March 30, 2005
Drop It Like It's Hendrix.
I've been wanting to say something about the current craze of "bootleg" or "mashup" songs circulating the web for quite a while now. I'll save my longer thoughts (yes, this is the short version) for later (perhaps a paper), but I want to clarify/ complicate this trend with a couple of observations and definitions.
For those who are unware, a bootleg (or mashup-- take your pick) is a remix of two or more existing songs that takes elements from each in order to create something different than either track is alone. For example, a DJ might combine say, Blondie's "Rapture" with The Doors "Riders on the Storm" (and, in fact, I didn't just make this up-- go to Go Home Productions website for the mp3, titled "Rapture Riders").
Now, if you're saying to yourself, "So what? None of this is new", you're mostly right. The formal practice of sampling tracks and laying them over other tracks has been with us since at least the early days of hip-hop (1973-on) and, it could be argued, has been the loose practice of many blues artists since the first D-A-E chord progression was strummed. But what's interesting to me now is not the particular innovations involved with the process but, instead, the timing of its explosion. Why now?
My rather untested theory goes a little like this:
What we're witnessing here is not the establishment of a new genre of music but, instead, a new way of viewing the process of music. To say that music has become "digital" is true in many ways-- mp3's, m4a's, .wav, .ogg and .ram files literally break sound into discrete bits. That much is obvious. But I wonder, too, if the process of this digitization, of separating tracks from a single material binding (the record, the cassette, the CD), has also de-centered the notion of completeness so often associated with recorded music. In other words, has digitization detroyed the record? I certainly wouldn't be the first to argue that. The omission of The Beatles catalogue from iTunes in all likelihood has less to do with old legal battles over the name Apple and more to do with the assertion that breaking up albums into individual tracks destroys the integrity of that work.
But still, here we are. I can log onto iTunes and d/l "Fight the Power" off of Public Enemy's Fear of a Black Planet without bothering with the rest of the album (and, in doing so, I lose a lot of the context for that track). I think that what we're witnessing is an even greater exaggeration of this sort of dynamic only now, we're not just removing a track from an album, we're removing bits of tracks from their own contexts-- the songs that previously binded them. This is not unlike the first wave of Photoshopped collages to flood the net in the early '90's, nor is it unlike the work of, say, Warhol or, better yet, Ray Johnson, whose use of Xerox machines and patchwork scraps from everyday items (newspapers, magazines, clothing) was viewed by many to be informed by the influx of commodified inauthenticity of the late 40's, 50's and 60's.
But are bootlegs really a response to the inauthentic or, rather, a quiet acknowledgement of the new materiality of digital objects? The re-presentation of songs-as-single song certainly hints that what we're really dealing with here is unique sort of media convergence, one where cultures (rock, hip-hop, pop, etc.) and genres collapse in the face of the ability to manipulate the digitized track. Indeed, one of the tangible effects of the digitization of music is their heightened manipulability, their "new" materiality. And perhaps that's what the craze is all about-- we've managed to shake music from it's artistic container (the album), break it into bits (the mp3) and then reassemble those bits into something not-the-same. Similar sorts of manipulation are occurring everywhere online-- from 8-bit reinterpretations of current video games, to fan films like Evan Mather's Star Wars parodies. Now, more than ever, we have greater control over our "media". And because manipulation is so central to these pursuits, they become something much more "human" than their previous incarnations. Our fingerprints are all over every break, every matched beat and chord, every chopped chorus. File sharing continues to grow and, with it, so does our awareness of the constructs of the digital object, even if most mashers still use vinyl.
Some links:
We Are 8-Bit.
I think this was mentioned on BoingBoing a while back, but it certainly deserves attention. I Am 8 bit is an upcoming show that "gathers the talents of over 100 of the world's top artists to put their memories to paper, canvas, wood or somewhere in-between, recalling those oh so fond gaming moments when pixels regined supreme." There is some truly remarkable work to be found on this website, and many that show just how deeply and effectively our early avatars have (and continue to) penetrate our cultural memory. I wonder if the same will be said one day for Leon from Resident Evil, or CJ from GTA: San Andreas? Regardless, I need Sean Clarity's Excitebike illustration (seen below). Bad.
It's Been How Long?!?
Two months. Almost exactly two months. I know, I know. I've committed the cardinal sin of blogging-- absence. What's my excuse, you ask? Well, I could point you to the image below for a bit of explanation:
What's that, you ask? That's what 98 (!) UMd McKeldin library late notices arriving all at once look like. I'd feel like I owed the postal person a life debt for lugging that around and trying to stuff it in my toddler-shoebox-size mailbox if I didn't already have to promise my firstborn to the Fines Dept. at the library. You really don't want to know how much I owe. Let's just put it this way: if the $37.00 they spent on postage were applied to my fines, I'd still be about a 27" flatscreen TV away from paying up. Yeah-- it's that bad. We're talking biblio-serfdom here.
Anyways, I've been busy reading these 98 books in preparation for a panel I've been asked to participate in at the Chesapeake American Studies Association conference in April. Among other things, my paper tries to frame the ludological debate over whether culture and gameplay can be separated in the context of sexuality and materiality. My short answer? Define gameplay.
But, alas, this is not entirely the reason why I've been silent. Truth is, I don't really know why I went on a two month hiatus. I wish I had a good excuse, like I've been secretly blogging as Howard Dean or Matt K. Or that I've been running a campaign to get Pedro elected as class president. Or, better yet, that I'd gone out to wander the wilderness like Brother Justin in order to harness my dark powers. Although one or more or these might be true (when my eyes go pitch black, you'll know which), I really can't give a reason why I fell off. Time to buck up and get back to it. I missed your silent eyes.
And to those who have been barraging me with emails wondering if I'm dead, alive, or dead-alive, my thanks for the support.