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January 05, 2005
new yorker "mashups" article @02:56 PM
just finished reading an article over at the new yorker site about the current white-hot-ness of mashups.
Where did this all come from. Why are these things so hot right now. The article makes a case for why mashups have become more mainstream, citing a few choice examples of good mixes. Perhaps most compelling is the following conclusion the author, Sasha Frere-Jones makes:
See mashups as piracy if you insist, but it is more useful, viewing them through the lens of the market, to see them as an expression of consumer dissatisfaction. Armed with free time and the right software, people are rifling through the lesser songs of pop music and, in frustration, choosing to make some of them as good as the great ones.
This is a new argument to me, and a resonant one. Pop music sucks. New stuff is terrible. Christina Aguliera, Jay-Z, Linkin Park. Listening to too much is enough to make anyone give up on popular music forever. So why fight the impulse to mess with it, to try and find some hidden brilliance in juxtaposition?
I have so many thoughts about this whole thing right now, especially as I'm prepraring my entry into the creative commons mashup contest. My ears hate most of these mashups, and I think most of them are pretty sad excuses for music. What they are however, is more important than my dislike of them, as they reflect a trend towards participatory consumption, especially in the entertainment business (interactive media...?).
So I'm trying to make my entry not just be one of the inevitable put-rap-lyrics-on-top-of-existing-music (yes, Kleptones, I'm looking in your direction), and it's hard.
It's a shame here that no one is talking about John Oswald, who I'm looking to for inspiration with this project.
Oswald's stuff is incredible.
Here are some references:
Link to his Plunderphonics article
Link to his website
Link to a 534 post I made last year with sound samples included.
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