Amen and Copyright

Copyright can be defined as the legal right granted to an author, composer, playwright, publisher, or distributor to exclusive publication, production, sale, or distribution of a literary, musical, dramatic, or artistic work.

“Can I get a Amen?” is an audio installation that unfolds a critical perspective of the Amen as mentioned.

The video narrated by Nate Harrison attempts to emphasise and dissect its influence on contemporary culture – the author also briefly analyses its peculiar relationship to current copyright law. (nb – the video can be located on our YouTube Playlist, along with other Amen-related vids. Click here to check it out.

The beginning stages of sampling occurred with underground music.

Consequently, the practise of infringement went under the radar.

The Creators of the Amen

Those sampling the drum loop, then went on to copyright their finished pieces and thus financially benefit from this usage, in most cases without acknowledging the rightful owners and creators of the Amen

The Winstons

Drummer G. C Coleman

Richard L. Spencer

FOR Copyright:
Judge Alex Kozinski states that, “overprotecting intellectual property is as harmful as under protecting it…Culture is ipossible wihtout a rich public domain”.

Konzinski also reinforces the idea that, “like techonology, culture grows by accretion, each new creator building on the works of those who came before”.

Over protection siftles the very creative force its supposed to nurture.

Public Domain = Openly available to everyone and not subject to copyright protection.

AGAINST Copright: In the constant struggle between protection of intellectual property and freedom to create/ recycle/ innovate, the inventors of the Amen Break got a bad deal – Whether it is 6 seconds or six hours, it is still there creation.

Did not get paid for the perpetual extensions for their work throughout time – But paying for a drum beat is like saying that you own the “c” chord.

Whelans commentary on this point…

The Story of the Shibboleth
During our interview with Dr. Andrew Whelan mentions this story in regards to The Amen.

A Shibboleth is a kind of linuistic password: A way of speaking that identifies one as a member, or a non- member, of a particular group.

A social power that set the standards for who belongs to the group.

The purpose of a Shibboleth is exclusionary as much as inclusionary.

The idea is that some superficial characteristic is taken as a signal for how to view the person who has it – usually “good” if the person is in the group, “bad” if the person is judged to be outside the group.

In the story, two Semitic tribes, the Ephraimites and the Gileadites, partake in a great battle.

The sentries asked those considered to be ‘undercover’ outsiders to say the word Shibboleth. The Ephraimites, who had no “sh” sound in their language pronounced the word with an “s” and where thereby unmasked as the enemy and slaughtered.


Today, even with music and its usage (such as the Amen) the Shibboleth incorporates a wider meaning referring to the “in – crowd” where the word can be used in a wider sense, such as ‘jargon’…

The proper use of which identifies speakers as members of a particular group or subculture. Eg. The followers and users of the Amen Break Beat.

Breakbeat Enthusiast Dr Andrew Whelan - Interview!!!

We were given an awesome opportunity to interview music enthusiast and breakbeat specialist Dr Andrew Whelan about the Amen Break.

Here's a bit about Dr Andrew Whelan:

Dr Whelan taught Gender and Popular Culture, the Sociology of Health and Illness, and other topics in sociology at Trinity College in Dublin. He has research interests in the performance of identity in text-based interaction; contemporary musical subcultures; gender and masculinities; ethnomethodology; internet research ethics; and the theories of Mikhail Bakhtin and Georges Bataille. His current position is held at the University of Wollongong, Australia.

WANT TO WATCH THE INTERVIEW?

For Part 1, click here

For Part 2, click here

For Part 3, click here

We quizzed Dr Whelan on his article about the Amen Break and Totemism, and a few other queries. Hope you enjoy :)

Amen Breakbeat as Totem - An anthropological look at the Amen

A totem is an object that signifies symbolic meaning. It can be an object such as an animal, or sound such as laughing. The notion of totem is inherently male, with male groups, or ‘phratries’ worshipping the totem. So what transforms a seemingly everyday object into a totem? Generally, they have the main characteristics, which are the following.

Sacred/Profane
Firstly, the object inheres mana, that is, it holds sacred status. Thus distinguishing between what is sacred and profane. The totem is sacred/holy, and anything which mocks or offends the totem is profane. For example, in Aboriginal clans, totems such as the wombat for instance, would be inscribed on something, be it a shield, cloth or whatever. Thus the everyday item, such as cloth, has been transformed from profane to sacred as it signifies the totem. The item with the totem is now called Churinga. The churinga is so sacred and held in reverence that it is stored away in a remote location to free itself from contamination. This is important as it highlights the profane. So what is profane in this society? Women and the uninitiated young males. They could not touch the Churinga, and were lucky enough to see the totem on rare occasions, and if so, only at a distance.

Totem is homosocial and bonding.
The totems presence in these societies created a shared identity among different phratries, so much so that whenever they gathered together around a tree or stone, a kind of ‘collective emotion’ and solidarity formed. Furthermore, there were ‘mens houses’, where women, “were given space for listening but not for seeing or being seen.” This kind of emotional response is something you and I can relate to. Just think of the feeling we get when we go to the cinema, or club or shopping mall.

Totem is adversative.
The totem is not a static thing that is simply worshipped; it is something to be mastered and utilized. The quest to master the totem is challenging and very competitive, as members of phratries strive to out-do each other. Those who do master the totem have the honour of being ‘hierophant’’, that is, totem specialists, which puts them on a pedestal within the clan.

In Aboriginal clans, for young boys to be initiated as adults, that is from profane to sacred, they go through an initiation process, and this can be very adversative. As Durk notes, “About the time of puberty, as the time for initiation approaches, the young man withdraws into a distant place….there, during a period varying from a few days to several years, he submits himself to all sorts of exhausting and unnatural exercises”.

OK so far we know that anything with the totem is sacred, and anything against the totem is profane, the totem is bonding between males, and it creates an adversative culture. That said, if we replace ‘clan’ with ‘subculture’ and substitute ‘totem’ for ‘amen break’, we can see how the Amen takes position.

Amen is sacred/profane
Just like the wombat, the Amen inheres mana, that is sacredness. We know it’s fratriarchal and thus, male-focused, but who holds it as sacred? Whelan says, “those with longstanding engagements in jungle and breakcore become members of the amen clan.” The totem itself is an ‘element in a symbolic code, inscribed upon items and thereby sacralising them. Whelan likens this to ‘cult of personality’ where in nationalistic countries there are images of the leader everywhere. In this context, the dubplate takes the role of churinga – the object which becomes sacred after having the Amen inscribed upon it.

Where there is sacredness comes profane. In the jungle music scene, what Whelan terms as the ‘hardcorification’ of the Amen is seen as profane, that is the sampling of it and ripping it to the point of unrecognisability.

Furthermore, the Amen is homosocial. As Whelan notes, the use of the term ‘fratriarchal’ preceding ‘totem’ is somewhat of a tautology as the original use of the term ‘totem’ by Durkheim was to refer to all-male clans who worshipped these objects. Whelan notes that although music groups do not restrict women from joining their clan, just like in the Aboriginal clans, today’s equivalent of the mens’ house is a CLUB, where women are ‘given a space for listening but not for seeing or being seen.’ For instance, women tend to be the ones, “listening, dancing, distributing flyers, ‘manning’ the till at the door, but less DJing and producing the music.”

Amen is Adversative

Just like there was competition to master the totem in Aboriginal clans, there is competition between phratries to master the Amen. But ritualized conflict also occurs between the members of the clan, who strive to out-do each other in the extent to which they are hierophants.” Thus ‘there is competition between members of the amen clan, and this competition is articulated though the Amen.’ There's no bloody battle or war, but rather Battle of the DJ’s through the dubplate. There is always competition as to who can create a magical new sample involving the Amen, who can mix it better etc, so they can be put on a pedestal within the music scene.
To be accepted as a member of particular music scenes, you must master certain musical elements. An example is one from the noise scene in Japan, where to be accepted as a serious sonic connoisseur, one must submit to ‘hikiomori’, or ‘confining oneself indoors’. In this state the person goes through gruelling, albeit different, physical hardships – such as “protracted periods of time in front of a monitor, mouse in hand, body hunched, strained ears, at the computer".

So the Amen totem is basically the ‘clan worshipping itself’. By perfecting the totem through mixes and sampling, people within that culture are ensuring it is passed on to the next generation. Some may argue that with the commercialization of the Amen, for instance its use in Toyota commercials, PowerPuff Girls theme song, has resulted in it the diminishing of its mana, or sacredness. However, within the phratries, the Amen is as sacred as ever.


Bibliography
Whelan, Andrew, 2009 (in press), ‘The “Amen” Breakbeat as Fratriarchal Totem’, in Beate Neumeier (ed.), Dichotonies: Essays on Gender and Music, Winter Verlag, Heidelberg.

Amen Breakbeat and Subcultures

The Amen Breakbeat is considered a ‘ubiquitous piece of the pop culture sounds cape’ (Harrison 2004) which was pivotal in the development of various musical genres. The popularity and use of the break over the past thirty years has entered into the ‘collective audio unconscious’ (Harrison 2004) whereby the endless permutation, slicing, chopping and rearranging of the original six second drum loop by the Winston’s has allowed for the reproduction and appropriation of the break within an array of musical genres. Not only is the break prevalent in the contemporary music culture, but it is also used as a rhythmic backdrop in promotional campaigns and popular television show theme songs including Futurama (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cYgqSdjMTk&feature=related) and the powerpuff girls (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8HdpBXLVYk).

The development of the Breakbeat overtime within various musical genres will be discussed as well as the rebirth and popularity of the break which is due to sampling or the sampler which is an important instrument in hip-hop and electronic music. The Amen is considered by Andrew Whelan (2009) as a ‘sample’; that being a particular segment of a sound recording. It is generally considered the most sampled piece of recorded sound in the history of western music (Whelan 2009, p2) although the break is so unfamiliar to so many of us.

The advent of the sampler in the 1980s allowed for the revival of the drum loop heard in the middle of the Winston’s song Amen Brother to be spread in several directions due to continuous sampling enabling users to apply and reproduce the break. The Sampler is a machine about the size of a VCR that allows users to record any sound into it for quick playback and arrangement where the samples can be modified in many different ways. The sampler is a principle tool responsible for the birth and development of hip-hop and electronic music whereby with the use of the sampler any drum beat, any guitar rift any sound that could be recorded could be used as a new composition; a new contextualisation (Harrison 2004).

Commercial produced music has been part realised with the sampler in shaping modern music where Hip hop and other electronic based music genres pioneered the creative use of samplers and the amen break was one of the first drum samples to be experimented with; ‘it’s a beat which transcends musical genre: effortlessly transposing into metal, to pop, to dance music’ (iammartin 2009). The six second drum solo from the song amen brother has been ‘looped, reversed, sped up and shattered into a million different compositions by a thousand producers, musicians and djs’ (iammartin 2009). A clip found on vimeo which is a popular sharing service to connect with people online where users can upload and share videos and restrict access presents some of the key elements of history 2.0; participatory, amenable (participate in fun projects), and fixity. The particular video found illustrates the journey of the simple drum beat that has been reused, built upon, used in countless different ways, remixed, re-sampled, which has all been made possible with the sampler. The short film explores the evolution and integration of the Winstons drum break from 1969 and the video can be considered a form of mashup through the digital combination of different songs. The audio and visuals progress from the early songs with the break through to songs being heard on today’s radio (http://vimeo.com/5670125).

In the last decade the break has been applied to various popular music and electronic sounds. The Prodigy and Fatboy slim (Info 2001) are recognised for their looping and cutting of breaks where their unusual sounds have made them unique and popular today. The Prodigy incorporates various styles in relation to break; rave, hardcore, industrial, and electronic rock. An example of the break within one of the Prodigy’s songs; ‘Everybody in the place’ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpLdRewHVg4&feature=player_embedded#t=29). The gritty, compressed and slightly metallic qualities of the Amen are the techniques that essentially make it unique. This is continuously chopped and resequenced through the proliferation of break in new genres and it is through the use of samplers the explosion of the break has spread. The common genres associated with break stated in Whelan’s (2009, p3) reading consist of; hardcore, techno, reggae, jungle, drum and bass and hip-hop. When conducting further research there are even more subgenres associated. The pervasive nature of the Amen break in today’s musical culture is presented briefly in the Wikipedia site at the bottom of the page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakbeat. This proves the extent to which the break has impacted and helped develop various music genres overtime.

The Amen Break gave birth to several music subcultures where one drum loop based on six seconds from 1969 has had so much influence in the development of various genres. Subgenres presented on the site entitled ‘Breakbeat paradise’ provides insight on the range of subgenres.

Breakbeats are the basis of the Hip Hop and Drum n Bass genres with them emerging from breaks. The hip hop genre became prominent in the mid 1980’s where it became influential within the UK music scene and youth culture. This is primarily due to the developed production techniques of scratching and mixing evident within break and also at this time there was a rise in the breakbeat phenomena; ‘the development of a subculture based around searching for rave breaks on soul and funk records and sampling and reconstructing beats’ (Mayers n.d.).
With the injections of breaks within the hip hop culture in the late 1970s and early 1980s it became the rhythmic elements for many hip hop songs (Mayers, n.d).

Secondly, Drum and bass is fast paced and rhythm-focused with electronic elements and emphasis on intricate and complex drum sequencing and breaks. Its characteristics of fast tempo, broken drum beats are relative to the styles of funk, hip hop, jazz, heavy metal and rock. Due to this it is one of the most practised subgenres of break where its all-inclusiveness nature within various genres allows for greater use by artists. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyudrMvcxIc

Big beat is a well known subgenre of breakbeat where it’s a heavier and more beat driven variant of breakbeat which is suitable to the dance floor thus appealing to mass audiences. In order to achieve bigger beats songs are amplified with bassier electronic drum-sounds. Its heavy style is a fusion of rock

ttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJ0PpcEIwRQ&feature=PlayList&p=DB8A9EACBC42ED25&index=2.

The Jungle subgenre is considered the predecessor of Drum n Bass that evolved from breakbeat and hardcore. It’s recognised for its speedy breaks, complex rhythms and varied percussion, as well as heavy baselines and the inclusion of reggae vocals. It has a funky edge where its combination of reggae, heavy base lines and high speed break beats centres its aesthetic almost entirely on the deconstruction of the Amen that being the slicing, chopping and rearranging of the original six second sample. Jungle uses many of the same production techniques pioneered by hip-hop DJs and producers. The use of samplers and sequencers along with the high value placed upon the beat are inherited from hip-hop. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EISkK45rR7s&feature=PlayList&p=6EDC8BBAB59C7B22&index=1

Funky breaks are similar to big beat in many ways. Like big beat this style has elements from funk with more danceable rhythms but with a funkier edge. The biggest player in this style is without doubt Fat Boy Slim who has had several mainstream hits with his crazy style of funky breaks. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDODGwtX7RA

The Nu Skool subgenre has darker elements also known from Drum n Bass and hardcore. It’s the newest form of breakbeat to enter the scene in 1998. The breakbeat rhythm appears to disband elements of techno, electro, and drum n bass into more danceable, accessible music, similarly to Big Break.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUFsCznbPJw&feature=PlayList&p=5F6663327CFDFD3C&index=1

Triphop goes in the opposite direction of the fast paced, rhythm focused Drum n Bass as its characterized by slow tempo acoustic elements and down-tempo fusions of jazz, hip hop, and breakbeat. It is often dark or minimalist orchestration, generally with down mood, and the use of trippy effects. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pf1J_j9RyK8

Rock: the break can be heard in the Oasis song- 'D'You Know What I Mean'. Have a listen http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGaRDN8IMcg

Bibliography

Harrison, N 2004, Video explains the world’s most important 6-sec drum loop, accessed 2/09/09, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SaFTm2bcac

iammartin 2009, Six seconds from ’69, accessed 10/09/09, http://vimeo.com/5670125

Sood, N 2009, Then future of the internet and online video, accesses 15/09/09, http://www.gadgetell.com/tech/comment/the-future-of-the-internet-and-online-video/

Breakbeat n.d., accessed 2/09/09, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakbeat

Mayers, N n.d., Urban Breakbeat Culture, accessed 17/09/09, http://urban-breakbeat.com/docs/Urban_Breakbeat_Culture.html

Breakcore and Drum and Bass n.d., accessed 17/09/09, http://www.dysphemic.com/breakcore.htm

The Breakbeat Genres 2001, accessed 17/09/09, http://www.breakbeat-paradise.com/bb_info.php

Amen Break - Six Seconds that Changed the World

A breakbeat or ‘break’ is when, in a song, all vocals and instruments stop playing and the drum and percussion is left to play for a few bars on its own. The Amen is a six second breakbeat from the song ‘Amen, Brother’ by the band The Winstons in 1969.

Back in those days, songs were released on vinyl and there was an A-side and B-side. On the A-side was the primary song and B-side, or underside, was another release. Amen, Brother was released on the B-side with the A-side featuring the single ‘Color Him Father’. When Amen, Brother was first released, there was nothing really quite exceptional about it. Color Him Father went on to win a Grammy Award for the Best R&B song in 1970, and Amen, Brother was just another song. However, Amen,Brother, or specifically the six-second drum loop was resurrected 15 years later with the advent of the Sampler.

Ironically, the first Sampler ever created was in 1969; the same year Amen, Brother was released. The Sampler is a piece of technology which, in a nutshell, allows for and promotes the abusing of music. The Sampler takes musical recordings and allows for the user to mash them up. However, it wasn’t until the 80’s that sampling took a digital form, making samples more accessible and easier to mash-up. It was also around this time that the Amen break made its re-emergence in a hip-hop song called ‘Straight Outta Compton”, resulting in it becoming a staple of hip-hop culture, and many others to follow.

Since then, Amen has gone rather mainstream, appearing in Toyota commercials, theme songs such as Futurama and Power Puff Girls, Oasis songs and really too many to give credit to here. The Amen is so ingrained in our musical psyche that one would expect the original creators of it to receive monetary recognition. Aka, Copyright. However, this has not been the case.