This topic may not be popular but I’m really curious about the song writing process and the song as a story with sentences and phrases.
I love popular music, camp fiction and movies that parody other movies. I drive my wife crazy with every cultural detail in “Rugrats” or other films like that.
My questions is, what is the smallest piece of music that needs to be “quoted”.
For instance:
These From Jaws: in two notes, you could figure out what the director was alluding to if you saw a scene of people swimming in the water.
Gilligan’s Island: If anyone sees a movie with people riding in a boat on a stormy day, and you hear nine notes, or four notes, you can guess what is going to happen.
Do these small sequences need to be licenced and cleared for use?
I know we can use melodies for song parodies but what about recording or using a pop melody as an English teaching song? I doubt a small time teacher could afford the rights to this kind of song. Would it be considered fair use?
Anyway, there’s so much literature about copyright in writing but I really want to know more about music.
When a composer creates a tune, how much of it is original, or borrowed from others.
Do you in the musicians community argue about people ripping off one another’s work?
Are there any exciting books about this topic?
