"When the British DJ duo 2ManyDJs were creating their own album of 'bootlegs' -- hybrid tracks that mix together other people's songs to create new songs that are at once familiar yet often startlingly different -- they decided to get permission to use every one of the hundreds of tracks they mashed together. The result: almost a solid year of calling, e-mailing, and faxing dozens and dozens of record labels all over the world. (Creating the album itself only took about a week.) In the end about a third of their requests were turned down, which isn't surprising. Many artists and their labels have become reluctant to allow any sampling of their work unless they are sure the new work will sell enough copies to generate large royalty checks.
What is surprising are the names of some of the artists who turned them down: the Beastie Boys, Beck, Missy Elliott, Chemical Brothers, and M/A/R/R/S -- artists whose own careers are based on sampling and who in some cases have been sued in the past for their own unauthorized sampling. For whatever reason these artists decided not to license their material, the net effect is that more entrenched, "legitimate" sampling artists are preventing lesser known, struggling sampling artists from doing what the legitimate artists probably wish they could have done years ago: sample without hindrance to create new works....
The debate over what bootlegs are and what they mean is taking place within the wider context of a culture where turntables now routinely outsell guitars, teenagers aspire to be Timbaland and the Automator, No. 1 singles rework or sample other records, and DJs have become pop stars in their own right, even surpassing in fame the very artists whose records they spin. Pop culture in general seems more and more remixed -- samples and references are permeating more and more of mainstream music, film, and television, and remix culture appears to resonate strongly with consumers. We're at the point where it almost seems unnatural not to quote, reference, or sample the world around us. To the teens buying the latest all-remixes J.Lo album, dancing at a club to an unauthorized two-step white-label remix of the new Nelly single, or even hacking together their own bootleg, recombination -- whether legal or not -- doesn't feel wrong in the slightest. The difference now is that they have the tools to sample, reference, and remix, allowing them to finally 'talk back' to pop culture in the way that seems most appropriate to them.
The recording industry instinctively fears such unauthorized use of copyrighted materials. But instead of sending out cease-and-desist orders, it should be embracing bootlegs. In a world of constantly recycled sounds and images, bootleg culture is no aberration -- it's part of the natural evolution of all things digital....
This phenomenon hasn't been limited to music: Remixing has begun to infect film as well. Last year copies of a home-edited version of 'Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace' began circulating on the Internet to widespread acclaim from fans who declared 'Star Wars Episode 1.1: The Phantom Edit' the superior of the two versions. It's probably only a matter of time until someone creates a fan edit of 'Attack of the Clones.' Inspired by the 'Phantom' edit, DJ Hupp, a freelance film editor in Sacramento, Calif., has created his own 'Kubrick edit' of Spielberg's 'A.I.,' and it is unlikely that his will be the last fan edit we see of a major motion picture....
As computers and software programs get more and more powerful with each passing year, as file-sharing networks make it simple for anyone to share their work with the world, and as it is next to impossible to outlaw digital editing software (which has plenty of legitimate uses), bootlegs and remixes will likely be a part of the cultural landscape for years to come. Bootlegging may even evolve into something of a hobby for tens of thousands of desktop producers who will spend their free time splicing together the latest top 40 hits for kicks, like model-airplane builders. The record industry could even respond by selling its own do-it-yourself bootleg kits, complete with editing software and authorized samples. In a sense bootlegs are music fans' response to the current disposability of pop culture. Effortlessly easy to create, with an infinite number of combinations possible, bootlegs are even more perfectly disposable than the pop songs they combine -- by the time the novelty and the cleverness have worn off there will always be new hit singles to mash together." [Salon.com]
A fascinating essay about the interactivity of today's culture, which is what will surround Net Gens as they grow up. They view everything around them as multimodal and interactive, especially things you and I take for granted as static and don't even notice. Everything is flexible, shift-able, mixable, and interactive to them.
Friday, August 02, 2002
