mash ups
ive been doing a bit of 'googling' on mash ups.. heres a preliminary 'introduction' i found on seehearwrite.com Music Mash-ups:
Bootleg Culture Superstar
All your cool friends had this months ago and now even the lesser cool have heard tell of it: “The Grey Album” by underground DJ Danger Mouse. It is a track-by-track remixing of the latest Jay-Z release “The Black Album” with loops, sounds and beats from the Beatles “White Album.” Conceived as an “art project/experiment,” the album now has global buzz, The Boston Globe hailed it as “the most intriguing hip-hop album in recent memory” and the DJ is on the way to bling-bling land.
I'd have to admit i havent actually listened to the grey album, but my favourite radio station at home radio metro (aka hott fm in the old days) was debating its worth over the christmas holidays. personally i think it sounds interesting, and as a fan of mash ups myself, im a bit surprised i havent heard it yet.. (maybe it has to do with exorbitant prices of internet download quota at the twisted community i call home)
Why can’t that be you? Nowadays any geek with a computer and editing software can turn out their own remixes or “mash-ups.”
true. and they do. thats why i have absurdly bad mixes of eminem and britney that i collected from the net at some stage..
A “mash-up” is a blending together of two disparate music tracks. Best if it’s an odd or ironic pairing: Britney meets The Strokes, Destiny’s Child versus Nirvana. After being spread en masse via the Net, these homemade bootlegs hit the dance floors. The DJs can become famous, superstars maybe.
my favourite mash ups would be from 'too many dj's' who have some amazing mixes, my favourite being destinys child's 'independant woman' vs 'dreadlock holiday' which is pretty cool.. ( guess my dad has left a strange affection for reggae imprinted on my musical tastes..)
What makes a mash-up any different from a "remix?" Truth is not much, in principle at least. While remixes may tweak a song with new beats and samples, mash-ups normally fuse two or more songs together all the way from start to finish. Remix is a term that we've known for the last 15 years. It was exclusive to bigtime DJs and producers with access to studios, expensive equipment and the artists themselves. Today with computers and the Net, it is easier for everyday people to become remixers. Downloading gives them the sounds, and the programs the means.
Record labels long looked the other way towards club remixes. But now that mash-ups are making big noise and DJs are getting paid, some are getting snippy. EMI Records, who control the Beatles’ catalog, recently threw a cease-and-desist order at “The Grey Album.”
scary thought.. dj's getting hounded by record companies for club remixes.. i think thats going way too far.. but fair enough that EMI arent happy about the grey album.. it is the beatles after all.. funny that no-one is too upset about Jay-z's copyright breaches.. i think modern artists might be a bit more open minded about these issues.. i even heard an interview on Radio Metro (damn i miss it) with 'solitare' the alias behind the song that channel 10 were blatantly expoliting over summer to promote their 'summer of love' programming or something.. the artist didnt really know his song was being used, and he didnt really care, making a comment like 'if they want to use it, i dont mind' or something to that effect.. i dont think channel 10 could get away with using a beatles song to the same effect..
DJ Danger Mouse is most concerned though about pissing off Paul and Ringo. He recently told The New Yorker, “if they say that they hate it, and that I messed up their music, I think I'll put my tail between my legs and go.” Wonder what Yoko thinks.
interesting.. but i think its more likely to be the beatles fans who get upset about the use of their nostalgia laden sounds in a 'nasty-digital-internet-hiphop-dj' kind of way..
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