Plunderphonics

producer Girl Talk released a series of albums featuring hundreds of uncleared samples and successfully avoided lawsuits by publicly arguing a fair use defense. This book narrates the conflicts between these artists and the recording industry. Blackwell places plunderphonics in the cultural contexts of postmodernism, Situationism, and culture jamming and analyzes responses to the genre from the media and the legal system. Along with histories of each artist, changes to American copyright law are tracked through important cases like Grand Upright v. Warner Bros. and Bridgeport v. Dimension Films. Though the legal terrain did not shift in the favor of plunderphonic musicians, they changed public perception of fair use and enabled more widespread sampling in underground music. [Publisher's text]

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