Stairway to a Knock Off?

When looking at Led Zeppelin's famous song Stairway to Heaven and comparing it to the less popular song Taurus written by Spirit, it is apparent that there are many similarities between the two pieces. In the early days both bands toured together around the same time that Spirit had written Taurus. The band Spirit, claims that their song influenced Jimmy Page’s Stairway to Heaven. Stairway to Heaven is believed to be the most popular and valuable rock song of all time. This iconic song has touched everyone in some kind of way, from learning how to play it on a guitar or the final song at the high school dance. Zeppelin is still making millions off Stairway to Heaven, 334 million dollars as of 2008. While at the end of Randy California’s life, the guitarist and songwriter for Spirit, he was only surviving by “playing sitar at an Indian restaurant in exchange for food” (Bassett). While Led Zeppelin was enjoying sold out concerts and making millions, the defeated Spirit was struggling and could not afford to sue Zeppelin at the time. Before Randy California’s death, he stated that Zeppelin ripped off his song and requested some credit or money be put in place for the wrong doing. It makes me question Zeppelin’s integrity, considering that this is not the first rip off accusation against the band. Stairway to Heaven has a guitar solo that has also been linked to many other well-known songs, like All Along the Watchtower by Jimi Hendrix. Is it right for a band to gain fame by ripping off another song written by a long forgotten and disregarded band?

I believe that the evidence is not strong enough to conclude that one of the bands ripped off the other. At about a minute into the song, Taurus, the guitar solo is presented and is almost identical to Stairway to Heaven’s notorious opening guitar verse. Taurus is only two and a half minutes long, while Stairway to Heaven is much lengthier being that it is 10 minutes long. It also apparent that both songs use the same chord progression, descending and in a minor. This chord progression is seen in many other songs and has no copyright law. It is apparent that Led Zeppelin used the copying, transforming, and recombining method. By “copying” this chord progression and “transforming” it into their own. According to Gillian Hedden, Taurus and Stairway to Heaven use different melodies, making it difficult to link these songs together. Great works originate from the past, both Taurus and Stairway to Heaven follow the same chord progression as Sonata di Chittarra, e Violino, con il suo Basso Continuo. As stated by Guitar World, “the work was composed in 1659 […] and nearly the same melody” as the two rock songs. “Copying is how we learn, we can’t introduce anything now until we are fluent in the language of our domain, we do that through emulation” (Ferguson). Artists tend to use material from the past and draws on this to create their own works.

Determining whether a song is a knock-off or an original is very difficult. In regards to the certain guidelines of copyrighting in the music industry, legal trials are rare because there is dilemma between what is acceptable and what is not. As seen in the Zeppelin and Spirit trial, usually it is a battle over compensation from the original artist. At the end of these trials only one side wins, but both are affected by legal expenses and years of public scrutiny. Inspiration is what drives music artists to recreate ideas from the past. “Remixing” is what most of the media acquires in today’s era. I agree with the concept only if the artist gives credit to who deserves it.

Alternative and Mainstream Media- Toronto and the Commonwealth Games

When I investigated both alternative and mainstream news platforms I soon realized that they are quite different. According to Chron.com, mainstream media usually is easy to find, and they tend to reach large audiences. “Mainstream media outlets are found on television, radio, online and in newspapers and other publications”. Popular mainstream outlets in Canada include CTV, CBC, CP24, etc. Whereas, alternative media considers the truth and underlying stories that mainstream media might overlook. Alternative media sources tend to be far smaller, due to low budgets and profits (Newton). Like mainstream media, alternative sources are found on the internet, newspapers, and in other publications. Chron.com expresses how alternative media favors the internet because the radio and television is costly and creating a web page is far more inexpensive. This means that alternative sources usually reach a smaller portion of the population since they are not as well broadcasted.

When researching a controversial topic in the media, I came across a recent and local dilemma concerning the Commonwealth Games. There is lot of buzz going around on whether the City of Toronto will be bidding for the chance to be the host of the 2022 Commonwealth Games. The city of Durban, South Africa has very recently pulled out as being the host for 2022 games due to financial instability. Major cities such as Edmonton, Liverpool and London have shown a great deal of interest as being the host city. There is no doubt that Toronto would be a great location to host since the city has recently hosted the Pan Am Games.

I first came across this issue on the Citynews website. While reading through the article it became apparent that this mainstream media source was just scrutinizing the stiff timeline of completing the housing facilities for the athletes. Richardson from Citynews states, “while a number of venues built for the Pan Am Games could be re-used for the Commonwealth Games, the city would need to scramble to build another athlete’s village. The complexes built for the 2015 Games have been already converted into condos and student housing.” The article was very brief and only around 500 words. I appreciated how there was a video clip summarizing the article, since I am a visual learner and utilize pictures and graphs. This Citynews article has both blended statistics and expert opinion making it a very knowledge based piece.

While they are concerned about housing the athletes, shouldn’t they be concerned about housing and feeding the growing homeless population in Toronto?

When I stumbled upon the blog Rabble.ca, they had a different approach to the issues of being the next host city. While this article was a little lengthier, 600 words, and had many pop up ads, but I found it was more powerful. Since this website is an alternative media it recognized the root of how another sporting event like this may affect Toronto’s people. “There are many social harms that result when cities and countries host such mega-billion-dollar projects. These range from human rights abuses, forced evictions and loss of rooming house stock, laws criminalizing homelessness and privatizing public space, forced displacement of sex trade workers, and financial corruption” (Crowe). This article shows readers the inside scope of how Toronto’s city council might potentially be making bad decisions with the tax payers’ money. Using this money for entertainment that will most likely not benefit the city in the long run. The city of Toronto has far more issues that need to be resolved, such as the 180,000 citizens that are currently on the social housing waitlist (Crowe). While individuals are struggling to survive in Toronto, “the Pan Am games cost $2.37 billion, apparently coming in under budget but still rich enough to give fat bonuses totaling $5 million for its executives” (Crowe). The question that remains on my mind is: if the Commonwealth Games are held in Toronto will it bring the community together or farther apart?

This assignment has allowed me to question whether I prefer mainstream over alternative or the other way around. I have concluded that I enjoyed reading both forms of media equally. Alternative media outlets have allowed me to recognize events that are happening in the news from a different perspective and in addition are more personal. It allowed me to uncover issues that mainstream media ignored. While mainstream easily gave me the information in a brief article. I think it is important to use and understand both forms of media, to get both sides of the story. Both alternative and mainstream media have their own drawbacks and benefits, allowing them to help individuals understand the news happenings within Canada.

Archetypal Perspective on Into Thin Air

When looking at the novel Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer in an archetypal theory perspective, one can observe recurring characters, symbols and themes. Jon begins telling the story of past mountaineers on Mt. Everest, some with inspiring outcomes and some with devastating results. He has previously climbed mountain ranges with the same caliber as Mt. Everest, but many of his teammates have not. Jon exhibits a true desire for climbing and also physical strength and technique. His experience and ability towers over the majority of other climbers on Hall’s team. The plot is to reach the summit and the conflict grows with the weather and personal health. As the team is climbing into higher altitudes they begin to notice: “Sleep became elusive, a common symptom of minor altitude illness. Most nights I’d wake up three or four times gasping for breath, feeling like I was suffocating” (Krakauer 107). I recognized that oxygen canisters represents safety and relief. When an individual climbs higher they rely more on these because they are considered a life support. Jon says “Rob urged us to breathe gas through the night. “Every minute you remain at this altitude and above,” he cautioned, “your minds and bodies are deteriorating.” Brain cells were dying. Our blood was growing dangerously thick and sludge like. Capillaries in our retinas were spontaneously hemorrhaging. Even at rest, our hearts beat at a furious rate” (Krakauer 159). Being without bottled oxygen can create enormous difficulties both physically and mentally.

I believe that “The Monster” refers to the numerous deaths that have occurred over the past two months on the mountain. When the massive storm reaches the mountain most of the guides are lost or died. This means that the clients that were less experienced we left to fend for themselves and navigate themselves to safety. It would consider that the “Old Wise Man” is the expedition leader, like either Hall or Fischer. They both show enormous amounts of skill and experience on the mountain and are there to guide and protect the clients. There are many inexperienced people on the mountain that have the ability to slow down and endanger the rest of the pack. They may be in excellent physical shape but their ignorance towards climbing skills enable them to be considered “The Child”. Sandy Pittman would be considered a cross between “The Child” and a “Manipulator”, since she “plays with people and situations to get what she wants” (Williamson). Beck was Sandy’s teammate during the 1993 ascent of Vinson Massif, he states “she brought this humongous duffel bag full of gourmet food that took about four people to even lift. She also brought a portable television and video player so she could watch movies in her tent” (Krakauer 168). Jon Krakauer is characterized as the “Great Mother” since throughout the novel he is continually looking out for the other members on his team. Jon must encounter and overcome countless obstacles in order to reach his main objective: the summit. By the time the storm hits he is battling the weather and time since he ran out of oxygen and is racing to get to lower altitudes. As he is hurrying down the mountain he fails to provide help to his other teammates that are struggling. This later will become a lifelong burden for Jon, since many of them die. Lastly, “The Hero” is somewhat unclear at times in Krakauer’s perspective but it is Anatoli Boukreev (Kenanddot). Some further research explains that Boukreev went above and beyond what a typical guide did. He reached the Summit and spent an hour and a half waiting for clients. Without supplementary oxygen he put himself at risk of High Altitude Cerebral Edema (HACE) and High Altitude Pulmonary Edema (HAPE). Then Boukreev climbed down to South Col in order to retrieve more oxygen canisters for not only his team but also Rob Hall’s team. It was Boukreev that saved Krakauer’s life by helping him down the icy incline and took him to shelter. Boukreev risked his life further when he went out into the storm by himself to find missing climbers. He was selfless when others choose to be selfish, like the Sherpas, guides and other healthy clients that choose to stay in their tents.

Scott Fischer

Rob Hall

Krakauer’s style of narration allows individuals that have not read the book the chance to interpret characters and themes easily. The need for oxygen is a symbol that continually reappears as Jon and his team climb into higher altitudes. I noticed how Krakauer outlines non-fictional individuals as common archetypal characters. These symbols and characters are distinct when looking at Into Thin Air from an archetypal theory perspective.