The Gorillaz are an English virtual band created in 1998 by Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett. They have been known for their musical style of post-punk, alternative rock, hip hop, dubstep, and pop. The group has four animated members: 2D (lead vocals), Murdoc Niccals (bass guitar), Noodle (guitar & occasional vocals) and Russel Hobbs (drums). In 2001 the group won the Brit Award for Best British Group. But that’s not all they’ve done; they also violated copyright laws!
The Gorillaz is a popular music group with many awards to their name. What do you think might happen if this band violated copyright law?
The Gorillaz violated copyright law when they used a song without consent from the original artist. The group has been known to use samples as well, which is not legal unless you have permission from the owner of that material. This happened in 2001 with their hit song “Clint Eastwood”. The track was originally written by Angelo Badalamenti and David Lynch for Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me soundtrack but Damon Albarn sampled it for his own work!
do ya thing gorillaz
I’m going to pause here because I want people who are reading this blog post to think about what would happen if your favorite band or musician committed copyright infringement. What do you think might happen?
Summary: Violation of Copyright Laws by Gorilla Glue Dance Team and Damon Albarn (artist) for their 2001 single “Clint Eastwood” off their album Demon Days. In an interview with BBC Radio’s Zane Lowe following Black Friday 2015, Damon Albarn revealed his plans to reunite with comic book artists Jamie Hewlett and illustrator Dan Laudrup in order to create more music together after many years of hiatus. This is when Gorilla Glue Dance Team, a production duo out of London that has been DJing and producing popular dance music for over 20 years, took notice as they knew it could be the perfect opportunity to strike with their pending case against Albarn for copyright infringement.
As Damon Albarn collaborates on an album with Jamie Hewlett (creator of the animated band Gorillaz), he’s being sued by UK DJs Simon Taylor-Watts and James “Jamie” Smith who legally changed their names to Gorilla Glue in 2001 in order to release musical content under that name due to confusion between them and the American rap group G-Unit among other musicians from around the world. In 2002, two members of
the American hip-hop group G-Unit were arrested in London for carrying illegal firearms. As a result, there was an article published on the BBC’s website with one of the members posing next to Gorilla Glue; this led many people to believe that it is their name and not Damon Albarn’s (despite his claim).
“Damon Albarn has claimed he copyrighted the name before either of us,” Simon Taylor-Watts said during an interview. “We named ourselves Gorilla Glue because we used glue rather than tape when constructing our drum kits.” The two DJs are based out of London have been producing dance music since 1993 while Albarn first released material as part of Blur in 1990. They allege now that they have to do a lot of explaining before they are believed.
“It’s not like we’re trying to push Damon Albarn out the picture,” Taylor-Watts said. “He was there first, and he invented Gorilla Glue.”
The Gorillaz Violation of Copyright Laws
Simon Taylor Watts said during an interview: “Damon Albarn has claimed he copyrighted the
name before either of us.” The two DJs are based out of London and have been producing dance music since 1993 while Albarn first released material as part of Blur in 1990.
They allege now that they must do a lot of explaining before they are believed: “It’s not like we’re trying to push Damon Albarn out the picture,” Taylor-Watts said. “He was there first, and he invented Gorilla Glue.” This has led to an ongoing legal dispute between the bands over who owns what rights. do ya thing gorillaz
The two DJs are based out of London and have been producing dance music since 1993 while Albarn first released material as part of Blur in 1990. They allege now that they must do a lot of explaining before they are believed, “It’s not like we’re trying to push Damon Albarn out the picture,” Taylor-Watts said. “He was there first, and he invented Gorilla Glue.” This has led to an ongoing legal dispute between the bands over who owns what rights.
Simon Taylor Watts says he doesn’t think it is necessary for them to fight for ownership but would rather work together with their counterparts on coming up
