Remix Culture

The term remixing refers to artists collaborating together to make a new creation. Music artists take samples of previous compositions; Dadaists sampled other art works to make political statements.
Girl Talk established by Gregg Gillis, is an example of the genre ‘mash-up’ or ‘remix’ which illegally used short snippets of other artists’ material to create a new composition. One of their famous albums produced in 2006 is ‘Night Ripper’ is comprised of over 200 different samples. Distributors of Girl Talk were under the impression that by staying inconspicuous and selling in small quantities they won’t get caught. Local congressmen Michael Doyle was quick to praise his talent claiming “mash-ups are a transformative new art that expands the consumer’s experience”; this soon attracted unwanted media attention.

Gillis explains in an interview with Lawrence Lessig that remix culture has become has become a prevalent part of society with aspiring music artists mixing new music frequently. Lessig questions why Gillis supports this behaviour. Gillis explains that they’re just becoming more involved with music that they love and this merging of ideas is what fuels progression and creativity.

Information extracted from Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy By Lawrence Lessig.

Girl Talk- Get it Get it

Above is an image of Girl Talk in Paris 2007

RIP! A REMIX MANIFESTO

RIP! A remix Manifesto is documentary film By Brett Gaylor about the "changing concept of copyright", featuring Lawrence Lessig, and Girl Talk. This video also touches on the copyright lawsuite, Capitol v Thomas.