For this brief, I want to be able to really engage with it and be interested in the work I will be producing. To do this I think it is important to choose a topic or issue that I can either relate to or is connected to something I take interest in; that is why I have chosen to look into the problems of music and/or hip-hop.
When first approaching this I narrowed down my options to just hip-hop as this is my favourite music genre, but when I started thinking about some different issues that can be identified within the music industry, I realised that by broadening my research to all music genres I will get a better knowledge of some of these issues and maybe discover some other issues that I am not aware of.
Free Music
One thing I started to look at was how some artists put out free music. This has been a hot point of discussion over the past few years, especially in hip-hop, with some artists putting out completely free projects and due to the fact that they are free, they are then unable to receive any kind of award or recognition for them such as a Grammy, for example.
Over the past few years, artists such as Chance the Rapper, Young Thug, Future, Kehlani, Mick Jenkins and Section Boyz have all put out completely free albums, most of which were well received amongst fans and critics alike.
This is an issue I definitely would like to look further into as it's something that I feel is looked over in the music industry in terms of how important free music is, and also how artists are not getting the recognition they deserve just because they are giving their fans music for free.
Sampling
Another issue I will be looking at is music sampling and how that is taken care of in the business. Although this issue isn't as prominent in terms of news as much as free music is, it is something that affects all artists and even more so in the rap/hip-hop industry. Many artists have had trouble releasing songs or projects due to not getting clearance on a sample or have then been caught after the project has been released and fined millions of dollars.
Music Piracy
Music piracy is a huge problem in the music industry as artists are losing millions of dollars for the work they have produced. With hip-hop being the pirated genre of music I think it is important to raise awareness of this issue as a lot of artists are losing out on money they could use to produce further projects. For example, Chance The Rapper has put out 3 completely free albums, and 0 commercial albums in his career, if he were to then make his debut solo commercial album and it was pirated widely, most people would see that as unfair and are against this and feel he should be supported.
There are many arguments for and against pirating music but ultimately it is illegal and should be stopped. I don't think artists are doing enough to stop it and I think that people are becoming more and more used to just downloading music for free to the point where they don't question their decisions.
I feel this issue has the most room for exploration and will be the most interesting for me personally as I can directly relate to it as someone who has downloaded an album or two for free, and know many other people who have done the same. This will allow me to get first-hand research on the issue at hand in which will help in my understanding as to why people do it, how often people do it, whether they feel bad about it and so on.
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