music+homework

=REMIXES=

A **remix** is an alternative version of a recorded [|song], made from an original version. Sometimes this term is also used for alterations of media or recreation other than song ( [|film], [|literature] , [|beverages] etc.). Remixing is the adoption, alteration, and recombination of pre-existing cultural texts (songs, literature, paintings, etc.) to create something new. A remixer uses [|audio mixing] to compose an alternate [|master recording] of a song, adding or subtracting elements, or simply changing the [|equalization], [|dynamics] , [|pitch] , [|tempo] , playing time, or almost any other aspect of the various musical components. Some remixes involve substantial changes to the [|arrangement] of a recorded work, but many are harmonic, such as creating a "vocal up" version of a song that emphasizes the lead singer's voice. Contemporary remixes are often produced in a [|Digital Audio Workstation] (DAW), which allow producers to reorganize tracks and apply various effects. Songs are remixed for a variety of reasons: Remixes should not be confused with edits, which usually involve shortening a final stereo master for marketing or broadcasting purposes. Another distinction should be made between a remix and a [|cover]. A remix song recombines audio pieces from a recording to create an altered version of the song. A cover is a recording of a song that was previously recorded by someone else. here is a songmedia type="custom" key="20931442"
 * to give a song a second chance at [|radio] and [|club] play
 * to create a [|stereo] or [|surround sound] version of a song where none was previously available
 * to improve the fidelity of an older song for which the original master recording has been lost or degraded
 * to alter a song to suit a specific [|music genre] or [|radio format]
 * to use some of the same materials, allowing the song to reach a different audience
 * to alter a song for artistic purposes
 * to provide additional versions of a song for use as [|bonus tracks] or for a [|B-side], for example, in times when a CD single might carry a total of 4 tracks
 * to create a connection between a smaller artist and a more successful one, as was the case with the chart-topping remix of // [|Brimful of Asha] // by [|Cornershop]

==Roots of the remix== by daniel rotko Since the beginnings of [|recorded sound] in the late 19th century, technology has enabled people to rearrange the normal listening experience. With the advent of easily editable magnetic tape in the 1940s and 1950s and the subsequent development of [|multitrack recording], such alterations became more common. In those decades the experimental genre of [|musique concrète] used tape manipulation to create sound compositions. Less artistically lofty edits produced medleys or [|novelty recordings] of various types. Modern remixing had its roots in the dance hall culture of late-1960s/early-1970s [|Jamaica]. The fluid evolution of music that encompassed [|ska], [|rocksteady] , [|reggae] and [|dub] was embraced by local music mixers who deconstructed and rebuilt [|tracks] to suit the tastes of their audience. Producers and engineers like Ruddy Redwood, [|King Tubby] and [|Lee "Scratch" Perry] popularized stripped-down [|instrumental] mixes (which they called "versions") of reggae tunes. At first they simply dropped the vocal [|tracks], but soon more sophisticated effects were created, dropping separate instrumental [|tracks] in and out of the mix, isolating and repeating [|hooks] , and adding various effects like echo, [|reverberation] and [|delay]. From the mid-1970s, DJs in early discothèques were performing similar tricks with [|disco] songs (using loops and [|tape edits] ) to get dancers on the floor and keep them there. One noteworthy figure was [|Tom Moulton] who invented the dance remix as we now know it. Though not a DJ (a popular misconception), Moulton had begun his career by making a homemade mix tape for a Fire Island dance club in the late 1960s. His tapes eventually became popular and he came to the attention of the music industry in New York City. At first Moulton was simply called upon to improve the aesthetics of dance-oriented recordings before release ("I didn't do the remix, I did the mix"—Tom Moulton). Eventually, he moved from being a "fix it" man on pop records to specializing in remixes for the dance floor. Along the way, he invented the [|breakdown section] and the [|12-inch single] vinyl format. [|Walter Gibbons] provided the dance version of the first commercial 12-inch single (" [|Ten Percent] ", by [|Double Exposure] ). [|[1]] Contrary to popular belief, Gibbons did not mix the record. In fact his version was a [|re-edit] of the original mix. Moulton, Gibbons and their contemporaries ( [|Jim Burgess], [|Tee Scott] , and later [|Larry Levan] and [|Shep Pettibone] ) at [|Salsoul Records] proved to be the most influential group of remixers for the [|disco] era. The Salsoul catalog is seen (especially in the UK and Europe) as being the "canon" for the disco mixer's art form. Pettibone is among a very small number of remixers whose work successfully transitioned from the disco to the House era. (He is certainly the most high profile remixer to do so.) His contemporaries included [|Arthur Baker] and [|François Kevorkian]. Contemporaneously to disco in the mid-1970s, the dub and disco [|remix cultures] met through Jamaican immigrants to [|the Bronx], energizing both and helping to create [|hip hop music]. Key figures included [|DJ Kool Herc] and [|Grandmaster Flash]. Cutting (alternating between duplicate copies of the same record) and [|scratching] (manually moving the vinyl record beneath the turntable needle) became part of the culture, creating what // [|Slate] // magazine called "real-time, live-action collage." One of the first mainstream successes of this style of remix was the 1983 [|track] " [|Rockit] " by [|Herbie Hancock], as remixed by [|Grand Mixer D.ST]. [|Malcolm McLaren] and the creative team behind [|ZTT] Records would feature the "cut up" style of hip hop on such records as " [|Duck Rock] ."

Electronic music
Early pop remixes were fairly simple; in the 1980s, "extended mixes" of songs were released to clubs and commercial outlets on vinyl [|12-inch singles]. These typically had a duration of six to seven minutes, and often consisted of the original song with 8 or 16 [|bars] of instruments inserted, often after the second chorus; some were as simplistic as two copies of the song stitched end to end. As the cost and availability of new technologies allowed, many of the bands who were involved in their own production (such as [|Yellow Magic Orchestra], [|Depeche Mode] , [|New Order] , [|Erasure] , and [|Duran Duran] ) experimented with more intricate versions of the extended mix. [|Madonna] began her career writing music for dance clubs and used remixes extensively to propel her career; one of her early boyfriends was noted DJ [|John Jellybean Benitez], who created several memorable mixes of her work.

[|Art of Noise] took the remix styles to an extreme—creating music entirely of [|samples]. They were among the first popular groups to truly harness the potential that had been unleashed by the [|synthesizer] -based compositions of [|electronic musicians] such as [|Kraftwerk], Yellow Magic Orchestra, [|Giorgio Moroder] , and [|Jean Michel Jarre]. Contemporaneous to Art of Noise was the seminal body of work by [|Yello] (composed, arranged and mixed by [|Boris Blank] ). Primarily because they featured sampled and sequenced sounds, Yello and Art of Noise would produce a great deal of influential work for the next phase. Others such as [|Cabaret Voltaire] and the aforementioned Jarre (whose // [|Zoolook] // was an epic usage of [|sampling] and [|sequencing] ) were equally influential in this era.


 * = [[image:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/87/Gnome-mime-sound-openclipart.svg/50px-Gnome-mime-sound-openclipart.svg.png width="50" height="50"]] || [|Scott Brown - "Elysium" (1999)]

[|More…] 29 second sample from Scott Brown's "Elysium" - original. ||
 * //Problems listening to this file? See [|media help] .// ||

28 second sample of the Ultrabeat and Scott Brown vocal remix. ||
 * = [[image:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/87/Gnome-mime-sound-openclipart.svg/50px-Gnome-mime-sound-openclipart.svg.png width="50" height="50"]] || [|Ultrabeat vs. Scott Brown - "Elysium (radio edit)" (2006)]
 * //Problems listening to this file? See [|media help] .// ||

After the [|rise of dance music] in the late 1980s, a new form of remix was popularised, where the vocals would be kept and the instruments would be replaced, often with matching backing in the [|house music] idiom. A clear example of this approach is [|Roberta Flack] 's 1989 ballad "Uh-Uh Ooh-Ooh Look Out (Here It Comes)", which Chicago House great Steve "Silk" Hurley dramatically reworked into a boisterous floor-filler by stripping away all the instrumental [|tracks] and substituting a minimalist, sequenced " [|track] " to underpin her vocal delivery. The art of the remix gradually evolved, and soon more [|avant-garde artists] such as [|Aphex Twin] were creating more experimental remixes of songs (relying on the groundwork of Cabaret Voltaire and the others), which varied radically from their original sound and were not guided by pragmatic considerations such as sales or "danceability", but were created for "art's sake."

In the 1990s, with the rise of powerful home computers with audio capabilities came the [|mash-up], an unsolicited, unofficial (and often legally dubious) remix created by "underground remixers" who edit two or more recordings (often of wildly different songs) together. [|Girl Talk] is perhaps the most famous of this movement, creating albums using sounds entirely from other music and cutting it into his own. Underground mixing is more difficult than the typical official remix, because clean copies of separated [|tracks] such as vocals or individual instruments are usually not available to the public. Some artists (such as [|Björk], [|Nine Inch Nails] , and [|Public Enemy] ) embraced this trend and outspokenly sanctioned fan remixing of their work; there was once a web site which hosted hundreds of unofficial remixes of Björk's songs, all made using only various officially sanctioned mixes. Other artists, such as [|Erasure], have included remix software in their officially released singles, enabling almost infinite permutations of remixes by users. The band have also presided over remix competitions for their releases, selecting their favourite fan-created remix to appear on later official releases.

Broader context
John Von Seggern of the [|ethnomusicology] department at the [|University of California, Riverside] says that the remix "is a major conceptual leap: making music on a meta-structural level, drawing together and making sense of a much larger body of information by threading a continuous narrative through it. This is what begins to emerge very early in the hip-hop tradition in works such as [|Grandmaster Flash] 's pioneering mix recording // [|Adventures on the Wheels of Steel] //. The importance of this cannot be overstated: in an era of information overload, the art of remixing and sampling as practiced by hip-hop DJs and producers points to ways of working with information on higher levels of organization, pulling together the efforts of others into a multilayered multireferential whole which is much more than the sum of its parts."

A remix may also refer to a non-linear re-interpretation of a given work or media other than audio. Such as a hybridizing process combining fragments of various works. The process of combining and re-contextualizing will often produce unique results independent of the intentions and vision of the original designer/artist. Thus the concept of a remix can be applied to visual or video arts, and even things farther afield. [|Mark Z. Danielewski] 's disjointed novel // [|House of Leaves] // has been compared by some to the remix concept.

Remix in literature
Main article: [|cut-up technique] A remix in literature is an alternative version of a text. [|William Burroughs] used the [|cut-up technique] developed by [|Brion Gysin] to remix language in the 1960s. [|[2]] Various textual sources (including his own) would be cut literally into pieces with scissors, rearranged on a page, and pasted to form new sentences, new ideas, new stories, and new ways of thinking about words.

// [|Naked Lunch] // (1959) is a famous example of an early novel by Burroughs based on the cut-up technique. Remixing of literature and language is also apparent in //Pixel Juice// (2000) by [|Jeff Noon] who later explained using different methods for this process with //Cobralingus// (2001).

Remix in art
A remix in art often takes multiple perspectives upon the same theme. An artist takes an original work of art and adds their own take on the piece creating something completely different while still leaving traces of the original work. It is essentially a reworked abstraction of the original work while still holding remnants of the original piece while still letting the true meanings of the original piece shine through. Famous examples include [|the Marilyn prints of Andy Warhol] (modifies colors and styles of one image), and // [|The Weeping Woman] // by Pablo Picasso, (merges various angles of perspective into one view). Some of Picasso's other famous paintings also incorporate parts of his life, such as his love affairs, into his paintings. For example, his painting //Les Trois Danseuses//, or //The Three Dancers//, is about a love triangle.

Other types of remixes in art are parodies. A parody in contemporary usage, is a work created to mock, comment on, or make fun at an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation. They can be found all throughout art and culture from literature to animation. Current television shows are filled with parodies such as South Park, Family Guy, and the Simpsons.

The internet has allowed for art to be remixed quite easily, as evidenced by sites like memgenerator.net (provides pictorial template upon which any words may be written by various anonymous users), and Dan Walsh's Garfieldminusgarfield.net [|[1]] (removes the main character from various original strips by Garfield creator Jim Davis).

Copyright implications
Because remixes may borrow heavily from an existing piece of music (possibly more than one), the issue of intellectual property becomes a concern. The most important question is whether a remixer is free to redistribute his or her work, or whether the remix falls under the category of a [|derivative work] according to, for example, United States copyright law. Of note are open questions concerning the legality of visual works, like the art form of [|collage], which can be plagued with licensing issues.

There are two obvious extremes with regard to derivative works. If the song is substantively dissimilar in form (for example, it might only borrow a motif which is modified, and be completely different in all other respects), then it may not necessarily be a derivative work (depending on how heavily modified the melody and chord progressions were). On the other hand, if the remixer only changes a few things (for example, the instrument and tempo), then it is clearly a derivative work and subject to the copyrights of the original work's copyright holder.

The [|Creative Commons] is a non-for-profit organization that allows the sharing and use of creativity and knowledge through free legal tools. They created a website that allows artists to share their work with other users, giving them the ability to share, use, or build upon your work, under the Creative Commons license. The artist can limit the copyright to specific users for specific purposes, while protecting the users and the artist. [|[3]]

The exclusive rights of the copyright owner over acts such as reproduction/copying, communication, adaptation and performance – unless licensed openly – by their very nature reduce the ability to negotiate copyright material without permission. [|[4]] Remixes will inevitably encounter legal problems when the whole or a substantial part of the original material has been reproduced, copied, communicated, adapted or performed – unless a permission has been given in advance through a voluntary open content license like a Creative Commons license, there is fair dealing involved (the scope of which is extraordinarily narrow), a statutory license exists, or permission has been sought and obtained from the copyright owner. Generally, the courts consider what will amount to a substantial part by reference to its quality, as opposed to quantityand the importance the part taken bears in relation to the work as whole. [|[5]]

There are proposed theories of reform regarding the copyright law and remixes. Nicolas Suzor believes that copyright law should be reformed in such a manner as to allow certain reuses of copyright material without the permission of the copyright owner where those derivatives are highly transformative and do not impact upon the primary market of the copyright owner. There certainly appears to be a strong argument that non commercial derivatives, which do not compete with the market for the original material, should be afforded some defense to copyright actions. [|[6]].

Stanford Law Professor [|Lawrence Lessig] believes that for the first time in history creativity by default is subject to regulation because of two architectural features. First, cultural objects or products created digitally can be easily copied, and secondly, the default copyright law requires the permission of the owner.The result is that you need the permission of the copyright owner to engage in mashups or acts of remixing. Lessig believes that the key to mashups and remix is "education – not about framing or law – but rather what you can do with technology, and then the law will catch up". [|[7]] He believes that trade associations – like mashup guilds – that survey practices and publish reports to establish norm or reasonable behaviours in the context of the community would be useful in establishing fair use parameters. Lessig also believes that Creative Commons and other licences, such as the General Public Licence are important mechanisms which mashup and remix artists can use to mitigate the impact of copyright law. [|[8]]

The [|Fair Use] agreement allows users to use copyrighted materials without asking the permission of the original creator (section 107 of the federal copyright law).Within this agreement, the copyrighted material that is borrowed must be used under specific government regulations. Material borrowed falls under fair use depending on the amount of original content used, the nature of the content, the purpose of the borrowed content, and the effect the borrowed content has on an audience. Unfortunately, there are no distinct lines between copyright infringement and abiding by fair use regulations while producing a remix. [|[9]]. However, if the work that is distributed by the remixer is an entirely new and transformative work that is not for profit, copyright laws are not breached. The key word in such considerations is transformative, as the remix product must have been either sufficiently altered or clearly used for a sufficiently different purpose for it to be safe from copyright violation.