Do Great Artists Copy? Plagiarism in Music
The Spanish painter Pablo Picasso once said, “good artists borrow, great artists steal.” Artists have always “borrowed” (consciously and unconsciously) each other’s works. Picasso’s quote references the fine line between imitating and emulating. A good artist creates a copy of an existing work while a great artist selectively takes elements and re-works them into their own sound and/or style to create something new. When it comes to music, plagiarism happens, particularly in electronic music. Remixes, edits, covers, and bootlegs have been a huge driver of dance music and have been a great way for artists to make a name for themselves. Oftentimes, these versions aren’t authorized by the original artist. So knowing that art, music, in this case, is to some extent borrowed, what’s fair use, and when does it cross the line into music plagiarism? What makes music original?
