Contemporary Music Problem:

In contemporary music, James Brown is known for the “Greatest drum breakdown of them all.” Oh wait, that drum beat was actually a studio musician. But that studio drummer does not get any credit for that popular breakdown and James gets all of the credit. As artists recognized how complex and funky the drumbeat was, the more of them realized they wanted that in their songs. So there are two problems here: 1. The studio musician wasn’t accredited for the drum beat. And 2. drummers don’t get copyright, so anyone can use the same exact drum beat without getting sued or losing money.

As me and my employer talked, we realized that it stinks how people can replicate a drumbeat from another song and use it in theirs without getting held accountable for it, but at the same time, all songs now would be under copyright infringement. SO, in other-words it’s a good thing that drum beats are not under copyright because then musicians would have a small leash to build from. But at the same time, it was wrong that James Brown took credit for the drum beat. Yes it is his’ song, but no he did not make that beat up. That is like the lead vocalist taking credit for a bass lead that he clearly did not make.

I believe that there should be some stipulation from making drum beats/patterns, but finding a way to monitor every song from every band would be nearly impossible. And another question would arise,”Why drum beats and not chords, or bass lines or guitar leads?” So for now, I believe it is ok to leave copyright out of the instrumentations of songs, but creators of a specific part should be credited for their work.

If you want to see the article I read, here is the link! https://theconversation.com/funky-drummer-how-a-james-brown-jam-session-gave-us-the-greatest-drum-break-of-them-all-134493