Week 10

Reading articles about digital remixing was really interesting to me, because my friend is a huge fan of these musical mashups.  "The Hood Internet," a site where mixers who go by the name The Hood Internet, post their remixes.  The site has just come out with its third album, which feature titles such as: Fleetwood Mac vs. Daft Punk- "You Make Lovin' Harder, Better, Faster Stronger," and "Three 6 Mafia vs. The Long Blondes - Lolli Lolli Pop That Century."  I find my friend checking this site every time he goes online, and he has a The Hood Internet t-shirt that he ordered offline.  

While there is no question that these are quality pieces of musical creativity that add to the music scene and certainly have a large following, their legality is another question.  New technological advances make mixing others' work and posting them for the world to listen to accessible for anyone who takes the time to learn the technology.  Yet major issues come out of this practice.  Firstly, if the original artists' permissions are not asked, the song could be remixed into something that would offend the artists, or not be consistent with the image they are trying to portray or what they stand for.  And if people begin selling these remixes for their own profit without negotiations with the original artists, then it becomes stealing.  As Dexter Holland, the lead singer of offspring comments about the potential selling of the Grey Album, which mixed the Beatles and Jay-Z, "It's the Beatles' musicianship, songwriting and performing that you're benefiting form.  It's the actual recording.  That's what they own.  They own the masters.  You can't take something someone else owns."

In this age, taking others' digital work and slightly altering it into something new is simple, yet the basic law that must rein is respect.  It would be terrible to stifle the creativity of this new art form, but it would be equally deplorable to change artists' music into something they are against, or to give them no money for selling what was originally their work.  Communication and respect for the artist must be key in this new age of digital remixing.