Class dates 3/28 and 3/30

This week we read "Is Foucault a Plagiarist?" by Mickey Hess. It states that Foucault faulted the reader for not knowing Marx's principles and states that his literature is so pervasive that people should know what it is. The reading also states that "hip hop producers create powerful juxtaposition by recontextualizing sources" and that sampling "transforms critiques, and responds to sources." The reading also asserts that hip-hop producers guard their sources to prevent legal action or to protect themselves from being copied. In academic writing, on the other hand, sources are highly recommended because they give their assertions credibility. These conflicting messages of sampling are resolved with Hess stating that he desires for his students to examine and critique their sources, and therefore create original arguments. I thought that this was interesting because many teacher do not possess the same mentality and they do not enjoy critiques of material that they provide. If I were in their position, I would probably feel the same way. I also thought that it was funny that Foucault thought that Marx was so pervasive within culture that he assumed the reader would know his material from his; I have no idea what Marx's principles are and only vaguely know what he probably wrote about. I think that was great that Foucault was building upon another philosopher's ideas, however I do think that it he might've been trying to take credit for Marx's work.

We also listened to the audio clip entitled "Renegades". I cannot find the clip on the internet so unfortunately I can't link it. Essentially, the clip states that the illegality of sampling was why sampling was so lucrative to musicians in the first place; It seems that the musicians associate sampling with Robin Hood in that it gives control of the music back to the people and musicians and out of corporate pockets. I thought it was interesting that the interviewee stated that he did not feel guilty sampling other artist's material because the music industry did not pay the musicians that created it. I think that the music industry is terrible in that it does not take care of the artists and really does appear to be corrupt. I have a friend that states that she is fine with illegal downloading because the artist does not really receive any money from their album sales.

Here is a short video of Left Eye from TLC breaking down how much she made