The Culture Of The Copy

This chapter of Clube da Esquina is dedicated to appropriation, and for that reason borrows the title from the work of Hillel Schwartz (1948). Published in 1998, The Culture Of The Copy makes a very particular sociological analysis around the notion of twins, of double or of replica in the context of popular culture, subjects that have occupied great part of the creative process of the Modern era. In the context of pop music, Jon Savage (1953) explored the subject of appropriation in a famous article published in an issue of the late magazine The Face. Starting from an analysis of album covers, The Age of Plunder featured the iconic work of designer Peter Saville (1955), Linder Sterling (1954) and Malcolm Garrett (1956). Leaving aside the visual character of objects, it is known that the history of sampling has dominated much of the current music industry, in which, more and less clearly, a new music is built containing traces of another. The third part of this radio show is structured upon a set of songs that came to question principles of originality but which definitely rival or risk surpassing its originals. In short, we’ll hear versions that don’t sound like a copy. Definitely not déjà vu!