Showing posts with label mashups. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mashups. Show all posts
Thursday, June 30, 2011
New Mashup Resource
Hello! I am pleased to announce that I will be writing for idealMashup, a new site devoted to mashups and mashup culture.The section I write for is under "Education" and is called Cultural Explorations. I already have some content up so check it out!
Friday, June 10, 2011
starting at the end
I am almost done with the written portion of my thesis, I thought I would share a draft of a conclusion of my paper as it has information on further directions I would like to go in my research:
In This is Your Brain on Music, professor and neuroscientist Daniel J. Levitin suggests that the desire to engage in collective music making may be an evolutionary response to support social bonding. Mashup artists may be working with computers with powerful processing power, but what they seem to value most is contributing to a community. Though the tools to create are constantly evolving, we still have the same impetus to create and share. Remix culture is an important area of study as it emphasizes sharing over our networked culture. Mashups are a prevalent example of those remix culture and serve as markers for this connection.
The study of mashup culture still has a long way to go. Production techniques are under documented. Individual mashup artists are rarely interviewed unless they have some sort of mainstream success. The learning process that accompanies mashup creation has not yet been fully documented. Rather, we assume its presence as finished mashups often exhibit a high sophistication of technical literacy. Many mashup tutorial sites exist yet there is no academic documentation on their effect on remix culture or their efficacy. We do not know yet if there is a dominant creative pedagogy. It has not yet been established if there is a typical music mashup artist. A wider net must be first cast to establish this.
Personal areas of interest for future research include investigating cross-cultural music mashup works such as Brazil's tecno brega. Tecno brega often combines hits from the United States or Europe with locally produced Brazilian percussion. Ideally, some some tecno brega artists could be interviewed in person and observed performing as most of these works are geared towards live performance at large outdoor dance parties.
Mashups of visual culture are also an area of interest. Mashups are often compared to collage. Many contemporary artists have engaged in this kind of work. The artist Wangechi Mutu is of particular interest as she appropriates a diverse array of imagery – from clippings from fashion magazines to images from medical textbooks. These images are then incorporated into new forms, often of a figural nature.
New media artists known as video jockeys or VJs are another interesting area to possibly research. VJs improvise with visual information in much of the same way mashup artists can improvise with songs. VJs are firmly entrenched in remix culture. Most appropriate found footage to create new interactions and meanings. They also seem to largely define themselves as self-taught.
In This is Your Brain on Music, professor and neuroscientist Daniel J. Levitin suggests that the desire to engage in collective music making may be an evolutionary response to support social bonding. Mashup artists may be working with computers with powerful processing power, but what they seem to value most is contributing to a community. Though the tools to create are constantly evolving, we still have the same impetus to create and share. Remix culture is an important area of study as it emphasizes sharing over our networked culture. Mashups are a prevalent example of those remix culture and serve as markers for this connection.
The study of mashup culture still has a long way to go. Production techniques are under documented. Individual mashup artists are rarely interviewed unless they have some sort of mainstream success. The learning process that accompanies mashup creation has not yet been fully documented. Rather, we assume its presence as finished mashups often exhibit a high sophistication of technical literacy. Many mashup tutorial sites exist yet there is no academic documentation on their effect on remix culture or their efficacy. We do not know yet if there is a dominant creative pedagogy. It has not yet been established if there is a typical music mashup artist. A wider net must be first cast to establish this.
Personal areas of interest for future research include investigating cross-cultural music mashup works such as Brazil's tecno brega. Tecno brega often combines hits from the United States or Europe with locally produced Brazilian percussion. Ideally, some some tecno brega artists could be interviewed in person and observed performing as most of these works are geared towards live performance at large outdoor dance parties.
Mashups of visual culture are also an area of interest. Mashups are often compared to collage. Many contemporary artists have engaged in this kind of work. The artist Wangechi Mutu is of particular interest as she appropriates a diverse array of imagery – from clippings from fashion magazines to images from medical textbooks. These images are then incorporated into new forms, often of a figural nature.
New media artists known as video jockeys or VJs are another interesting area to possibly research. VJs improvise with visual information in much of the same way mashup artists can improvise with songs. VJs are firmly entrenched in remix culture. Most appropriate found footage to create new interactions and meanings. They also seem to largely define themselves as self-taught.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Why I would like to study in the United Kingdom
The culture of music mashups is worldwide. The United Kingdom is home to some of the most influential and vibrant examples. The UK has always been a major source of music innovation and influence. The greatest rock bands to ever exist came from the UK - The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Queen, and Led Zepplin. The UK is also known as the birthplace of punk. Today the UK is leading the innovation of new genres of music including dubstep, new synthpop, and mashups. The UK also currently has one of the biggest music industries. The first crossover mashup pop hit to chart was "Freak Like Me", a song created by Richard X. It reached #1 on the UK singles chart.
It is extremely important to actually travel to the United Kingdom to both meet and observe mashup producers. Most mashup artist cannot release their music commercially. They often do not own the rights to their source material.Additionally, a lot of mashup producers perform live. These performances happen in varied settings. Private house parties, dance clubs, and outdoor concerts are all places where music mashup culture thrives. Live performance informs their artistry. Such performances are not always documented.
It is extremely important to actually travel to the United Kingdom to both meet and observe mashup producers. Most mashup artist cannot release their music commercially. They often do not own the rights to their source material.Additionally, a lot of mashup producers perform live. These performances happen in varied settings. Private house parties, dance clubs, and outdoor concerts are all places where music mashup culture thrives. Live performance informs their artistry. Such performances are not always documented.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Updates
I will be presenting at University of Florida's 2011 Interdisciplinary Research Conference. This will be my first conference that I have ever attended, let alone presented something at. I am scheduled to present tomorrow at 2:00PM.
I've also started the process of contacting people who make or frequently interact with mashups. My friend Vishal Agarwala works as Director of Marketing for Grooveshark so I am very lucky to be able to pick his brain as well as have him introduce me to some interesting musicians. Also, one of my favorite instructors, Patrick Pagano teaches a graduate level class in digital audio design. In this class he covers many things having to do with remix culture, including mashups. I am now working on some questions to get his perspective about what it is like to teach students about mashups.
I am still avidly asking friends and colleagues about what their favorite mashups are. It is a nice way of getting to know what is out in the world besides what is super popular or what has already been written about in academic circles.
I've also started the process of contacting people who make or frequently interact with mashups. My friend Vishal Agarwala works as Director of Marketing for Grooveshark so I am very lucky to be able to pick his brain as well as have him introduce me to some interesting musicians. Also, one of my favorite instructors, Patrick Pagano teaches a graduate level class in digital audio design. In this class he covers many things having to do with remix culture, including mashups. I am now working on some questions to get his perspective about what it is like to teach students about mashups.
I am still avidly asking friends and colleagues about what their favorite mashups are. It is a nice way of getting to know what is out in the world besides what is super popular or what has already been written about in academic circles.
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Sunday, December 12, 2010
dub, plunderphonics, and Glee
Mashups are some of my favorite things to listen to. When done right each sampled song elevates the other and creates new associations with the familiar. When done wrong they are awesomely bad and reveal a lot about what we have come to value in popular music. The track "99 Problems in the USA" is a great example. In Miley Cyrus's song "Party in the USA" she mentions Jay-Z as being played on the radio, this hook is now used as the chorus of the new track with the lyrics of "99 Problems" rapped over it. Even a casual listener can hear a serious disconnect - it's doubtful that the sweet character that Cyrus embodies in "Party in the USA" really relates to a song with lyrics like "Rap mags try and use my black ass/So advertisers can give 'em more cash for ads, fuckers".
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