Overview

Any and all songs are capable of being remixed. But not all remixes are treated equally. Rock This Way examines transformative musical works—cover songs, remixes, mash-ups, parodies, and soundalike songs—to discover what contemporary American culture sees as legitimate when it comes to making music that builds upon other songs. Through examples of how popular discussion talked about such songs between 2009 and 2018, Mel Stanfill uses a combination of discourse analysis and digital humanities methods to interrogate our broader understanding of transformative works and where they converge at the legal, economic, and cultural ownership levels. Rock This Way provides a new way of thinking about what it means to re-create and borrow music, how the racial identity of both the reusing artist and the reused artist matters, and the ways in which the law polices artists and their works. Ultimately, Stanfill demonstrates that the extent to which a work is seen as having new expression or meaning is contingent upon notions of creativity, legitimacy, and law, all of which are shaped by white supremacy.

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9780472076284

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Reviews

Rock This Way provides one of the best and most nuanced discussions of the ethics of creativity I have seen in relation to popular music. The choice of examples is rich and interesting; the lively language is clear, fluent and funny; and the interdisciplinary approach is skillful. This is a fantastic book. - Larisa Kingston Mann, Temple University

Author Information

Mel Stanfill is Associate Professor with a joint appointment in the Texts and Technology Program and the Department of English at the University of Central Florida.

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