‘Media’ as defined by the Oxford Dictionary is means of mass communication (ESP TELEVISION,RADIO, NEWSPAPERS AND THE INTERNET) regarded collectively. The key word here is ESP – ESPECIALLY, they have mentioned general forms of mass media rather than detailing all means as that would be impossible – then, the definition would have to change every few years with the constant and rapid technological advancements.
As I have questioned here the definition of ‘media’ in an international dictionary, the rise of remix culture has questioned something bigger – copyright.
First of all, some of you may be asking ‘what is remix culture?’
Remix culture is the act of taking something that already exists and changing, mixing, adding, subtracting and in essence giving it your own flavor integrated with the original product. ‘what about copyright laws’ you ask? this is where Lawrence Lessig steps in.
His theory is built on the idea of copyright laws constraining the creativity of young people and making them criminals. I’m sure that at least every second person who reads this blog breaks copyright or cyber laws in some way, shape or form. The most common being downloading music and movies from the Internet. Yet his theory is also presented on a greater scale where he argues that if one was to take an original and tweak it in even the most minute way, that product is now theirs. There is no collaboration in the product, it is not ‘Beat it’ by Michael Jackson and Jennifer Yu, it’s ‘Beat it’ by DJ Jennifer Yu ONLY. And what an extreme claim to make but this is what media culture is racing towards and it wont be long before copyright laws will not make much of an impact on young internet users. When a new law or enforcement is made, the computer programming geeks will always find a way around it – THIS is reality, and if we dont all jump on the wagon, we’ll be left behind with not traditional, but old and outdated ways of thinking.
But where is the line between breaking the laws of copyright and free use of products?
…Is there even a line between the two?
Some opinionated people think that remix culture is a myth, but personally, I think its a new rising phenomenon. “remix is a myth. Talk to the ISPs. 99% of illegal content is downloaded for consumption only. Barely anyone is remixing illegally.” Andrew Keen
Just sit and think about our media exposure today, some remixed songs are making the top of the charts, television commercials are using original songs and themes remixed, parody acts are a form of remixing, even academic articles are forms of remixing! Of course we all quote and reference where our information is from but the end product, the essay, journal or whatever it may be is ultimately our own. What about all those sites with embedded videos and images, isn’t that all remixing? the list goes on, it’s happening all around us, even where we wouldn’t realize at first sight.
People often forget that no product is created from thin air, everything is influenced by something else and this works as a cycle like a food chain. Where is the originality in anything? what or who is at the top of the food chain? When one describes a product as original, often, the case is that the influences are unknown.
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What about what we can and can not use?
Section cut from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jt0ASo_6Sdg
Thus, no-one really owns anything singularly anymore, there is this idea that there is one single author to a product but really, what is happening is an “ongoing, collective experiment”. The death of the author is the postmodern theory that a product should be viewed on its own, without the influence of the author. Minus the knowledge of who created it and just view and experience the product on its own – this is when you can truly understand and interpret what is in front of you. When the author is involved, there is bias involved, Roland Barthes states “To give a text an Author” and assign a single, corresponding interpretation to it “is to impose a limit on that text.” In the same way, remix culture is only accepted by some but not all, in essence, it is a good idea but is not realistically able to be carried out at the moment due to these copyright laws.
Let us look into music remixing. Everyone has heard it, everyone knows of it, people like it and a LOT of people do it. To ask the artist for permission every time someone wanted to remix their song would be unrealistic and impossible! an unimaginable amount of people would try contact them every day and which artist would really be bothered to answer everyone’s calls?
At the same time, Jay Bolter presents us with what is called remediation, a constant developing of older forms of media which also leads to the creative collaboration of old and new media forms as well as different types of media forms. This highlights the demand for immediacy in today’s society.
“Older electronic and print media are seeking to reaffirm their
status within our culture, while digital media are challenging that status. Both new and old media are invoking the twin logics of immediacy and hypermediacy in their efforts to remake themselves and each other. To fulfil our apparently insatiable desire for immediacy” (Convergence: The international journal of Research into New Media Technologies, Jay David Bolter 2000, Sage publications)
Speaking of immediacy, music remixing has always been fulfilling out immediate desires. Although music remixing creates problems when it is done illegally, the legal façade of music remixing have been changing to cater for the industry’s money-making needs.
Let us look into how legal remix culture in he music industry has changed over the last decade.
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Up until the 1990′s and early 2000′s songs were remixed artistically and creatively. Most components of the song were re-modeled such as the melody, speed, some lyrics and an addition/subtraction of vocals. This is contrasted to the new form of remixing where the melody is always kept the same due to the commercial factor of how many times that particular song, either the original or remixed, is played on the radio.
Hip-hop and R&B is the most dominant genres of music which are remixed. Many artists in these genres have remixed their music legally usually to cater for dance and club music.
Here is an example of Jagged Edge’s ‘Let’s get married’ original vs remix version, both released in 2000. It was one of the most famous remixes created which in fact, became more popular than the original and most people still believe that the remix version is the original and another music video was made following it’s high demand. Jagged Edge is a popular four man band who collaborated and signed a contract with “so so def Label in the Summer of 2007” (http://www.jaggededge.org/bio.html 2009 JEAH Communications LLC) and topped the music charts with their three albums and various singles.
‘Let’s get Married was originally a slow jam until it was remixed featuring Run DMC (Rap group) to make it a faster, up-beat song including a rap component.
Although the lyrics have remained the same, the melody, speed and beat have changed. This is contrasted to a recent remix of Jason Derulo’s ‘In my head’ released this year.
In this remix, most components are kept the same, and the only difference is the added rap substituted for one of the verses. The melody has been kept the same so that the BDS machine is able to track how many times an artist’s song has been played on the radio in order to determine the popularity.
Now, a decade later, remixing music has become a commodity. The commercial industry has changed music remix culture to suit the need of the industry and now more songs are remixed legally just to have it played more on the radio.
The change we see here is that the first has been artistically remade to add value to the song yet now, barriers are applied. An interesting note to make is that although melodies have been kept the same for commercialism, ironically, most remixed music ten years ago were better known than those created today.
As mentioned beforehand by Just Blaze, it is unfortunate for the creativity of remixing music but for the needs of the industry, it is beneficial especially as record companies’ profit is radically reduced by internet downloading.
In conclusion, remix culture is a growing trend and although thought of as an unrealistic process, it may well be the future! As Jay Garnett mentioned in one of her interviews (can be seen in the ‘walking on eggshells video’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYNrVVbfLxw&feature=related) “Thing that you produce, you put it out into the world and once you put it out into the world, it’s now in the world and other people are going to use it and that is a good thing”.
