Cites for Sore Ears (A Paper Moon)

Abstract

Music, as we know, is one of our vital cultural practices. It "has charms to soothe a savage breast" and is "the food of love." Someone who does not love music is not to be trusted but someone "who has music in his [sic] soul will be most in love with the loveliest." Music and one's attitude towards it tell us a lot about the ethical and moral value of a person. Law, another key part of our culture, has traditionally dealt with music mainly as something which might fall within the domain of copyright or some related field of property. More recently, however, legal discourse in Canada has taken a much broader approach to the connections between direct appeals to popular music, appropriating lyrics for use in titles, as epigrams or in some other form of reference. As Canadian legal scholarship changes in the '90s and continues to expand its focus on the interdisciplinary and contextual aspects of law, such use of popular music references will no doubt continue and will probably occur with even greater frequency.

Keywords: Music, Law, culture, copyright, property, pop culture