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Plunderphonics
Featuring interviews with John Oswald, Negativland, and others and drawing on a wealth of research on copyright and intellectual property, Plunderphonics explores the impact of a genre that made illegality a point of pride.
In Plunderphonics, Matthew Blackwell tells the story of a group of musicians who advocated for changes to the copyright system by deploying unlicensed samples in their recordings. The composer John Oswald, who coined the genre term “plunderphonics,” was threatened with legal action by the Canadian Recording Industry Association on behalf of Michael Jackson. The Bay Area group Negativland was sued by Island Records on behalf of U2 for their parody of the band. These artists attracted media attention to their cause in a bid to expand fair use protections. Later, the Australian band the Avalanches encountered the limitations of the music licensing system during the release of their debut album, having to drop several samples that could not be successfully cleared. Finally, American DJ and 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.
In Plunderphonics, Matthew Blackwell tells the story of a group of musicians who advocated for changes to the copyright system by deploying unlicensed samples in their recordings. The composer John Oswald, who coined the genre term “plunderphonics,” was threatened with legal action by the Canadian Recording Industry Association on behalf of Michael Jackson. The Bay Area group Negativland was sued by Island Records on behalf of U2 for their parody of the band. These artists attracted media attention to their cause in a bid to expand fair use protections. Later, the Australian band the Avalanches encountered the limitations of the music licensing system during the release of their debut album, having to drop several samples that could not be successfully cleared. Finally, American DJ and 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.
- GenresMusic
184 pages, Paperback
Published November 13, 2025
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July 2, 2026Eerste boek in de Genre 33 1/3-reeks. En meteen veel beter dan de meeste album-delen. Is natuurlijk ook een fascinerend onderwerp waar veel over valt te vertellen. Blackwell doet het systematisch-historisch en dat is zeer leerzaam. Neem pre-Plunderphonics-experimenten van Charles Ives en John Cage, erg spannend. Net als de eerste juridische schermutselingen rond Sugarhill Gang, Grandmaster Flash en Chic. Dan ontstaat al de spanning tussen muzikanten van de oude stempel en de avonturiers die nieuwe technologie omarmen. En ook de spanning tussen het zeikerig-hebberige van rechthebbende muzikanten en dat vreemde mengsel van ideologie, rechtschapenheid, edgelord, trollen en, in het kielzog, de onvermijdelijke creatieve luiheid van plunderaars. John Oswald en Negativland worden uitgebreid besproken en maken eindelijk helder wat er allemaal precies is gebeurd en wat de juridische gevolgen steeds waren. Samplen wordt steeds moeilijker en dan is er de miraculeuze verschijning van Since I Left You. Ook zeer verhelderend en wanneer je het leest, sta je versteld dat het album bestaat (en hoeveel mazzel de Beasties hadden tijdens het maken van Paul's Boutique, ook al waren ze zeer braaf bij het clearen van samples.) Het verhaal eindigt op een positieve noot dankzij Girl Talk en de heroische brutaliteit van de mash-up. Een spannend verhaal, steeds tussen radicale muzikanten en een groot aantal ongekende klootzakken, natuurlijk het leger Amerikaanse advocaten en copyright-trolls (ik dacht steeds: echt Amerikaanse advocaten-cultuur, maar BUMA-Stemra zijn ook bloedhonden), maar ook zo'n type als James Newton, ooit jazzmuzikant op ECM, die de Beastie Boys aanklaagt en maar blijft doorgaan, en dan lekker toch het onderspit moet delven. Volstrekt nutteloos verbranden van geld voor beide partijen. Of de strijd ooit zal eindigen? Twijfelachtig, het op mondiale schaal plunderen door AI-bedrijven komt helaas niet aan bod, maar dat is natuurlijk niet creatief.
July 13, 2026
On the surface one might think this is solely about musician John Oswald's Plunderphonics, in which he made music by craftily editing pre-recorded music. It's well covered, but the book also explores the music of similar artists Negativland and Girl Talk. Also covered in detail, the legal challenges to copyright law with sampling, mashups, Fair Use, etc.
In the early oughts I saw Girl Talk perform live a few times. He manipulated and mixed samples like a master dj but because he only played snippets of songs, he had to work four times harder than your standard turntable dj. The audiences didn't care about the technology or legality of the music. It was a fascinating well mixed blend of hit song snippets that had the entire club dancing to short edits of songs. It anticipated today's culture of 30 second TikTok shorts. But his shows were a lot more fun!
In the early oughts I saw Girl Talk perform live a few times. He manipulated and mixed samples like a master dj but because he only played snippets of songs, he had to work four times harder than your standard turntable dj. The audiences didn't care about the technology or legality of the music. It was a fascinating well mixed blend of hit song snippets that had the entire club dancing to short edits of songs. It anticipated today's culture of 30 second TikTok shorts. But his shows were a lot more fun!
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