Remix Discussion
6March 5, 2014 by Tom Ford
In the Ted talks, there was an interesting story regarding John Phillip Souza. He stated that, “these talking machines are going to ruin the artistic development of music in this country”, this country being the U.S.A. He talked about his time as a boy, when kids were singing the songs of the day together. “We will not have a vocal cord left”, Souza remarked. This idea is ludicrous, that we would not have a vocal cord left. However, with these “talking machines” or boom-boxes that play our music for us, do we lose out on an artistic element ourselves? We all sing along to the music we listen to, but does the fact that music is readily available to play ruin our artistic development? The development of music in recent times has shifted to an electronic age. There are many more “mash-ups” and remixes of songs. In a sense, you can say that we are losing originality in music. Many of these remixes create a majority of a certified “hit” in the music industry, with a minor spin-off of the remixers own ideas. I think that there is still some originality in music today. However, it has become harder to find. Electronic music that is created with machines is taking away from true musicians work. All of these types of work are art, however, we lack originality in today’s artistic development of music.
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Electronically produced music is an interesting concept. I don’t think it’s any less creative or original – I think it’s just a different kind. Trying to put a new spin on old sounds can be hard to accomplish. As far as the mashups and remixes – they’ve gotten a little out of hand lately, I agree (cue every Flo Rida song for the last five years). I’ve also seen many new artists make it big by remixing a song or covering a song, and I just wonder if it boils down to what people’s preferences are? Like if we didn’t listen to the music, it wouldn’t be so popular, and maybe we as listeners are to blame for not seeking out original music and instead going for the familiar.
Your idea about how technology ruins the originality at times of music i agree with as well. Sometimes it makes the song sound more electronic or fake in a way. But technology does allow more ways to mash up or remix the song and in fact loses the originality of the song. I think artist are making songs that aren’t truly them and people think its actually them. It gives other hopeful artist an idea that they aren’t good enough because they don’t sound like that but truthfully the song or piece of music is just a lot of technology. So like you said its harder and harder to find that originality of music because there are so many remixes now. So I do agree with the statement of John Phillip Souza that technology like talking machines are going to ruin the originality development of music. You can just tell through out the years how this statement is quite true.
At some degree, I agree with your opinion about technology ruins the music. We listen to the music made by other people, and do not create our own songs. But, there are still a lot new music everyday to be created, it did not mean that we can not create new music by ourselves. We more like to listen music by professional because their music are better than us. Technology it selves did not ruin music. However, people selves ruin the music, people are more like to listen, rather than to create. Another problem come out to my mind. There are many plagiarize in music. Because of the technology, many people stole the music from other people’s music and create a new one. I think it is not remix, it is plagiarize. However, people are willing to listen this kind of music. I think it is because the original one is very good, and all people are enjoy about it.
I do not believe that remixing ruins music by any means. I believe it can take away from the originality of the song that was used to create the remix. I appreciate that there are new songs that have established hits intertwined into the remix. It creates a unique song with adding a new spin to what may be an old song. Pretty Lights does a remix with a Jay-Z song and Notorious B.I.G. song and it is fantastic. I think that artists that create remixes use parts of songs that may be their favorite and add their own creativity into the remix.
While watching this TED talk I found the story focused on John Philip Souza very interesting in regards to the subject of remixing. I agree that Souza’s statement about “not having a vocal cord left” due to ‘talking machines’ is far from likely, but a feasible fear for artists who have grown accustom to authenticity. I am not sure if I agree with your statement that mash-ups and remixes make the originality of a song “harder to find.” I believe that although different machines and forms of technology are used in the creation of remixes, the variation of the music in itself shows the artist’s musical abilities and therefore that artist’s originality.
i just wanted to add to my other comment, because after reading it again and some other comments i had further ideas.
The idea that all this new technology is going to ruin the originality of art, I think it is interesting that you think it is ludricous. The idea of we are losing vocal cords as new technology keeps developing. You think it’s a crazy idea, but I someone agree with it. I think that all this new technology, allows the artists to remix it, but in away its all through technology. In a way it just makes it sound so electronic. The newer remixes and songs don’t sound like the actual artist his/or her self. It also gives inspiring artists thoughts that they cant sound as good at the artist due now. But in reality a lot of the artist now, just know how to use technology. But you are accurate that there is always going to be some kind of originiality spin on a piece of work. If their wasn’t, everything would just sound the same.