless album titled “This is War.”
- During the lawsuit they released a very inspiring documentary called "Artifact" which is solely about
- Later, after they released “This is War,” they forgot about their other music, kicked the rest of the band out besides Jared (vox) and Shannon Leto (drums). Released an album featuring A$ap Rocky (popular in pop/rap), became an electro pop band with no instruments, and further went on sign back to EMI on a new recording contract and have released one more full length album since then.
5. What do major labels and publishing companies do that is unjust exactly?
-Demanding Payment Virtually Any Time Music Is Played in Public
-Reducing Sound Quality So You Perceive a Song as "Louder"
-Straight Up Paying to Get Their Song on the Radio
-Manipulating the Charts to Make a Song Look Like a Hit
-Inflating Prices, Then Screwing the Artists
Part 2: Justice Philosophy Cover Letter
“There was a point after we had sold millions of records around the world, where not only were we never paid a single penny, but we learned that we were millions of dollars in debt,” frontman Jared Leto said to the LA Times when discussing being sued for 30 million dollars by EMI Group Limited, for failure to deliver the third album on a five album recording deal.
Not only has music become a corporate industry, major labels, publishing companies, and the people who sit on top of those corporations, have created such a capitalist mess out of the music industry, to such an extent that there is now an entire other side of the music industry, which is now known as the DIY/ bedroom pop scene. While new means of attaining success and establishing yourself as an artist is beneficial for the creative capacity of what music is today, the reasons behind artist pushing for a more DIY style of delivery is a reflection of the many unjust ways the major corporations sitting on top manipulate a fine, pure art form for capital gain.
Music, alike merely any art form, in origin is nothing more than an expressive, social outlet. When something as pure as this gets mixed into a multi-billion dollar corporation, it grows into a tainted space where there is far too much room for unjust financial scheme. Certain genres have done a magnificent job at challenging this. Specifically, punk rock and hip-hop have asserted their aggressive DIY rebellious front to the music industry, in a very anarchist like way. Anarchy theory is actually a really good philosophy to apply to the unjust that is the capitalization of music. In explanation, sort of like the way old punk rock tends to be anti corporation, and anti capitalism, or how hip-hop started as a social movement fighting racial, political, and socioeconomic injustices, true anarchists practice the same things, as these genres are very politically focused through anarchist beliefs.
In regards to the music industry, you can hear anti corporation songs about major labels and people in the industry all the time. Anti-Flag, an american punk rock band who is known for their politically focused music and activism, has many songs where you can hear them singing about the corporate individuals that create such a capitalist mess of the industry. A good example is their song “Corporate Rock,” which was released on their 2006 full length album titled: “For Blood And Empire.” One of the exemplary lyrics in the song is the phrase, “In the tallest buildings on the block, on one way streets the tickers tock, Another suit is lost, one more head on the chopping block, Whoa-oh you do what you're told.” Anti-flag is talking about the corporate people on top of the industry (“tallest buildings on the block”), who often end up in lawsuits with their artists similar to Thirty Seconds to Mars vs. EMI case (“Another suit is lost, one more head on the chopping block).”
Socially, and politically focused music is important in the way that it challenges the flaws of the music industry in similar ways to how DIY and “bedroom” artists are. DIY artists are creating a new way of establishing themselves in the industry, without conforming to the corporations that have the money to put them closer to the top as far as publicity goes, sorta like the way the punk rock movement in its start was an anti corporation and very underground culture. So all in all, the more we challenge and push for change in the music industry, just like anything else that involves activism, the more we will actually see change. Just like how anarchist theory and philosophy carries the attitude of, without challenging humans to not need a manipulative system to create worldwide piece and fluidity, we won’t ever have that.
Part 3: Approach Analysis
Step 1: My Chosen Approach
I am choosing to look at how musicians themselves have challenged and created inspiration for change in the music industry. In some genres of music, specifically hip-hop and punk rock you can hear artists expressing their opinions of major labels and the capitalist aspect of music through lyrical content, as well as see how they choose different paths to success, and most importantly how an entire new style of recorded music has appeared in today’s industry. That new style is known most commonly as “DIY” or “bedroom” recording, it is a very indy and very colorful new side of the industry.
Step 2: Research
Where do you hear anti industry music and why is it specific to certain genres?
Music that expresses negativity surrounding the major corporations that create such a large industry is most commonly heard in hip-hop, and Punk rock. The thing about hip-hop and punk rock, is that they are such similar genres both in content and in their backgrounds. In their origins, hip hop and punk rock both are social movements actually. Throughout the decades you can hear artist and bands in both genres expressing their hate for certain social constructions, poltics, racism, discrimination of any kind, socioeconomic issues, etc.. And intertwined into that challenging rebellious attitude is a common hate for major corporations, and the people who run them.
Why has the “DIY”/ “Bedroom” scene become a revolutionary period of music?
The DIY and “Bedroom” scene is a revolutionary new time in music, because it opens up a whole new creative path of artistry for artists who want to skip the stigma around getting signed or getting a record deal, and this common new path of artistry has begun exploiting all new genres and literally hundreds of new styles all around music. A good example as to why this is happening is my own current path of artistry. - Of course I have my inspirations, I have specific songs, albums, artists, genres, instruments, and musical concepts that have shaped the way I write and the content that is my outcome. However, I do not have a manager or a big time producer, or a label executive telling me how and what I should write in order to appeal the most to what is popular currently. I do not have a major producer telling a mixing engineer to compensate my actual raw sound for something that is mainstream. I have no mastering engineer making my music sound overproduced and far from live in order for it to sound good on a radio platform. I have no musical limitations as a DIY artist. I don’t have money for all the stuff I want to further my creative options, but I am in my studio or my bedroom completely alone when I am creating, and it is a true, free, and real way of expressing.
What is the history of DIY in music and how has that inspired a new generation of musicians?
Martin Chilton from udiscovermusic.com said it best, “From cave tunes to thrash punk, cotton-field blues to the early days of hip-hop, the urge to make music, using whatever is at hand, is a constant in human behaviour. Percussion instruments created from stones, sticks, rocks and logs – cut in different shapes and designs to change the quality and pitch of sound – were being made more than 165,000 years ago. And if you look around today, you’ll find DIY music everywhere.”
The idea of DIY music has been around really since people started creating music, because there is always a desire for it, it’s natural. Specifically, in America the DIY idea blew up in the early 19th century among the slaves on the farms who are known for work songs, ring shouts, and spirituals. As they progressed musically in the fields, they wanted to add instrumentation of course, so they began building instruments to compliment their songs. These instruments were specifically the instruments that created the nationwide explosion of blues, (bajo, bass, fiddles, lutes, washboards, drums, etc.). By the 30s and 40s, blues and jazz were the thriving popular genres across the country, and while music recording was limited on a technological level at that time, live music was a very different scene, and a lot of the time live music was nothing but improv. When it comes to blues and jazz, improv is a very exciting, more jazzy way to do things (I think that's called a pun or something). All this improv lead to some of the purest music ever recorded, and while it was live and impromptu, the recording was very DIY. For example, a very well respected American ethnomusicologist named Alan Lomax was around for that scene, and used to carry a 315 pound acetate disc recorder in his car, like a moving studio, and from his acetate disc recorder we gained some of the most influential improv jazz and blues recordings ever. Come the 50’s Rock n’ Roll was born. When rock n roll music was introduced, the music industry across the world was changed forever in the way that a whole new way of thinking musically had come into play, and a completely different timbre and tone of music was born. In the last 70 years, rock n’ roll has created hundreds of new styles of its own, but really what it did was reintroduce heavy lyrical expression like you would hear from slaves singing field hollers. It reimagined how to challenge things through art. When Punk rock was born sometime in the mid 60s, the idea of rebelling and doing things independently really struck popular music in the western hemisphere, and the idea of DIY bands that weren’t looking to gain publicity for the enjoyment of their music, but rather for their attitudes towards the rest of society. And when this happened, DIY was bigger and more important than ever.
This has inspired a new generation of musicians and artists to continue pursuing music, but to do it by themselves, in a more indy format. This new generation of musicians and artists has created multiple new genres where all the music written and recorded is done without a recording deal, without finance from a major label, and most of the time in peoples home studios (bedroom recording). This has not only expanded the creative outlet, but it is beginning to change the sound of modern popular genre. Due to a bunch of people like me who can’t afford expensive microphones or outboard gear for recording, there is more room for new ways of recording on a budget, and new styles of mixing have came out as well. An example of a genre where you can hear the “bedroom” sound is lofi hip-hop. Lofi hip-hop compliments the idea of rough, raw audio recordings, and lofi hip hop has literally became a competition to see who can make the most abstract sound in a mix, and a competition of who can be the most aesthetically independent as an artist. This is a good example of how DIY music has not only changed the means of establishing yourself as an artist in the music industry, but has also changed the face of artistry, and the sound of popular music.
Is this change in the recorded music industry actually making a change in the entirety of the music industry?
YES!
Step 3: Analysis
What I Admire-
Limitations-
How to Apply to My Proposal-
I am choosing to look at how musicians themselves have challenged and created inspiration for change in the music industry. In some genres of music, specifically hip-hop and punk rock you can hear artists expressing their opinions of major labels and the capitalist aspect of music through lyrical content, as well as see how they choose different paths to success, and most importantly how an entire new style of recorded music has appeared in today’s industry. That new style is known most commonly as “DIY” or “bedroom” recording, it is a very indy and very colorful new side of the industry.
Step 2: Research
Where do you hear anti industry music and why is it specific to certain genres?
Music that expresses negativity surrounding the major corporations that create such a large industry is most commonly heard in hip-hop, and Punk rock. The thing about hip-hop and punk rock, is that they are such similar genres both in content and in their backgrounds. In their origins, hip hop and punk rock both are social movements actually. Throughout the decades you can hear artist and bands in both genres expressing their hate for certain social constructions, poltics, racism, discrimination of any kind, socioeconomic issues, etc.. And intertwined into that challenging rebellious attitude is a common hate for major corporations, and the people who run them.
Why has the “DIY”/ “Bedroom” scene become a revolutionary period of music?
The DIY and “Bedroom” scene is a revolutionary new time in music, because it opens up a whole new creative path of artistry for artists who want to skip the stigma around getting signed or getting a record deal, and this common new path of artistry has begun exploiting all new genres and literally hundreds of new styles all around music. A good example as to why this is happening is my own current path of artistry. - Of course I have my inspirations, I have specific songs, albums, artists, genres, instruments, and musical concepts that have shaped the way I write and the content that is my outcome. However, I do not have a manager or a big time producer, or a label executive telling me how and what I should write in order to appeal the most to what is popular currently. I do not have a major producer telling a mixing engineer to compensate my actual raw sound for something that is mainstream. I have no mastering engineer making my music sound overproduced and far from live in order for it to sound good on a radio platform. I have no musical limitations as a DIY artist. I don’t have money for all the stuff I want to further my creative options, but I am in my studio or my bedroom completely alone when I am creating, and it is a true, free, and real way of expressing.
What is the history of DIY in music and how has that inspired a new generation of musicians?
Martin Chilton from udiscovermusic.com said it best, “From cave tunes to thrash punk, cotton-field blues to the early days of hip-hop, the urge to make music, using whatever is at hand, is a constant in human behaviour. Percussion instruments created from stones, sticks, rocks and logs – cut in different shapes and designs to change the quality and pitch of sound – were being made more than 165,000 years ago. And if you look around today, you’ll find DIY music everywhere.”
The idea of DIY music has been around really since people started creating music, because there is always a desire for it, it’s natural. Specifically, in America the DIY idea blew up in the early 19th century among the slaves on the farms who are known for work songs, ring shouts, and spirituals. As they progressed musically in the fields, they wanted to add instrumentation of course, so they began building instruments to compliment their songs. These instruments were specifically the instruments that created the nationwide explosion of blues, (bajo, bass, fiddles, lutes, washboards, drums, etc.). By the 30s and 40s, blues and jazz were the thriving popular genres across the country, and while music recording was limited on a technological level at that time, live music was a very different scene, and a lot of the time live music was nothing but improv. When it comes to blues and jazz, improv is a very exciting, more jazzy way to do things (I think that's called a pun or something). All this improv lead to some of the purest music ever recorded, and while it was live and impromptu, the recording was very DIY. For example, a very well respected American ethnomusicologist named Alan Lomax was around for that scene, and used to carry a 315 pound acetate disc recorder in his car, like a moving studio, and from his acetate disc recorder we gained some of the most influential improv jazz and blues recordings ever. Come the 50’s Rock n’ Roll was born. When rock n roll music was introduced, the music industry across the world was changed forever in the way that a whole new way of thinking musically had come into play, and a completely different timbre and tone of music was born. In the last 70 years, rock n’ roll has created hundreds of new styles of its own, but really what it did was reintroduce heavy lyrical expression like you would hear from slaves singing field hollers. It reimagined how to challenge things through art. When Punk rock was born sometime in the mid 60s, the idea of rebelling and doing things independently really struck popular music in the western hemisphere, and the idea of DIY bands that weren’t looking to gain publicity for the enjoyment of their music, but rather for their attitudes towards the rest of society. And when this happened, DIY was bigger and more important than ever.
This has inspired a new generation of musicians and artists to continue pursuing music, but to do it by themselves, in a more indy format. This new generation of musicians and artists has created multiple new genres where all the music written and recorded is done without a recording deal, without finance from a major label, and most of the time in peoples home studios (bedroom recording). This has not only expanded the creative outlet, but it is beginning to change the sound of modern popular genre. Due to a bunch of people like me who can’t afford expensive microphones or outboard gear for recording, there is more room for new ways of recording on a budget, and new styles of mixing have came out as well. An example of a genre where you can hear the “bedroom” sound is lofi hip-hop. Lofi hip-hop compliments the idea of rough, raw audio recordings, and lofi hip hop has literally became a competition to see who can make the most abstract sound in a mix, and a competition of who can be the most aesthetically independent as an artist. This is a good example of how DIY music has not only changed the means of establishing yourself as an artist in the music industry, but has also changed the face of artistry, and the sound of popular music.
Is this change in the recorded music industry actually making a change in the entirety of the music industry?
YES!
Step 3: Analysis
What I Admire-
- New Creative path of artistry
- New styles and new genres across music
- The “bedroom” sound and how it’s creating texture in the audio world
- The ease of collaborating with people who have more publicity than you
- Free true expression when writing and recording
- No creative limits besides the finance part
- The rebellious, challenging attitude towards major corporations and the constructions of the music industry
Limitations-
- Harder to gain national/ international publicity
- No provided funding for touring
- Finance limitations
- DIY artist sometimes gain a ton of publicity on a societal level, but all the major labels and entertainment corporations still have the artist who are making the most money, therefore the people on top stay on top
- Not significant enough to slow down the capitalization of music yet
How to Apply to My Proposal-
- My proposal will literally encompass DIY and “bedroom” music, as I am going to make music for my proposal
- I am a DIY artist already, as I write, record, produce, mix, and publish all of my stuff completely by myself
- I could also maybe incorporate the fact that I might do a west coast DIY tour with my band next summer (DIY tours tend to consist of basement shows, house parties, bars and small venues)
- I will use some lofi hip hop as one of the elements of the music I propose, to demonstrate how being a DIY/ bedroom artist creates a different mix and quality of audio
- I could have photo evidence of everything from writing to doing a final mix and platforming some music
Part 4: Proposal
Proposal Summary-
My proposal is DIY music, I believe the more of us that decide to do everything ourselves, or at least on small, low budget scale. Including everything from the early writing stages to the final master. The less that feeds into the people on top of the music industry financially, the more room there is for a more pure, more truthful art.
Audience Description-
My audience is the young, up and coming artists that are trying to make it in such a busy industry, as well as the rest of the music community in general.
Artist Statement-
My music makes an impact through the way I created it, and it demonstrates the many differences in the composition and in the mix of the audio compared to the composition and mix on a song that may have been created in a major label studio with major producers and engineers focusing the session for radio, popular success. Although I am not nearly as qualified as those major corporates in those major label studios, and I have way less experience as I am 17 and self taught, but I have put in my time and research and understand the different ways different genres are produced and mixed well enough to say that my music was created differently. I do not tailor the arrangement or tempo of my songs to what is mainstream, and I do not compensate volume for the quality of my audio tracks in my sessions or mix the audio to be popular. My process as an artist is completely free, true and in the moment. Below is a link to some instrumental examples of mine, I did everything from the composition/writing, production, mixing, and I also platform all of my own music. I also market myself completely independent and am seeking publicity and networking by myself.
https://www.joshuadearien.com/production
My proposal is DIY music, I believe the more of us that decide to do everything ourselves, or at least on small, low budget scale. Including everything from the early writing stages to the final master. The less that feeds into the people on top of the music industry financially, the more room there is for a more pure, more truthful art.
Audience Description-
My audience is the young, up and coming artists that are trying to make it in such a busy industry, as well as the rest of the music community in general.
Artist Statement-
My music makes an impact through the way I created it, and it demonstrates the many differences in the composition and in the mix of the audio compared to the composition and mix on a song that may have been created in a major label studio with major producers and engineers focusing the session for radio, popular success. Although I am not nearly as qualified as those major corporates in those major label studios, and I have way less experience as I am 17 and self taught, but I have put in my time and research and understand the different ways different genres are produced and mixed well enough to say that my music was created differently. I do not tailor the arrangement or tempo of my songs to what is mainstream, and I do not compensate volume for the quality of my audio tracks in my sessions or mix the audio to be popular. My process as an artist is completely free, true and in the moment. Below is a link to some instrumental examples of mine, I did everything from the composition/writing, production, mixing, and I also platform all of my own music. I also market myself completely independent and am seeking publicity and networking by myself.
https://www.joshuadearien.com/production
Reflection: