He was angry and upset that his copyrighted music was being reproduced at a low cost, and he wasn't making money from it. This kind of reminded me of Metallica filing a lawsuit against Napster. Anyone remember that? They claimed that Napster encouraged piracy by allowing copyrighted songs to be distributed for free. Sousa was very much like them back in 1906. As he was the first composer to speak out on the issue of music being duplicated into "mechanical music", Metallica was the first from the recording artists to take a stand against P2P (peer to peer) sharing. Sousa probably would have had a heart attack if he knew that something like p2p sharing would come along...
It wasn't just about the money though. Sousa feared that this form of "mechanical music" would eliminate creativity and and cause a cultural emptiness. He said that "we will not have a vocal cord left." He feared the death of "amateur culture." He feared that people would be less connected to practicing and creating that same culture. The love for music would be fizzle...
Remixing faces its own set of criticisms. Taking someone else's original, not to mention copyrighted work, to make something of your own is taking a lot of heat. But remixing produces two positives: the good of community and education. People learn from each other while remixing, People learn about what's going on around them through it. People inspire others to do it more by doing it. It's connecting people to their culture and stirring more interest in it.
So does remixing bring back a sense of amateurism that Sousa once feared would be dead? Does remixing hurt further creation of original material? Or does it inspire it?
