Blog Ten -- Remix a Remix

This remix (Johnny Cash w/ Cypress Hill) is one of my favorite and latest remixes that I've found (specifically the guy rocking out on the bass violin). The fact that Cypress Hill's Insane in the Brain works flawlessly with such an old song is amazing. Remixes have always had a signature feel to them because the user is getting two different genres of music combined into a product that works. I'm not even a big fan of either band but this song encourages me to want to listen to more of both. This a section of our culture where we simply consume. As Lawrence Lessig stated, "There's a part of culture that we simply consume. We listen to music. We watch a movie. We read a book. With each, we're not expected to do much more than simply consume." (Lessig 36)  We consume for the fact that we constantly want more of what we like. We a hear a great band, we want to listen to the next one like it. We see an awesome movie and cross our fingers that there is a sequel next year. Consume, consume, consume. Regarding that last sentence, I would say that we aren't expected to do more than consume, but I would say we are encouraged. Encouraged to make something, like a Johnny Cash song and put a refreshing twist on it (like this remix).

Another link I saw between this remix and Lessig's points was how remixing items, like a song, can have as much effect as diversifying a culture. He states, "As the cost of inventory drops, the mix of inventory increases -- the lesson of the Long Tail...As the mix increases, the diversity of culture that can flourish in the digital age grows." (Lessig 42) Johnny Cash and Cypress Hill are two very different bands in term of music genre. Yet I imagine that both supporters enjoy this remix, which in turn diversifies and combines the two different types of music. Under the comments on YouTube, people from both generations were giving it praise and agreed it was a quality piece of work.

The final link I found between my remix and Lessig was first, realizing the true significance of a remix and second, realizing its potential positive impact on a community. On page 76 of Remix, Lessig states, "Whether text or beyond text, remix is collage; it comes from combining elements of RO culture; it succeeds by leveraging the meaning created by the reference to build something new." (Lessig 76) Relating to my last quote from Remix, I think that new creations, like this remix, is always a product of a community and a culture. Bring a community of people together will usually result in positive gains for the group. For example, Johnny Cash fans along with Cypress Hill fans could have seen this remix and exchange other significant artists' songs to each other that they wouldn't have heard before. Combining these elements of an RO culture could uncover various interests in someone's Long Tail. 

Blog Nine -- Intro to a Remix

First, describe what you see as Lessig's key argument in the Introduction.

After reading Lessig's introduction and a little bit into Chapter 1, I think Lessig's key argument pertains to copyright. Specifically, Stephanie Lenz's story of how the video of her dancing eighteen month year old baby was being scrutinized for copyright infringement because it contained a song by Prince. The fact that Universal Music Group was paying a few lawyers thousands of dollars an hour to force this innocent video off of YouTube. The underlying meaning that Lessig is trying to show us is that if companies hire people to stem the production of pieces like Lenz's, how will our generation's creativity ever evolve? Personally, I think that copyright laws need to be reevaluated, especially with today's technological means of revising and remixing mediums.

Second, describe the difference RW and RO culture and why it matters to Lessig's argument.

The difference between RW and RO is that RW means "Read/Only" while RW stands for "Read/Write". In a Read/Only culture participants are not participating at all, but rather receiving information that is given to them most of the time without question. An example of this could be watching Nickelodeon when you're six years old and simply taking in what the show is presenting to you. As we grow older and the technology advances, the Read/Write culture starts to become more prevalent. In this culture, people listen, watch or read a medium of work but instead of leaving it at that, they add to the culture by creating or recreating new pieces of work. This Read/Write culture is similar to a Participatory Culture. An example of R/W culture is taking a music clip and remixing it to add your own personalized effects.

Third, why does Lessig use Sousa? 

Lessig uses Sousa for a variety of reasons. He uses Sousa for what Sousa believed in and his relativity to the current copyright era. Sousa was very adement that an artist's work was that artist's work and make sure no one else would ruin it. When the voice machines came around, Sousa was understandably worried that they would ruin the current music because they would do the job of the artist, thus taking away any creativity that a person could do. Lessig brings all of this up for us to compare the time when a machine almost ruined the music era, to the present time when machines are infinitely making new remixes and more creative/personalized products. A little compare and contrast.

Blog Eight -- Rhythm Science/Who Sampled

After reading the rest of Paul Miller's Rhythm Science, I came to the conclusion that I enjoyed reading his last half of the book better than the first. It seemed like in the first he was mostly talking about himself and personal experiences while in the second half, he connects those with today's technological and digital advancements along with what direction we are going which I was much more interested in. There were two appealing quotes that caught my eye. The first was in the section titled "Rhythmic Space" and goes like this:

"Speaking in code, we live in a world so utterly infused with digitality that it makes even the slightest action ripple across the collection of data bases we call the web." - pg. 89

When Miller makes this statement, he means one of two things. First, he says that we are "Speaking in code". We have gone from a time where people wrote letters in physical ink by our hands in order to deliver some sort of English message, to where we let technology organize different bits and bytes to form statements to a friend through Email or texts. The downside to this is that our now 'digital ink' is now public on the Internet and not as easy to just throw away. This leads me to the second part of the quote where Miller states that "even the slightest action ripple across the collection of data bases we call the web". A celebrity figure on Twitter just wakes up from a nap and tweets her thoughts, "Ah! I just dreamed that lynxes were extinct! Then where would my fur coat be?" This simple act of publishing this celebrity's thoughts may have caught the attention of PETA, who might have then spread the Tweet to national news medias and so on. It doesn't have to be a complicated act on the internet to cause a big stir. The second quote that I liked appeared in the section, "The Prostitute":

"It's a voodoo economics of the information era. You pay the price and expect to receive satisfaction" - pg. 108

I want to focus on the second sentence of this quote. In today's technological era, the human race has become a group of impatient individuals who expect instant gratification. I was on YouTube last week and when a particular video wouldn't fully load in twenty seconds, I was appalled. I mean, the website's videos always load quickly, what is going on now? As our bandwidth increases, our wait time for data decreases. When we can't get immediate access to our ON DEMAND movie that we paid for, shouldn't we get fully reimbursed for it not being ready the second we hit "Purchase"? Servers are not expected to have downtime anymore. That was ten years ago. The next quote came from "Rhythmic Cinema":

"Whenever you look at an image or listen to a sound, there's a ruthless logic of selection that you have to go through to simply to create a sense of order" - pg. 81

Especially with today's digital age, with everything amassed on the web, our brains must select what first to look at, then what to read or hear. Before we can understand the information on that computer screen we have to organize it first to make logical sense. The next quote I found was under the "Errata Erratum" section:

"With that in mind, I ask that you think of this as a mix lab - an "open system" where any voice can be you." - pg. 93

It seems to me that Miller is comparing his mix lab to the Internet and the sense that they both are "open systems" and anyone can be anybody on both. Technology has allowed us to alter our voices (for better or worse) to our targeted audience by being quoted in HTML or a song track rather than our vocal cords. The next quote came from the "The Future is Here" section:

"Once you get their basic credit information and various electronic representations of that person who needs the real thing anymore?" - pg. 101

What Miller is referring to here is the impact of social interaction on the Internet and the seemingly dehumanizing aurora it gives off. Instead of going to a bank and conversing with the teller about how much money you have or you need money put in, we have online banking where we can do both and much more. Will we ever not need bank tellers? Probably.


On the website http://www.whosampled.com/, I chose the song 4 Myself by Mac Dre feat. Devious and Dubee. The track sampled Hall and Oates's I Can't Go for That (No Can Do).  In looking at the related songs, I find a couple connections between my song's genealogy  and a quote that I previously mentioned. After listening the Mac Dre's track and scroll down, there are about twenty other songs that all sampled I Can't Go for That (No Can Do) in their songs. It then gives me about five covers of their song, and lastly one remix I can check out to see if I like it. This site is consistent with the idea of my second quote, "You pay the price and expect to see satisfaction". This website gives you other songs that you may like based off a selection of one track. (Similar to Amazon, iTunes, etc.) The Internet has a way of making us always want more of something and whosampled.com uses that want to make us dig deeper into the site.

Blog Seven -- deBourgoing and Miller

First off, I was very thrilled to read a web article for hip-hop for this class since the type of music is one of my favorites. Second of all, while reading through de Bourgoing's weblog of "Hip Hop Goes Transmedia: Seven Laws" I came across a couple of key arguments that she brings up.  She starts off right away by pointing out how digital media has helped up and coming artists put there work out there more effectively and efficiently than in years past, especially in L.A. where they are having a sort of "L.A. Renaissance" as she calls it. These new digital avenues for expression have allowed the genre of hip-hop to expand across multiple platforms of media and evolve to fit the current generation's way of receiving that media like the Internet and Twitter.
Another argument that de Bourgoing bring up is the sense of "keeping it real". She also emphasizes that we have to be careful about how real we go because the market is not accepting of everything, even if the artist is being one hundred percent truthful. Apart from the lyrics of an artist, what he or she wears is judged just as much to the public eye. Eminem is known for he wife beater for example while Jay-Z is known for his all black attire. It is encouraged to be unique to stand out but keep in mind that if an artist comes out to the stage with no pants, he or she will get some raised eyebrows.
Finally, the last argument that I will bring up relating to de Bourgoing's article is the concept of collaboration. Although hip-hop is known for its individual masterminds, collaboration is often encouraged to produce a mix of rap styles. Personally, many of my favorite tracks by artists are often done by more than one. For example, Eminem and Lil' Wayne's title "No Love" spoke out to me because they combined two styles of music that appeal to me. Apart from artists collaborating, the DJ is the third element that can get involved. De Bourgoing states that collaboration can be used to reach a common goal and make the final product more seamless.

I see a couple connections between deBourgoing's article and the material we have touched on the first half of class. First of all her concept of collaboration and crowdsourcing are very similar with each other. Crowdsourcing uses multiple counts of information and combines them to form an overall piece while collaboration is working together for a common goal. Both are really similar in style.

When I was finished reading the first portion of Miller's book I was left thinking to myself, what does it all mean? He touches on various forms of technical media and how it has evolved throughout time but what does he imply about all of it? I'm going out on a whim here but I think that his first portion is all about using media to preserve our ideas and thoughts for tomorrow. For example, he talked about the phonograph which is one of the first devices to play sound recordings. This is still relevant today because it is easy to see how technology has kept on the phonographic paths of making a memory of our thoughts for us to go back to later. Facebook and Twitter are common examples of how the phonograph has evolved. 

Connections between deBourgoing's article and Miller's book can be clearly seen. In a section of Miller's book he relates the phonograph to today's media to preserving language and text to refer to in the future. Miller also touches on the fact of collaboration and how it has been used to create an end product, very similar to deBourgoing's law number four which was collaboration. Another connection that I found was that they both related media to evolving to multi platforms like the Internet and Torrents.