Vanilla Ice and Queen

I recently watched the movie "Cool as Ice" featuring Vanilla Ice. It currently has a 2.4 on IMDB.com which puts it at #91 on the bottom 100 list. If you want a good laugh, I would recommend watching it. Otherwise, I would pick just about anything else.

This movie got me to thinking about Vanilla Ice the rapper and his song "Ice Ice Baby". That was easily the most popular Vanilla Ice song there ever was, but it also led to the most scrutiny of his career. "Ice Ice Baby" uses the same baseline as the Queen song "Under Pressure". It was fitting because that baseline is what put Vanilla Ice under pressure with Queen and David Bowie.

Ice sampled the baseline from "Under Pressure" without giving Queen or Bowie credit for the song or any royalties. Ice initially said that he added an additional note to the baseline and therefore didn't need to give any credit, but later admitted to the sampling and paid both Queen and David Bowie for the sampling rights. Even though the hatchet is buried, there is still a black eye on Vanilla Ice's career because of it.

A lesser-known case involved the sampling of the Rick James song "Super Freak. "Can't Touch This", MC Hammer's most popular song, used the baseline from "Super Freak". Like Queen and David Bowie, James sued MC Hammer for use of the song and it was eventually settled out of court.

I often wondered why other artists are allowed to sample other artist's work. It all comes down to money. It's just a matter of paying the previous artist now, or later through the court system. 

Cheap Music Downloads

I recently had a friend on Facebook ask if anybody was interested in buying her $10 iTunes gift card. She didn't have a lot of takers and I definitely was not one of them.
After reading the Steve Jobs biography, it was clear that Jobs legitimized the music download industry.

Before iTunes, people would go to an illegal site to download the music for free. It's not that these were bad people, but these people really wanted their music. A lot of times people only want one or two songs off an album instead of the whole CD in a store. iTunes provided a way for people to legally download individual songs that they'd like at a good price.

But, just as in any industry, cheaper is always better. So whenever people ask me for good legal music download sites, I always tell them to go to www.gomusicnow.com. Each song is $.09 and new or featured music is $.15 per song. It's a legally run, American site.

What I love about gomusicnow is that it combines the two things people look for: A place for legal music downloading, and the cheapest music. You can get a new album for just over a dollar. I don't think the site has as large of a selection as iTunes, but most of the popular music should be on there. They've also got previews for each song to see if it's the right version you're looking for. Check it out the next time you're in the market for some new tunes.