Synopses & Reviews
The music industryand#8217;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 publishersand#8217; efforts to stamp out bootleg compilations of lyric sheets in 1929, Barry Kernfeldand#8217;s Pop Song Piracy details nearly a century of disobedient music distribution from song sheets to MP3s.and#160;In the 1940s and and#8217;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 industryand#8217;s persistent lagging behind in creating innovative products that led to the very piracy it sought to eliminate.
Review
and#8220;Barry Kernfeldand#8217;s rich and stimulating book makes a significant contribution to current debates over technology, copying, piracy, and the political economy of the music industry. He clarifies not just the history of legal and illegal music copying but also the arguments about these practices and the complicated relationships that have resulted among the law, corporations, entrepreneurs, consumers, and the media.and#8221;
Review
"Kenfeld provides a welcome addition to the intellectual property rightsand#160;debate in music. His book addresses the historical linkages between musicand#160;piracy and the music business, and how both are deeply entangled. The fact thatand#160;the author is a staff member at the special collections library at Pennsylvaniaand#160;State University is clear. The archival data used throughout this book is theand#160;result of a very thorough engagement with material spanning nearly a century."
Review
and#8220;
Pop Song Piracyand#160;is original, insightful, learned without being stuffy and, in the end, a profound investigation of the ways people have tried (and often succeeded) in getting the popular music they wanted without paying for it. Anyone interested in the business of music will want to learn what Barry Kernfeld has to tell us.and#8221;
About the Author
Barry Kernfeld is on the staff of the Special Collections Library of the Pennsylvania State University. He is the author of The Story of Fake Books: Bootlegging Songs to Musicians and What to Listen for in Jazz, and he is the editor of The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part I: Printed Music
and#160;Chapter 1: Tin Pan Alleyand#8217;s Near-Perfect Distribution System
and#160;Chapter 2: Bootlegging Song Sheets
and#160;Chapter 3: The Content and Uses of Song Sheetsand#160;
and#160;Chapter 4: Fake Books and Music Photocopying
Part II: Broadcasting
and#160;Chapter 5: Pirate Radio in Northwestern Europe
Part III: Recordings
and#160;Chapter 6: Illegal Copying of Phonograph Records
and#160;Chapter 7: Illegal Copying of Tapes
and#160;Chapter 8: Bootleg Albums as Unauthorized New Releases
and#160;Chapter 9: Illegal Copying of Compact Discs
and#160;Chapter 10: Song Sharing
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index