“Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you ...”
Did you know the song “Happy Birthday” is copyrighted? That’s right! Two school teachers published the song in 1893, which was originally called “Good Morning To All” and had different lyrics. Later, the lyrics were changed to the song we all know. Over the years, the copyright of this song has been extended. Today, believe it or not, people who want to use the song in a movie or perform it in public are supposed to pay a license fee. This can present a problem. Say you’re a filmmaker with barely any money to make your film but you want to use the “Happy Birthday” song. You might have to pay thousands of dollars in license fees just to use the song in your movie! Another option is to make a unique happy birthday song of your own.
Assignment: Pretend you are an independent movie producer who wants to avoid paying thousands of dollars in fees. In small groups, come up with original lyrics, melody, and beat. Write your song lyrics. Use audacity to record your lyrics. You can use the Freeplay Music
website to choose a tune for your song.
Another option that you may choose is to make a music video using the Flip Video camera and Corel Video Studio software to edit your video. Remember, if it’s too close to the original, it could be considered plagiarism, and that’s against the law.
So be original!
Lesson Idea is provided by Common Sense Media
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