Copyright and Glee's "It's My Life/Confessions" Mashup

RE:  Blog #3 - Mashups and Copyright Law  (Mary Ward Communications)

The very popular musical comedy Glee is a show that focuses on a high school's glee club, how the students and teachers of the club interact with each other, and how the music of the club is very easily incorporated into their lives.  In one particular episode, the club had a boys vs girls challenge where both groups had to do a mashup of two different songs and perform them.  The boys decided to do a number on Bon Jovi's "It's My Life" and Usher's "Confessions".
Here's the video of the boys performing!


What is this mashup trying to communicate?  Is it a technical experiment, social or political commentary, a comedic parody, or an abstract work of media art?
I believe this mashup was a mixture of a technical experiment and an abstract work of media art.  I find this piece a bit of a technical experiment because it was a bit of an experiment; the creators were trying out a new idea for the show:  mashups.  It turned out that the experiment was a success because they ended up using the same idea for another episode in the series.  This mashup was also a bit of an abstract work of media art because the blending of the two different songs, no matter how different, sounded quite pleasing to many viewers.  The boys' performance also tied in very well with the music, bringing in another element into the mashup.


Did the creator follow or break copyright laws in its production?
The creator did not break any copyright laws during this production.  This is because all of the music for Glee, even though they're just covers of other peoples' music, have copyrights to their own music.  Their copyrights have allowed the show to sell this song as a single and be performed on their show.


Do you think a mashup like this requires copyright permission?  Why or why not?
I think a mashup like this does require copyright permission.  This is because this mashup was performed on international television, was sold as a single with the Glee cast as the artist, and gained profit from all of this.  When covers becomes world renown and gain profit, like this one, it would be unfair to not credit the original artists and not get copyrights to do their songs.

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NOTE TO MY TEACHERS:

I watch the show Glee religiously, which allowed me to include a bit of background information I knew about the show in my answers.

-Jercy.

From Spray Can to Light: Comparing Beatles Inspired Graffiti

RE:  Blog Entry #4 - Spray Can to Light:  Graffiti Revisited

Here are two Beatles inspired graffiti that were made using different two completely different media - both of which I really admire.

Here is a graffiti'd mural of the Beatles.  Here is the origi-
nal website that featured this photograph - unfortunately,
the artist is not mentioned here.

This first piece is the boys of the Beatles' faces on a brick wall.  Clearly street graffiti, I think the artist of this mural used the elements of space, size, tone, contrast, and emphasis effectively.  I think this mural shows that the element of space is used very well because the artist was able to use up the entire wall and showcase every member while doing so.  Size works very well in this mural too because each member's head, from the nose up, was blown up to roughly the same size to effectively fill up the entire wall.  The size of each member's head also relates to how contrast is used in this mural.  The use of juxtaposition is cleverly used here because the wall isn't really big enough for a typical mural, but the heads' enormous size makes it looks like the wall is bigger than it really is while also drawing attention to how small it is.  Contrast continues to be used in the colour choices of the mural as well.  The use of a monochromatic colour scheme brings out the mural's contrast to the rest of the neighbourhood because the buildings, homes, and even the walls around it are all red/brown.  All this contrast also ties in with how emphasis is used very well in this graffiti, because the mural emphasizes itself from its surroundings.

This is the light graffiti recreation of the Beatles' famous
walk across Abbey Road.  Here is the original web-
site that features this photograph - unfortunately, this
website does not mention the artist either.

Another Beatles inspired graffiti I found was done by light.  In this graffiti, the artist chose to recreate the Beatles' famous walk across Abbey Road.  Just like the artist who created the previous graffiti, the artist for this one was able to use size effectively.  Unlike the previous graffiti though, this one also includes elements of line and shape, and unity.  The element of size was effectively used in this graffiti because the size of each member's "light version" of themselves is roughly the same size of the actual member, which I found quite impressive.  Another element found in this graffiti is the use of line and shape.  Technically speaking, only lines were used to create this graffiti, but these lines were able to create shapes which helps the viewer identify what this graffiti was supposed to recreate.  Lastly, unity is used well in this graffiti because the use of simple lines of light and the subject these lines were supposed to create really pulls the entire graffiti together and helps recreate the famous image more accurately, if not perfectly.

All in all, I really admire both pieces and love how they were both inspired by one of my favourite bands, the Beatles!