Monday, June 2, 2008

Burning Question: Radiohead vs. Prince

So here is a little story about Prince that you may have heard already, but if you haven't, well, it is interesting to say the least.

Prince performed at Coachella in April, and as part of his set, he did a cover of Radiohead's Creep, a performance that some would call questionable.

Then people who attended the concert started putting those videos up on Youtube. Well, Prince didn't like that and he had his legal team sweep down and force the site to remove them, a move which has been part of his overall media strategy as of late.

Of course, Radiohead had wanted to see their song performed by the iconic Minneapolis-based artist, and have claimed that they, rather than Prince, should have the right to determine if a clip is to be removed or not.

Now, I've had a bit of fun taking some shots at the Paisley Park's Dancing Purple Fan Eater, but I can honestly say that in this case, I can sort of see all three sides.

Prince, as the performer should have some control over how his image is presented, and he had an agreement that the first three songs in his set would not be photographed or filmed. I don't know if Creep was one of those songs however.

Radiohead, as the original artists and the songwriters also seem to have their own rights in this matter. Do their rights outweigh those of Prince in this matter? That I do not know. But it is an interesting question in this day and age.

And then there are the fans who recorded the footage in the first place who are caught in the middle of this. Just because they were communal witnesses to an event, does that give them the right to be the arbiters of what is and is not acceptable in this situation? And did buying a ticket come with other stipulations that these concert goers were bound by in terms of recording and disseminating onstage material?

So my question is this: Who do you think is most in the right about this situation?

No comments:

Post a Comment