Our sort of article- thankyou Techno Llama
There’s a fascinating case developing in the US (complaint here courtesy of Simon Geiregat), which could have a lasting effect in the reggaetón music genre.In 1989, Cleveland “Clevie” Browne and Wycliffe “Steely” Johnson released “Fish Market,” which introduced an iconic drum beat that would affect a generation. The rhythm (or riddim) was used in a more popular song, also written by them, called “Dem Bow“, which spawned the “dembow” music genre. Dembow ws adopted by the Dominican Republic music scene, specially the “Bajo Mundo” genre, and it would become the foundation of what is now known as reggaeton, influencing Latin American pop music in the following decades.
Over 30 years later, Steely & Clevie Productions is suing prominent reggaeton artists like Bad Bunny, El Chombo, Luis Fonsi, and Daddy Yankee for unauthorised use of this rhythm. The lawsuit, involving thousands of songs including hits like “Despacito,” could have significant repercussions in pop music, challenging norms in rhythm usage and copyright. The case highlights issues of cultural appropriation and economic disparity in music. Is copying a music beat copyright infringement or cultural appropriation? Did Steely and Clevie really come up with the dembow rhythm, or was this just the first time a popular Jamaican street beat had been recorded in a fixed medium?
There appears to be no question that reggaeton has strong influence from Fish Market. Steely & Clevie Productions claims that the success of Shabba Ranks’s “Dem Bow”, which included lawful use of the Fish Market rhythm, crediting Steely & Clevie as co-writers, inspired other artists to copy the rhythm. Browne and Johnson claim that the artists named in the lawsuit would have had access to “Fish Market” because of its wide availability, and that they also would have had access to Bobo General and Sleepy Wonder’s “Pounder“, another song from 1990 whose rhythm Browne and Johnson say is “substantially similar, if not virtually identical” to that of “Fish Market”. You can hear some of the rythm in hits such as Daddy Yankee’s “Gasolina“, and Bad Bunny’s “Tití me preguntó“.
One of the issues in the lawsuit is whether the dembow rhythm is protectable under copyright law in the US. Another issue is whether the plaintiffs have waited too long to file the lawsuit, why wait for the field of reggaeton to develop without taking action?
The lawsuit is massive, it involves 1,800 songs from more than 160 defendants. Needless to say, musicians have gotten together to have the case dismissed, based mostly on the question of whether a basic drum beat is copyrightable. The motion to dismiss was discussed in a hearing in front of District Judge André Birotte Jr., who used to be a DJ (as a former DJ myself, I empathise).
Read full post at
