#isdayfour

According to Wikipedia, music sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a sound recording in a different song or piece. In the Ted Talk titled, How Sampling Transformed Music, Mark Ronson discusses how without music sampling the music industry wouldn't be anywhere near where they are today. In his video he uses many sound clips- samples- in order to get his idea across. So much of modern day music is dependent upon sampling. Building ideas on top of other ideas and mixing them with previously successful ideas is just more opportunity for creativity. 

"When we copy, we justify it. When others copy, we vilify it." 

Excerpt taken from Everything is a Remix: Part IV

What does it actually mean to copyright something? What's the difference between stealing someone's work (going against the copyright) or using it as an influence? Where is this fine boundary line to be drawn? After watching Kirby Ferguson's 4 Part Documentary Series, Everything is a Remix, so many of these types of questions come to mind. 

In the documentary Ferguson takes this approach of how everything, whether an original or a copy, it is all influenced from something. But what is the difference between merely taking an influence off of an existing idea or product or just flat out copying it. In the documentary it brings up how the cost of an original is always much much more than that of the copies that follow. This is because they have to pay for the developing fees (the costs to actually take an idea and turn it into a product.) This is where the concept of a copyright came in - in order to prevent this from occurring. A copyright gives the manufacturer a right to have their ideas protected in the form of a contract, most copyrights are put into effect before the final product is even produced. Since many copyrights are only in effect for a certain duration of time, after this time is up other companies are allowed to follow through and manufacture similar products based off the original.

Remix Inc.

            Before understanding Remix Inc., it is important to know what it means to remix. This is when someone combines and edits materials to produce a new product. Remix Inc. is when large industries do this.

           I use Kill Bill as my artifact because the creators of the film were greatly influenced by a number of scenes from other movies. At the end of this post is a link to a video made by Kerby Ferugson that can show you these connections. The main idea is that "creation requires influence" (Everything is a Remix). One can only have so many "original" thoughts, before they start to connect them to previous points in history. 

            The concepts applied to this topic include Interface, Archive, and Interactivity. A remix is the compilation of different pieces of many materials, and it is all of these pieces interacting with one another that create a totally new piece. Interactivity and the way these different sources interact with one another is a major part of Remix Inc. and how more movies and music are being made without us running into identical projects. With Archive, really the only idea I had here is that without that archive of all of the previous movies/sounds/art made, there is no way to continue to make new things that are influenced by the previous masterpieces. With that definition, my sense of Archive is a bit more abstract for this topic. And finally, Interface calls into question the boundaries between human and machine, With the ability to remix, the boundaries become more vague as technology continuously allows humans to find new ways to apply old ideas and constantly express themselves in different forms.

            We are all familiar with Remix Inc. Disney is a well-known production company that has taken many older stories (Cinderells, Snow White, Bearuty and the Beast, Alice in Wonderland...Shall I go on?) and out their own take on it. Movies based off books, movies based off video games, video games based off movies, music based off movies, art based off music... It's a constant loop that isn't just involved in the arts. Inventors used the ideas and outlines of previous inventors to create new things every day. It's just human nature to build off of what we have. And the more we build, the higher up we go.

As described by Amanda Palmer, the Art of Asking describes the new relationship between artist and fan in the music industry. The up rise of the internet and music sharing has made it easy for fans to pirate or illegally download music. This in turn hurts the artist, as they are not gaining all possible revenue. Amanda Palmer argues that although this is a prevalent problem, people are still willing to pay for music if you ask them. People still want to support their favorite bands and performers and if the artist reaches out and makes it known that they would benefit from the legitimate purchasing of music, Amanda Palmer has found that the fans will reciprocate.

For his 24th birthday, YouTube star Tyler Oakley asked his subscribers to donate money to the Trevor Project. In total, he raised $29,000 over the course of one month. Although he did not directly gain from the donations, it shows how people are willing to support a cause or group if you simply ask them to 

Music and Movies are constantly taking ideas from past ideas. Remixing is a piece of the media that has been slightly changed to create their "own" piece into something new.

This meme is trying to explain how Ice Ice Baby by Vanilla Ice and Under Pressure By Queen at the beginning almost sound completely the same, sometimes you aren't even sure what song it's going to be. Before Ice Ice Baby was produced, Queen had created Under Pressure and after, the sample baseline was taken and Vanilla Ice used that to create the song Ice Ice Baby. Under Pressure was a very popular song and the audience prefers the familiar, I thought it was clever for Vanilla Ice to take a sample of a popular song and use it in his own. 

Advances in digital technology have made it possible for musicians to be completely independent, resulting in the cult of the amateur. In the past, musicians couldn't record and produce their own music, which made it impossible to be a truly independent artist. Now,we have the technology to make recording, mixing, editing, and mastering digitally recorded music feasible for a large number of artists. This has allowed musicians to market and distribute their own independent music for the first time ever. This change offers artists much more freedom, but also brings other changes. Artists now must be involved with both the creative and non-creative sides of music, meaning that the artist must perform a wide variety of tasks, which is what my artifact depicts.