The Music Industry in America
When I think of great American songs, I think of Tupac’s songs. Most of his song address the evils and vices of the society. Tupac was alive and active in the music industry when America was not doing quite well on the racial front and as such most of his songs are a form of critique of the government or the state. This essay will discuss one of the Tupac’s songs ‘words of wisdom’ in the second paragraph and the music rights in the last paragraph.
Words of wisdom is an educative song that makes known to the people through lyrics the adversaries of the ‘black community’. The mere fact that the song is educative creates a liking impression within me. It starts by talking about the problems facing the Afro-American youth. He talks of how the black youth is being eliminated from the face of the earth. There is the reference to the black youth as niggas which he translates to mean Never Ignorant Getting Goals Accomplished. His translations aim at encouraging those black people in America who suffer verbal or racial abuse. The black youths are denied jobs, made to feel inferior, made to pledge loyalty to a flag that ignores them. The government is also hypocritical toward the black youth. The government puts up campaigns saying no to drugs yet it allows the drugs into the black community. The song closes on the realization that it’s only education that can truly protect the black community. Education will enable the black youth to know themselves and conquer their enemies.
There are various music rights. Some of these rights include publishing rights and performing rights. The music rights are granted to ensure compensation for the owners of the copyrights and to protect them from illegal use of their work by others. There is the need therefore for music licensing to safeguard the copyrights of the holder. Music licensing is a situation where a person is granted the right to publish, perform, recreation and to broadcast copyrighted music by the copywriter holder.