The 1891 Lectures in the Humanities
The ontological status of intellectual property (IP) is one that is often assumed, but less often interrogated. This is especially true when it comes to litigating and analyzing the legal and cultural implications of intellectual property and music/sound. Technologies of music production, performance, and distribution often further blur the ability of property laws to capture the essence of IP when it comes to determining what aspects of music are deemed protectable. This talk will mostly raise questions in an early attempt to address the ways in which AI poses further challenges to both a cultural and legal defense of what sounds and music (mediums) are protected under copyright law, and most importantly, why. The author will use his concept of "Blacksound" as a basis for this inquiry.
About the Speaker
Matthew D. Morrison, a native of Charlotte, North Carolina, is an associate professor in the Department of African and African American Studies at Stanford. Before coming to Stanford in 2025, Professor Morrison was an associate professor in the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU. He holds a PhD in Musicology from Columbia University and a BA in music from Morehouse College. His research focuses on the relationship between identity, performance, property, copyright law, and inequities within the history and performance of music, with a focus on the history of American popular music and its global impact and circulation. Professor Morrison's book "Blacksound: Making Race in Popular Music in the United States" is published by the University of California Press (2024). It has now received several awards and nominations, including the Prose award for excellence in the Humanities from the Association of American Publishers, the 2025 Award for Excellence for Best Historical Research in Recorded Blues, R&B, Gospel, Hip Hop, or Soul music from the Association of Recorded Sound Collections, it has been recognized by Rolling Stone as one of the "Best Books in Music of 2024," selected as the "Outstanding Academic Title in Music" by Choice Reviews of the American Library Association.
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