This ‘tweet’ caught my attention. Self-taught musician, Ebony Bones, wrote this statement yesterday afternoon. I clicked the link to find out who may be mimicking her unique style. Unknowingly I was led to Rihanna’s new video, Rude Boy.

Rude Boy is the third song released from Rihanna’s new album Rated R. The video is directed by Melina Matsoukas, who also worked with Rihanna on her ‘Hard’ video. On first look, the video is artistically influenced by Andy Warhol’s pop-art and as well as Keith Haring. I couldn’t help but notice that a few other artists that may have contributed to the artistic identity of the video.

With out a doubt, many influences of this video come from Maya Arulpragasam, famously known as M.I.A. All I can I can think about as I watch this video is how similar it is to M.I.A.’s ‘Boyz’ video, which was released in 2007.

Left: Rihanna's Rude Boy. Right: M.I.A.'s Boyz. Images captured from youtube.com

Many people don’t know that M.I.A. studied art in college and showed an exhibition in 2001. But M.I.A. is an accomplished artist and she knows very well the image she is putting out there. I was so shocked by how much the video looked like M.I.A.’s unique style.

Center image, November 2008 cover featuring M.I.A. Surrounding images from Rihanna’s video ‘Rude Boy.’ Images are captured from youtube.com

I eventually got to the point in the video where I could see why artist, Ebony Bones, might be angry.

On a humorous note, the video also kind of reminded me of Flight of the Conchords song, “She’s So Hot – Boom.”

Left: Rude Boy. Right: Flight of the Conchords. Images captured from youtube.com

This video made me reassess my thoughts on how exactly creative work is infringed upon. Is it ok that Rihanna copied from M.I.A.? Is the imagery that M.I.A. help create so mainstream that it’s not even considered stealing? This video got me thinking about the C word again… no! Seriously, not that one! But, what I of course meant was the wonderfully complex word copyright.

Copyright

Some of my close friends know that one of my favorite subjects of interest is copyright. I once tweeted, “Fuck Copyright,” when I was at a concert this past summer because of something the artist said. (It must be noted at this time I was reading Free Culture: The Nature and Future of Creativity by Lawrence Lessig.) Anyways, Lessig argues that cultural powers are able to exert incredible control over what we can and can’t do with the culture around us: they lock it down, and control the flow of creativity toward what profits them and away from what threatens their interests. I find it interesting that the music industry is so concerned about protecting artists rights and profits of their music, but when it comes to the artists identity, they (so it seems) could care less. We all know Rihanna is talented, some may argue, but does she really need to copy from M.I.A.?

Music Industry: Artists copying each other

So it got me thinking. When is it ok for artists to borrow for commercial purposes and when is it deemed fair use? Yes, artists borrow and expand upon ideas all the time, but where do we draw the line? You hear artists copying each other a lot, recent copy cats: Ke$ha sounds similar to Uffie, and Owl City sounds just like The Postal Service. But do we ever really see artists copying each others styles? I can’t imagine anyone would ever try to copy someone like Lady Gaga… but then again, you could say she’s copying off of Madonna. Does everyone copy off of someone? Is anyone really original? This kind of reminds me of that  famous South Park quote, “Simpsons did it.”

Free Culture

In our culture we think a lot of artistic mediums should be free. Music, movies, books… you name it. Anything that could probably entertain you, you want it free. I’ll admit, I do too. I look through Time Out: New York weekly to see how I can get by without spending any money. So in saying all of this, is our idea of free entertainment affecting how we view intellectual property? I think not, because in some ways, it is spurring even more creative endeavors. For example take Girl Talk, he uses mashups and digital sampling to create something entirely new.

Just for fun

Take a listen to the song diplo created. He mixed the Rihanna ‘Rude Boy’ with M.I.A.’s ‘Boyz’ song to create ‘Rude Boyz.’

So was it ok?

My gut reaction, no. Rihanna… well I should say director, Melina Matsoukass, you shouldn’t have stolen images from M.I.A.’s and Ebony Bones artistic identities. Second reaction, it could be seen as main stream enough to let it go. Either way, last and final thought. Rihanna, you are a big enough star, that the people you hire should be able to come up with something more innovative. Period.