If I had my way, everything would be free. In the old days before recording, musicians would constantly play each others songs, maybe changing the order or altering lyrics slightly, and these would be passed on for generations without any clue as to who might have originally come up with certain musical or lyrical phrase. Almost all music today still borrows from this past.
I’m a musician and songwriter (with a SOCAN membership since 1996, incidentally) and though I’ve always been proud of my originality, I wouldn’t mind at all if someone played one of my songs, as long as they weren’t profiting from it. But that’s the non-commercial part of Creative Commons.
And my music is really at odds with being a public school teacher. Sex, drugs and rock n’ roll need to be quietly hidden away from my elementary-aged students and their parents. All the music stuff I’ve put online predates my teaching career, but with my band just starting to play live again after 11 years, it could come up. It’s still a conundrum for me. I’m hoping my MET degree will enable me to continue working in education but in a capacity where a lyric from a song I might have written in 1999 won’t come back to haunt me.
It’s scary some of the stories you hear in the news about teachers being targeted and rep remanded for something someone dug up online from their past. You hear about it daily. On the one hand we are professionals who work with children and are held to a high standard, on the other we are humans who deserve to have a life outside of our profession. I think that it needs to be understood that, as long as it isn’t illegal, and is not shared intentionally with our students, that teachers should have a right to being themselves. You should be able to express yourself and your art without fear of repercussion. You can be a role model at school and a musician in your free time.
The ability to dig the past up on the internet should be taken into consideration but the general public needs to be understanding. I hope that there is a more positive shift in the future.
Thanks for sharing. It’s interesting to hear an artist’s take on this. I think the same way, but it’s reassuring to hear that I’m not the only one.
I’m wondering if musicians from the past were under the same scrutiny. I know that things are easier to find now that social media exists, but there must have been other examples in the past. It also makes me think how much are we sheltering students from the real world and topics and situations they will run into.
Thanks for your replies guys. Of course, if I’d murdered someone, or led some kind of hate organization, or been the leader of an endangered species taxidermist society, I should be called to account for such a past, but when the controversial elements are matters that are PG vs. R, teachers or others who work with kids do need some safe places online where they can express themselves like other adults outside these professions are free to do.