The truth about Rick Wright's contribution on The Wall

[duffOnTheRun]

Good stuff! Thanks for posting. This logical and reasonable post from a music industry professional should end the debate.

Thank you! I'm not necessarily agree with all of these rules, but that's how the music business works.

Question for Kerry King: Are you happy in your life?

[Flathead]

Good stuff! Thanks for posting. This logical and reasonable post from a music industry professional should end the debate.

Thank you! I'm not necessarily agree with all of these rules, but that's how the music business works.

Exactly. It's not about whether you or I agree with the rules.

[Kerry King]

There are no rules in the music industry. Money is the rule. If you sue and win it's not about rules.
Bill Wyman came up with the main riff in Jumping Jack flash. Jagger and Richards made it a song and chose not to share credit. There were no rules. They had the power. Wyman went along with it.
Dennis Wilson helped Billy Preston write the number one hit You Are So beautiful. He gave it to Preston. Never took a credit.
On and on it goes.

[Kerry King]

Question for Kerry King: Are you happy in your life?

Only when I'm obsessing over a long dead musical group whose surviving members have been fleecing their fans for 3 decades.

[Hudini]

Whoever created the melody is considered the composer.

Let me get this straight. What this practically means is that when person A comes up with chord sequences, tempo and key changes and solos, and then person B creates a vocal melody, then only person B is credited for composing? With all due respect, this is completely unfair.

I have been a musician myself for years, though I am not playing any more. I won't claim to have had any particular success, but I have had several songs registered with SOKOJ (Serbian association of composers), primarily as a composer. The rule here is that a composition credit goes to the person who wrote the music, including chord sequences, time signatures, tempo and key changes and/or riffs. Solos and vocal melodies are considered extended arrangements, which means that they may be considered composition but not necessarily. There is no real consensus, but it's a general practice here that if you write a solo instead of improvising it over finished music, it must be acknowledged.

Since now I am pretty much convinced that there is no real and strict rule on this, and that what's considered composing is a completely subjective matter, I'll end my involvement in this discussion here. There's no point in defending a subjective opinion as if it was a universal truth.

[duffOnTheRun]

Whoever created the melody is considered the composer.

Let me get this straight. What this practically means is that when person A comes up with chord sequences, tempo and key changes and solos, and then person B creates a vocal melody, then only person B is credited for composing? With all due respect, this is completely unfair.

When Mr. A writes a chord sequence and then Mr. B writes a melody over it, both Mrs. A & B are credited as composer, but melody prime. Unfortunately in music business, a lot of Mr. B don't want to share credit. That's it for "popular music". For instrumental music, credit sharing are more inclusives.

So, if you write a chord sequence and a melody, nothing prevents you to share your credit with a drummer for his drum pattern and a guitarist for his solo, it's up to you.

[Kerry King]

For instrumental music, credit sharing are more inclusives.

You have no idea what you are talking about.
Case in point: Free Jazz by Ornette Coleman. It includes a section of solo bass. The song itself is over 35 minutes long. Everyone is improvising. Writing credit is given to Ornette Coleman alone.

[The Gunner's Dream]

Ornette Coleman's music sounds like a drunken jazz ensemble that failed to tune the winds and brass before playing. Hilarious, in a word.

Though intellectually stimulating in a pretentiously "hip" sort of way.

[Kerry King]

It doesn't change the fact that the music is being spontaneously improvised yet only one man takes a writing credit.

[The Gunner's Dream]

It is a reflection of the type of bandleader Coleman was more than anything else.

[Kerry King]

Credit is in the hands of the ones who are in a position to take credit.

[Kerry King]

intellectually stimulating in a pretentiously "hip" sort of way.

I wouldn't know.

[henno]

quit the sniping here people

debate and converse all you want, but no personal digs.

[SteveB]

The music industry is a cesspool.

Yep!

[Alternate]

I did not know this. Thank you!