copy cats = pussies

When Kanye West released his new music video for “All Of The Lights,” I grew red with anger, and then purple, green, outlined in white, yellow, sparkly and finally, completely out of nowhere, Japanese characters appeared on my skin, even though there is nothing Japanese about me. I felt cheated. Why? Because I had seen the video’s credit sequence before in one of my favorite films, “Enter the Void,” and one of my least favorite musicians was using it in his Hype-Williams directed music video.

I couldn’t comprehend the idea that one “filmmaker,” if Hype Williams should even be called that, would steal a unique idea from another filmmaker and try to pass it off as his own. Being the moral student that I am, I have never once dreamed of plagiarizing. It has been burned into my brain by all of my teachers that plagiarizing is bad, illegal and will get me kicked out of school. How on earth, then, is plagiarizing okay in the real world of fame and recognition?

After researching this topic for about two weeks, I have come to the conclusion that no matter how stupid the fans of pop stars are, plagiarism is still not okay in the real world, as is evidenced by the hundreds of angry bloggers and online news sources that willingly pointed out West’s video’s uncanny resemblance to director Gaspar Noe’s title sequence. However, the angry bloggers were accompanied by illogical commentators, who said things like “Kanye did it better” and “It’s just typography.”

Such idiocy brings up the question, what is good music? I am extremely confused by people’s willingness to ignore what’s ethically right solely because they like the person who performed, or was part of performing, the unethical action. Regarding West’s video, fans of his music, some of which are my own friends, defended him by saying “Kanye’s new album rocks, get off the bandwagon… Rip offs are all around.” Apparently the perceived quality of work someone produces negates anything bad that said someone does.

So, what is good music? Does it simply have to have a good, albeit extremely repetitive, beat that will make you dance when you’re drunk at a dive bar? Does it require a slutty dancer to show you her ass in the music video? Does it have to have meaningful lyrics? Does it have to have intricate guitar riffs, or maybe even a heartstring-pulling piano solo? Maybe it’s as simple has having to evoke some kind of emotion, any kind of emotion, when you hear it.

The answers to these questions highly depend on the intelligence level of listeners. Because of this, I feel that the following example might ring true with my peers at USD. Let’s say you’re an art student studying photography and the subject matter of your senior thesis is sleeping cats. The entrance to your exhibition is lined with multi-colored yarn and cat toys, and the background music is an electronic song by LFO. Your exhibit gets rave reviews and is blogged about by at least 10 of your peers. The next week, a wannabe photographer who went to your exhibit is presenting her exhibit. Her entrance is also lined with multi-colored yarn and cat toys, but her subject matter is domestic violence in the ghetto. The background music? West’s “All Of The Lights.”

How does this make you feel? Do you think she’s original? Do you think she should get credit for the creative entrance decorations, or do you think she stole your idea? I would go with the latter, and I would sue her ass and/or get her kicked out of USD for plagiarism.

Williams is no director in my eyes. His creations are simply rip-offs of other director’s creations, and “Enter the Void” isn’t the only example of his embarrassing technique. Lil’ Wayne’s new video for 6’7″ copies specific scenes from uber-popular film “Inception.” Though it’s much more obvious to the general public that the video is a half-assed, trashy duplicate of the well-known film’s keystone scenes, it’s still the same issue of ethics: stealing a movie’s idea and claiming it as his own.

That’s the thing, though, with Williams’ videos. They’re trashy. They’re a combination of a musician’s music, an artsy film’s idea and an abundance of half-naked women. I came across an article titled “Five Other Movies That Inspired Hype Williams Videos,” and it pointed to 2Pac’s “California Love” as a rip-off of “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome;” Busta Rhymes’ “Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Can See” as a rip-off of “Coming to America;” Busta Rhymes’ “Dangerous” as a rip off of “Berry Gordy’s The Last Dragon” and a parody of scenes from “Lethal Weapon;” Nas’ “Street Dreams” as a rip-off of “Casino” (and I accuse the song of unabashedly ripping off [or sampling, as the uncreative like to call it] Eurythmics’ “Sweet Dreams” as well); and finally Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s “Got Your Money” as a compilation and rip-off of scenes from “Dolemite.”

Williams has no shame in stealing, and, dare I say, no shame in assuming the audience of his music videos has no clue where the cool and original ideas are coming from. He doesn’t appreciate your intelligence, hip hoppers, and therefore you shouldn’t appreciate his “creative genius.”

This whole situation is ridiculous, but it’s even more ridiculous that this far into my article some people still probably think it’s okay to use other people’s art as your own. How could Williams be considered an amazing director when his video is, in ODB’s case, just a mixture of scenes from a movie? He didn’t direct those, why should he get the credit?

In the case of “All Of The Lights,” many people have said that it’s just fonts or it’s just the credits – that it’s not original anyway. Are they kidding? First, the credits are not some simple Word Art tool that Williams found on Microsoft Word; that type of sequence takes more than just the click of a few buttons. Second, credits are obviously important, that’s why Williams copied them. And third, if it wasn’t original, how are people able to name just one director as being copied in this case? Yeah, that’s what I thought.

Much to my disgust, Williams isn’t the only “artist” in the world of Top 40 that is copying other artists. We all know that Lady Gaga is the poor man’s Madonna, and apparently Lil’ Kim has accused Nicki Minaj of stealing her essence. But stealing one’s essence is often the only way the undeserving can get their 15 minutes – just ask Best Coast, who one blogger has rightfully deemed a “cut rate Jenny Lewis.”

Then come the musicians that aren’t smart enough to notice that their songs sound just like someone else’s. While they certainly should be blamed for their carelessness, the blame truly deserves to be placed on their producers. Cases in point: Kelly Clarkson, whose song “Naked Eye” is a rip off of Arcade Fire’s “Rebellion (Lies);” Britney Spears, whose song “Hold it Against Me” is a rip off of the Bellamy Brothers’ “If I Said You Had a Beautiful Body Would You Hold It Against Me;” and Katy Perry, whose song “California Gurls” is a rip off of The Beach Boys’ “California Girls.” Lesson learned – changing one letter in a word doesn’t make your song original.

So what’s to be gathered from the lack of respect in the current world of pop music? First, if you’re not creative enough to make your own songs or music videos, you should reconsider your career as a “musician” or “filmmaker” (ahem, Lupe Fiasco and your song “The Show Goes On,” ahem). Second, the good musicians don’t ever rip off the bad musicians, and the bad musicians are only considered good when they “sample” or “emulate” the work of others. Third, copying other people can help you to make millions of dollars, so ignore your professors, my dear peers, and plagiarize your term papers as you please. It will only get you further in this sham world we live in.

Original art by Kelsey Perry