The Amen Break

Learn something new today. Here's a fascinating YouTube video by Nate Harrison about a 6-second drum loop -- the "Amen Break," a six-second drum sample from the b-side of a chart-topping single from 1969 -- that's played an extraordinary role in the evolution of music.

Interesting video in itself but even more so because of a key argument within it about intellectual property, stifling copyright practices, and how creativity grows from building on past creativity. Thousands of new songs and even entire new genres and sub-genres happened because something as seemingly insignificant as a 6-second drum sample was allowed, unofficially at least, to live in the public domain. To quote U.S. Judge Alex Kozinski, "Overprotecting intellectual property is as dangerous as underprotecting it. Creativity is impossible without a rich public domain. Nothing today, likely nothing since we tamed fire, is genuinely new: Culture, like science and technology, grows by accretion, each new creator building on the works of those who came before. Overprotection stifles the very creative forces it’s supposed to nurture."