Grey Album Pros And Cons
Artists have found a variety of ways to rework other pieces to create their own original products. However, only a few ways are recognized as acceptable; mostly, that is through gaining permission to use the copyright materials and crediting the original artist. There are popular instances where copyrights are not followed exactly as intended, though. One such example is DJ Danger Mouse’s underground production, The Grey Album. The Beatles’ self titled album, also known as The White Album, and the a cappella release of Jay-Z’s The Black Album are brought together for the play-on-words, self released promotional album still talked about 10 years later, The Grey Album. The release of The Grey Album caused debate and took a toll on the music industry
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in ethical and creative aspects.
The ethical dilemma behind the Grey Album is rooted within the unauthorized use of material under a copyright. The material in question is both the Beatles White Album that supplies the beat and Jay-Z’s Black Album that provides the vocals. In 2004, there were only approximately 3,000 copies released by Danger Mouse himself, intended solely as a promotional item. Promotional item or not, it only took three months from the idea’s inception through the release, for Danger Mouse to be slapped with a cease-and-desist order from the music recording and publishing company that held the copyrights for the Beatles, EMI. Although the entirety of the backbeat on the Grey Album originated from the Beatles White Album, it is not a whole song instrumental with an overlay of Jay-Z’s Black Album. Danger Mouse described the process of creating the legendary album in an interview with MTV in March 2004 as “a deconstruction… It’s not an easy thing to do” (Moss 2). He combed through the White Album to find “every strike of a drum or cymbal when other instruments or voices were not in the mix” (Moss 3) and put them back together to a beat to fit behind the Jay-Z vocals. While EMI responded to Danger Mouse with legal action, Roc-A-Fella Records, the owners of the Black Album copyright, did nothing. Looking at Jay-Z’s own rise to fame sheds some answers on to why that is. Jay-Z “arose through street exchanges” (Demers 6) through “appearing on underground mixed tapes, which are sold illegally on urban street corners” (Demers 6). With Jay-Z having gone through these channels, it makes sense that when asked about the Grey Album he responded through a representative with, “I applaud creativity in any form” (Healey, Cromlin 1) and that there would not be an legal response to the Grey Album. Ethically, this creates a grey area (pardon the pun) as to where Danger Mouse used and tweaked deconstructed segments of music for his own creation and where these segments originated.
While 3,000 CDs may seem like a lot, it is miniscule compared to the more than 100,000 digital downloads the Grey Album saw in a single day.
Music activist group, Downhill Battle organized what was known as ‘Grey Tuesday’ in support of Danger Mouse’s creation. They worked to rally support, which resulted in around 200 sites offering the album free to download and at least 250 more sites who ‘went grey’ in support of the cause (Patel 2). Fred Goldring, a music-industry lawyer put it simply, saying, “by creating a controversy and trying to shut it down, they actually attracted more interest in it. […] It became probably the most widely downloaded, underground indie record, without radio or TV coverage” (Healey, Cromelin 1). Out of the now legendary Grey Album came the rise of remixes and mash-ups. Less than a year after ‘Grey Tuesday’ Jay-Z began working with heavy rock group Linkin Park on a project for ‘MTV’s Ultimate Mash-Ups’. The resulting creation was a 6-track album, ‘Collision Course’ that included the track “Numb/Encore”. “Numb/Encore” went on to win the 2006 Grammy for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration. Upon their win, the first ‘thank you’ handed out was to “the lawyers who made this mash-up possible” (Edwards 3) showing the complexity of the issues even when the original artists are the ones wanting and working for the
collaboration.
The release and the aftermath of the Grey Album have changed the music industry. There is a greater demand for mixes and collaborations as seen by artists releasing albums consisting of only remixes, sometimes all of the same song; notorious for this is Lady Gaga. It has even become much easier for your average citizen to create these tracks on their own in bedrooms and basements with a basic computer and software. The underground culture that gave life to Jay-Z has found an equivalent in an online form.
in ethical and creative aspects.
The ethical dilemma behind the Grey Album is rooted within the unauthorized use of material under a copyright. The material in question is both the Beatles White Album that supplies the beat and Jay-Z’s Black Album that provides the vocals. In 2004, there were only approximately 3,000 copies released by Danger Mouse himself, intended solely as a promotional item. Promotional item or not, it only took three months from the idea’s inception through the release, for Danger Mouse to be slapped with a cease-and-desist order from the music recording and publishing company that held the copyrights for the Beatles, EMI. Although the entirety of the backbeat on the Grey Album originated from the Beatles White Album, it is not a whole song instrumental with an overlay of Jay-Z’s Black Album. Danger Mouse described the process of creating the legendary album in an interview with MTV in March 2004 as “a deconstruction… It’s not an easy thing to do” (Moss 2). He combed through the White Album to find “every strike of a drum or cymbal when other instruments or voices were not in the mix” (Moss 3) and put them back together to a beat to fit behind the Jay-Z vocals. While EMI responded to Danger Mouse with legal action, Roc-A-Fella Records, the owners of the Black Album copyright, did nothing. Looking at Jay-Z’s own rise to fame sheds some answers on to why that is. Jay-Z “arose through street exchanges” (Demers 6) through “appearing on underground mixed tapes, which are sold illegally on urban street corners” (Demers 6). With Jay-Z having gone through these channels, it makes sense that when asked about the Grey Album he responded through a representative with, “I applaud creativity in any form” (Healey, Cromlin 1) and that there would not be an legal response to the Grey Album. Ethically, this creates a grey area (pardon the pun) as to where Danger Mouse used and tweaked deconstructed segments of music for his own creation and where these segments originated.
While 3,000 CDs may seem like a lot, it is miniscule compared to the more than 100,000 digital downloads the Grey Album saw in a single day.
Music activist group, Downhill Battle organized what was known as ‘Grey Tuesday’ in support of Danger Mouse’s creation. They worked to rally support, which resulted in around 200 sites offering the album free to download and at least 250 more sites who ‘went grey’ in support of the cause (Patel 2). Fred Goldring, a music-industry lawyer put it simply, saying, “by creating a controversy and trying to shut it down, they actually attracted more interest in it. […] It became probably the most widely downloaded, underground indie record, without radio or TV coverage” (Healey, Cromelin 1). Out of the now legendary Grey Album came the rise of remixes and mash-ups. Less than a year after ‘Grey Tuesday’ Jay-Z began working with heavy rock group Linkin Park on a project for ‘MTV’s Ultimate Mash-Ups’. The resulting creation was a 6-track album, ‘Collision Course’ that included the track “Numb/Encore”. “Numb/Encore” went on to win the 2006 Grammy for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration. Upon their win, the first ‘thank you’ handed out was to “the lawyers who made this mash-up possible” (Edwards 3) showing the complexity of the issues even when the original artists are the ones wanting and working for the
collaboration.
The release and the aftermath of the Grey Album have changed the music industry. There is a greater demand for mixes and collaborations as seen by artists releasing albums consisting of only remixes, sometimes all of the same song; notorious for this is Lady Gaga. It has even become much easier for your average citizen to create these tracks on their own in bedrooms and basements with a basic computer and software. The underground culture that gave life to Jay-Z has found an equivalent in an online form.