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Book Cover
E-book
Author Kernfeld, Barry Dean, 1950-

Title Pop song piracy : disobedient music distribution since 1929 / Barry Kernfeld
Published Chicago ; London : University of Chicago Press, 2011

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Description 1 online resource (xii, 273 pages) : illustrations
Contents Printed music. Tin Pan Alley's near-perfect distribution system ; Bootlegging song sheets ; The content and uses of song sheets ; Fake books and music photocopying -- Broadcasting. Pirate radio in Northwestern Europe -- Recordings. Illegal copying of phonograph records ; Illegal copying of tapes ; Bootleg albums as unauthorized new releases ; Illegal copying of compact discs ; Song sharing
Summary The music industry's ongoing battle against digital piracy is just the latest skirmish in a long conflict over who has the right to distribute music. Starting with music publishers' efforts to stamp out bootleg compilations of lyric sheets in 1929, Barry Kernfeld's Pop Song Piracy details nearly a century of disobedient music distribution from song sheets to MP3s. In the 1940s and '50s, Kernfeld reveals, song sheets were succeeded by fake books, unofficial volumes of melodies and lyrics for popular songs that were a key tool for musicians. Music publishers attempted to wipe out fake books, but after their efforts proved unsuccessful they published their own. Pop Song Piracy shows that this pattern of disobedience, prohibition, and assimilation recurred in each conflict over unauthorized music distribution, from European pirate radio stations to bootlegged live shows. Beneath this pattern, Kernfeld argues, there exists a complex give and take between distribution methods that merely copy existing songs (such as counterfeit CDs) and ones that transform songs into new products (such as file sharing). Ultimately, he contends, it was the music industry's persistent lagging behind in creating innovative products that led to the very piracy it sought to eliminate
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 255-263) and index
Notes Print version record
Subject Music trade -- Corrupt practices -- United States -- History -- 20th century
Popular music -- Writing and publishing -- Corrupt practices -- United States -- History -- 20th century
Sound recording industry -- Corrupt practices -- United States -- History
Sound recordings -- Pirated editions -- United States -- History
Copyright -- Music -- United States -- History -- 20th century
Piracy (Copyright) -- United States -- History -- 20th century
TRUE CRIME -- General.
Industry.
Copyright -- Music
Music trade -- Corrupt practices
Piracy (Copyright)
Sound recording industry -- Corrupt practices
Sound recordings -- Pirated editions
United States
Genre/Form History
Form Electronic book
LC no. 2010045370
ISBN 9780226431840
0226431843
0226431827
9780226431826