i wonder what it is about music mashups that they almost always end up as primarily hip-hop/dance. mashup artists could be working with 5-6 songs at once, but what comes out always functions as a hip-hop or dance song: the beat is the driving 4/4, uptempo, syncopation, etc., all characteristic of the same genre. no doubt there are historical reasons for this pattern, as the artform emerged out of that genre and its technological innovations. but the idea of a non-hip-hop-based mashup really excites me.
There are tons of mashups that aren't hip-hop related. Just a quick search of youtube got me this -
And this -
And let's not forget this atrocity -
Also, while I have some problems with the narrow paradigm TJ defined as what constitutes a DJ, if you accept that "creating a new sensory (narrative?) unity, a unity which then might subsequently comment on the unities of the respective pieces previous to the mash up" as the mash-up's definition then you could lump in certain types of cover songs who has a similar raison d'etre like Limp Bizkit doing "Faith" (not gonna link it). But I think that takes a very limited view of what a DJ/producer/whatever you wanna call it can do. There's stuff like this guy who remixes The Beach Boys with itself in the style of how he imagines J Dilla would do it -
Anyway, when I was thinking of what Hegemann I thought a little of The Dead Milkmen doing "Bitchin' Camaro" where they discuss going down to the beach where their favorite cover band Crystal Shit is playing a concert and the Milkmen start singing something like, "Love me two times babe, once for tomorrow, once cause I got AIDS". Is it necessary for them to cite The Doors? (Having re-listened to the song I realize that they do say, "they do a Doors song" and "you have a good Jim Morrison impression", but they also joke that they hope The Doors have a good sense of humor and won't take them to court for their 10 second appropriation, which I guess this discussion is all about.)
Update -
Just remembered this mash-up I saw awhile ago that is pretty good -
well eff. that's eye-opening...
ReplyDeletei've been thinking more about what i wrote in my last comment and i'd probably argue with myself on how i defined a DJ and go back to the drawing board, if i had to do it over.
i also remembered how in ian mcewan's _saturday_, a character claims to have written this poem she recites to these two cockney house invaders holding her at knifepoint. it turns out that the poem is "dover beach" by matthew arnold, but this is never explicitly stated in the novel if i remember correctly. the radiant beauty of its verse, however, causes the house invaders to get distracted ("Oi, you wrote that?! You bloody wrote that!"), allowing another character to disarm them and call the cops....all mcewan does is cite arnold in the publishing info page. this is a sensible compromise for fair use considerations in my mind. however, the actual scene (textual reappropriation as beautiful weapon, penismightier etc.) seems an especially prescient commentary on this hegemann affair.
man, those mashups...
ReplyDeleterick astley + nirvana = nirvana
ReplyDeletein my copy of saturday "dover beach" is printed in full at the back. (unnecessarily? it strains credulity that dr. perowne does not recognize the poem in that climactic scene--I think it's reasonable to expect that most readers of McEwan would recognize it, at least its last line, rendering citation unnecessary. but maybe mcewan thought the poem made a nice postscript to the story or something)