Term Project – Monday, April 02, 2012
This course struggles a lot with finding multiple ways to define history through the idea of the cultural embodiment of music. Diversity of people all over the world and in the United States is only matched by the diversity of the styles and genres of music produced by people living under different influences. We have come to the consensus that there is no one right answer to defining the United States through music because of the various facets that make the American sound what it is, an ever-changing, ever-evolving beast that cannot be tamed by one artist, style, or genre. Respect is given to the musical forerunners; the artists who helped build a nation by building a sound. So where has music evolved to today? With all the beats and sounds that already exist what can we call as original that is influencing the way we think and re-think about music? Remixing, evolving, reinventing old sounds has become a social norm that can be used to define the current age of music that has not only affected the way culture is defined in America but also how music has set out to define the unifying culture of the world. We as popular music consumers, along with the artists supplying our desire, are obsessed with the remixing of old songs to fit a certain sound. The advent of media sharing and editing technology has allowed amateur as well as professional musicians to create multiple versions of an original song, each with its own provoking sound and message, and we as consumers eat it all up. Josh Kun in his book, “Audiotopia,” describes the artist Basquiat as an influential figure in the development of hip-hop culture. The story I want to express is the message Basquiat wanted to get across through his tagline, “SAMO,” or , “The same old shit…the concept that everything is just the same old thing, that society repeats itself, and you are just stuck in the loop,” without the pessimistic undertones. I have been struggling with this idea throughout the course that the originality of music is something that is almost unattainable by artists today. Though not necessarily a bad thing, as the demand for or obsession over remixed tracks are through the roof, the strive for originality is hindered by hundreds of years of ancestral influence. Artists look to create originality by reinventing songs of the past, evolving them into forms that are pleasing to the masses of consumers today. Evidence that we are in an age of redefining a nation through music by reinventing the music exist in the most popular songs today and the variety of artists who have found popularity solely through remixing and mashing of songs (Norwegian Recycling, White Panda, Girl Talk, etc.). One example of such a song is Norwegian Recycling’s, “How Six Songs Collide,” 1.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JKKl95Ttrc, where the artist take samples from six different songs (listed in the description) and mashes them up to reveal how the underlining melody is the same. Drawing upon the group’s name, music is being recycled as we reach a crucial moment in the timeline of music evolution, where the age of remixing and mashing as become the age of evolving and reinventing. The gaining popularity of digitizing sound (auto-tuning, house, trance, techno music) has risen with the popularity of recycling old sounds due to my belief in that culture today has an obsession with perfection. We are approaching and hoping for an ideal future one in which is reflected in our desire for digitized sounds and perfection in pitch which artists try to emulate today. The musical instruments of this digitizing age lend to the ease of reinventing the sounds around us.
This story is about how music got to the trend of reinventing and evolving sounds. I believe there are three steps, remixing, mashing, then evolving, of course these steps are not linear there is no certain time in which one was exclusive to the other but there have been times where one was more prominent then the other. My definition of remixing is taking an original beat, lyric, riff, melody from a song and recreating it by adding different lyrics or songs to it. The first example I want to use expresses not only the remixing of the sound but also the journey of the song through time. The song, “You’ve Got the Love,” originally by The Source and Candi Stanton written in 1986 is a song alike , “Chinatown, my Chinatown,” which has been remixed and performed by many different artists with many different styles. 2.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCMsZkt382Q&list=UUzcz1WsuLERloqPHa9Cj_BQ&index=1&feature=plcp (The Source and Candi Stanton 0:00 – 1:02, Florence + the Machine 1:03-2:07, The XX 2:08 – 3:25, Theophilus London 3:26- 4:43) The Theophilus London version of this song was described as a particular Youtube commentor as, “a remix, of a remix, of a cover of another cover.”
3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYDmYMPRLWE&feature=BFa&list=UUzcz1WsuLERloqPHa9Cj_BQ&lf=plcp (First Transition Bibio , “Lovers Carvings,” 0:00 – 2:44 to Blue Scholars, “Big Bank Hank”)
4. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTJvHSyc9Qc&feature=relmfu (First Transition Muddy Waters, “Mannish Boy,” 0:00 – 0:36 to Nas ft. Olu Dara, “Bridging the Gap,” then fades between songs until end)
5. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAvTxgzpntY&feature=relmfu (Remix of “Levels,” by Avicii and, “Slevel,” by George Monev, edited by myself)
6. See Fatboy Slim vs. Ducksauce, “Funk Soul Brother vs. Barbara Streisand,” (First transition at 0:45 then fades between songs)
7. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wMk6v6hJPU&feature=relmfu (Imogen Heap, “Hide and Seek,” 0:00 – 3:13 Jason Derulo, “Whtcha Say,”3:14 – 4:36)
8. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FmPskTljo0&ob=av2n (Public Enemy , “He Got Game,” Background melody originally performed by Buffalo Springfield, “For What it’s Worth,”
9. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EerYrT-5VVc (Video tells the history of the creation of the song “Louie Louie,” eventually performed by the Kingsmen http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WcgqXMncf4) (Rene Touzet, “El Loco Cha Cha,” Chuck Berry, “Havana Moon,” Little Bill and the Bluenotes, “Louie Louie,”)
10. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yD8Ou1ylFWw (Rhymefest, “Familiar Faces,” background music originally performed by Tears for Fears, “Mad World,”)
11. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clq01TXQR0s (Johnny Cash, “Hurt,” cover of original Nine Inch Nail’s song)
Mashing up of songs has always been done recreationally by many amateur artists, however recently it has been brought to the main stage of pop music culture. Bands like Girl Talk have achieved great success in this area even allowing a free download of their latest album. I will only present two songs in the mash up category as you will see that is all that is needed. Successful mash ups convey the similarities of melody, beat, lyrics between songs and how although different each and every song is not original.
11. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMshvUReunc (Axis of Awesome, “4 Chord Song,” “All the greatest hits from the past 40 years just use 4 chords…all you need to write a pop song)
Journey - DON’T STOP BELIEVIN’
James Blunt - YOU’RE BEAUTIFUL
Black-Eyed Peas - WHERE IS THE LOVE?
Alphaville - FOREVER YOUNG
Jason Mraz - I’M YOURS
Mika - HAPPY ENDING
Alex Lloyd - AMAZING
The Calling - WHEREVER YOU WILL GO
Elton John - CAN YOU FEEL THE LOVE TONIGHT
Akon- DON’T MATTER
Various- COUNTRY ROADS
Lady Gaga - PAPARAZZI
Maroon 5 - SHE WILL BE LOVED
The Last Goodnight - PICTURES OF YOU
U2 - With or Without You
Crowled House - FALL AT YOUR FEET
Kasey Chambers - NOT PRETTY ENOUGH
The Beatles - LET IT BE
Red Hot Chili Peppers - UNDER THE BRIDGE
Daryl Braithwaite - THE HORSES
Bob Marley - NO WOMAN NO CRY
Marcy Playground - SEX AND CANDY
Men At Work - LAND DOWN UNDER
Banjo Patterson’s Waltzing Matilda
A Ha - TAKE ON ME
Green Day - WHEN I COME AROUND
Eagle Eye Cherry - SAVE TONIGHT
Toto - AFRICA
Beyonce - IF I WERE A BOY
Jason Derulo - IN MY HEAD
The Smashing Pumpkins - Bullet With Butterfly Wings
The Offspring - SELF ESTEEM
The Offspring - YOU’RE GONNA GO FAR KID
Pink - YOU AND YOUR HAND
Lady Gaga - POKER FACE
Aqua - BARBIE GIRL
The Fray - YOU FOUND ME
3OH!3 - DON’t TRUST ME
MGMT - KIDS
Tim Minchin - CANVAS BAGS
Natalie Imbruglia - TORN
Five For Fighting - SUPERMAN
Axis Of Awesome - BIRDPLANE
Missy Higgins - SCARS
12. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15tZMdtB5wE (Dj Earworm, “World go Boom,”) Dj Earworm takes the top 25 hits of the year, every year, and creates a mashup representing that year in music. This last year included
Adele - Rolling In The Deep
Adele - Someone Like You
Black Eyed Peas - Just Can’t Get Enough
Bruno Mars - Grenade
Bruno Mars - The Lazy Song
Britney Spears - Till The World Ends
Cee Lo Green - F* You
Enrique Iglesias - Tonight (I’m Lovin’ You)
Foster the People - Pumped Up Kicks
Jennifer Lopez - On The Floor
Jeremih feat. 50 cent - Down On Me
Katy Perry - Firework
Katy Perry - E.T.
Katy Perry - Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)
Lady Gaga - Born This Way
LMFAO - Party Rock Anthem
LMFAO - Sexy and I Know It
Lupe Fiasco - The Show Goes On
Maroon 5 - Moves Like Jagger
Nicki Minaj - Super Bass
OneRepublic - Good Life
Pink - Raise Your Glass
Pitbull - Give Me Everything
Rihanna - S&M
Rihanna - We Found Love
The next step in my story is the remaking and recycling of old songs into new ones.
13. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3k6LKAKbCuE (Dropkick Murpheys, “Cadence to Arms,” taken from the Scottish National song, “Scotland the Brave,”)
14. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DT6LtOwQBmo (Juelz Santana, “ Second Coming,” reworked from the Gregorian Chant, “Dies Irae,” First transition at 0:12 then fades between two songs)
15. Any song by Transiberian Orchestra, but my favorite http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hus2aKmKb6s “Deck the Halls”
16. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSJxvi767kQ (Ben Folds, “ Bitches Ain’t Shit,”) vs. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ic7KH1PpbMY (Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Kurupt, Daz, “Bitches Ain’t Shit)
17. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1WowrXjEdA&list=UUzcz1WsuLERloqPHa9Cj_BQ&index=3&feature=plcp (Postal Service vs. Iron and Wine, “Such Great Heights,” Fades between songs)
18. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6htPOjVGux0&list=UUzcz1WsuLERloqPHa9Cj_BQ&index=4&feature=plcp (Michael Jackson vs. Alien Ant Farm, “Smooth Criminal,” Fades between songs)
The final step is an alternation of recycling and remaking which leans more towards evolving the music into the present and future age. Digitizing the sound:
19. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUkFTOHe3O8&list=UUzcz1WsuLERloqPHa9Cj_BQ&index=12&feature=plcp (Penguin Café Orchestra, “Perpetuum Mobile,” 0:00-3:01 to Avicii, “Penguin” then fades between two songs)
20. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JA0QKPzX5XQ&list=UUzcz1WsuLERloqPHa9Cj_BQ&index=9&feature=plcp (Samuel Barber, “Adagio for Strings,” 0:00 – 2:40 to Dj Tiesto, “Adagio 4 Strings,”)
21. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_9_Oecv59c&list=UUzcz1WsuLERloqPHa9Cj_BQ&index=2&feature=plcp (Renato Carsone, “Tu Vuo’ Fa’ L’Americano” 0:00 – 1:50 to Yolanda Be Cool Vrs Dcup, “No Speak Americano,”)
However, does the opposite also exist? If my proposed cycling of music does exist will we see in the near future an age of music where we take the digitizations and reverse them? Creating copies of music with the imperfections of human voice and instruments? This is an attempt to emulate:
22. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIOT3yQ7NAE&context=C4c2744bADvjVQa1PpcFNCrXSKokgEbWejTSfbWGlK9EDGtkM_TnE= (Aaronic Stuff, “Deadmau5 Acapella”) The opposite of digitizing, see particularly 1:40
23. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBfEHF_7vxg&feature=share (Kuha’o “Cracks,”)
The power of of human potential, Kuha’o is able to re-create the song “Cracks” by the Freestylers after only hearing the song once.
It seems that society today is in a time where the synthesizer is more desired then the violin, digital sounds more desired then mechanical. Culture is reflected just as much by the time and technology as it is by past music itself. We are dawning on a time where many people will only know the remix of a song and not the original and more often then nought, the remixed version will be more popular then the original. The story and message that I want to express is also the relationship between music today compared to music 100’s of years ago, it is the fact that our evolution as a musical culture has brought us to a point where past meets present and future. It is at the point in which we are starting to recycle old ideas and sounds to form new ones.
