More Dancysteria!
April 17, 2008
The Wall Street Journal Reports that a popular new dance craze, called “Tektonic” has been copyrighted as a brand in France by Alexandre Barouzdin, “a 31-year-old party promoter who used to work in the finance industry.” He has created a record label, a clothing line, and owns the right for any use of the word in marketing materials.
This is pissing off many fans, DJs, and even Tektonic dancers themselves, who pioneered thee mix of rave and break dancing. One dancer, made famous by YouTube has signed a DVD deal with Sony BMG, but cannot use the term “tektonic” without paying royalties to Mr. Barouzdin. A swiss company has already been sent 2 cease and desist letters for their sales of a shirt featuring the tektonics eagle logo.
Owning a genre may seem a little weird, I mean no one owns Rock and Roll (although it may have a king) or Pop (which has a prince, and a guy named Prince.) but this is not the first time, even in dance music, that the genre name has been owned. DJ/Producer/Promoter, who coined the term Electroclash, also trademarked it after throwing his first Electroclash Festival.
