The video we watched in class, Rip: A remix manifesto, got me interested in copyright laws, particularly the creative commons movement, and its mission in creating a world where individuals can express themselves without the restraints of copyright laws. I attempted to do some research on it, but most of it was in Spanish so that sucked. 

I did learn about Gilberto Gill, a top Brazilian artist and Minister of Culture who is encouraging fans to film footage from his concert and post it around the web. This was amazing to me considering I got my brand new camera taken away at the Britney Spears concert in the fifth grade. Most American artists, particularly the more popular and wealthy ones, see people posting footage from their concerts as a threat to their future ticket and music sales. The logic is that people will post this footage online, and other people will see it, which eliminates the desire to see the concert. I think this view is extremely false. The real reason people should go to concerts is about the experience of hearing the artists live that cannot be conveyed on a tape or film. If people want to take pictures and shoot footage to help them relive the moment they should be allowed too and taking a 10 year olds camera is a pretty shitty thing to do. 

I also think it is ridiculous that artists feel threatened by people who mash up their music, because honestly I think they should be flattered. Mashup artists do not mash up music that they don’t think sounds good. Good mash up artists use their amazing taste in music and their skills with technology to make music that sounds good and that people will be able to relate too. Sometimes when I listen to a good mashup it reminds me how much I love a particular song and hearing that track blended with another song that I love is an amazing feeling that only heightens my love for the song. Everyone has a favorite song, but you have to admit that hearing this same song over and over again can be limiting and get pretty old. Mashups’ allow us to hear our favorite songs in different musical contexts, which personally revives my love for the song.  For example, Drakes’ mashup with Coldplay allows listeners to get the amazing sounds of both very different artists all in one song. Although I love Coldplay, I probably would only put it on if I was doing math homework or in a really relaxed mood, but I would put this mashup with drake on in other contexts like when I was hanging with friends because it adds a more upbeat, and relevant vibe with the incorporation of a rap artists. The mixture of these two genres and giving another artists a chance with old lyrics creates an amazing song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lbos67IDaUE&feature=related

    Creating songs in different contexts also allows for a broader audience. Some artists I would have never listened to if I had not heard their music in a mash with a more popular song. For example, Mochi Beats came out with a song called “Say its Empathy” which is primarily a mashup with Rihanna and Eminem’s “Love the Way you Lie”, Crystal Castles “Empathy”, and Lupe Fiasco’s “ Slow Down”. I discovered my love for Crystal Castle’s music by listening to the mochi beats song and saw that they came to my hometown and bought tickets to their concert. I would have never attended their show or maybe even heard of them if I had not been exposed to their music in this mashup.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nDx_b3nNBQ

^ The above mashup was also nice because I know just about the whole world is sick of hearing the overplayed track, “Love the way you lie”. I never really liked or appreciated the song until I could hear it another context with an artist that appealed to my taste like crystal castles. So basically, Rihanna and Eminem should be thanking mochi beats for mixing their song with crystal castles and Lupe Fiasco and creating, in my opinion, a much better version.

            Mashups also appeal to those kids (like me) who have short attention spans and cannot stand to listen to the same shit for 4 minutes straight. Milkman appeals to me because he mashes up so many different songs that just are not as interesting by themselves. He incorporates sometimes dozens of artists and songs together that takes the best aspects from the music and compiles it all to create an ultimately great song. Songs sometimes get inappropriately repetitive, and I believe artists like milkman help create a better energy that appeals to me and my generation.  Below is a great milk man song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AeTqiN_bIk

            Mashups can also be a way to resurface feelings by mixing songs with common themes. A great example of this is DJ Earworms “United States of Pop”. It mashups all of the top hits from 2009. I hope that this tradition will continue every year and I will be able to look back on these mashups and hear songs that will resurface memories and remind me of the great times I had in each year, like a musical scrap book. Im sure all of you all have heard this but here is a link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BymbrfUZiNA

  So.. In conclusion, I cannot really fathom why artists can be upset with their music being mixed. The only defense they have is that they are not getting the sufficient funds from those who are doing the mixing. In my opinion, this is a really really lame excuse. The purpose of artists producing music shouldn’t be about the large paychecks they receive in the mail, it should be about their music being heard by the general public and if mashups allow more people to be exposed to their music, then why the hell are they complaining. The revenue should come from how amazing they can throw down their music in live shows. If someone wants to get money from a song they made then they can go perform their version of the song and get paid for it. Artists need to realize that a song does get old and has limitations so if they want to mashup and make their song better, more relevant, and appeal to more people then they should mash up their own music, but in the meantime they should be thanking the mashup artists who are doing it for them. If artists do not want their music to be interrupted in different ways by the general public then they should keep it to themselves. Apart of this interpretation is people taking the message from the music and applying it to their individual contexts. This is a pleasurable aspect of music and mashups help facilitate this by exposing a new twist on music by using old musical material to create something great and more relevant. 

Freewrite

    Once social change begins, it cannot be reversed. You cannot uneducate the person who has learned to read. You cannot humiliate the person who feels pride. You cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore. We have seen the future, and the future is ours

-       Cesar Chavez

I believe this quote by Cesar Chavez embodies how the general public should interpret the technological and media changes that are happening daily. Although this quote was said long before the creation of the Internet, we as society must come together and apply its ideals to the sociological and technological changes happening today. This quote directly applies to our generation because at this moment we are the age group who are the most educated in the technological world and we must take advantage of this skill. We hear older generations mocking our media use and always talking about the “old days” when kids used to play outside and not spend their days mindlessly behind technological screens. It is the job of our generation to prove that what we do with technology is everything but mindless and attempt to come together to create social change with our skills. This course has demonstrated that positive things have come through technology and have discussed the potentials of what some believe to be a “necessary evil”.

I actually found this Chavez quote when I stumbled onto an unknown persons blog while I thought I was mindlessly surfing the Internet. We can sit and talk about how much it complicates things and reminisce of times when we didn’t have Facebook, but we must accept that this change has happened, embrace it, and utilize it to our best advantage. I am guilty of complaining about the problems that the Internet causes in my personal life. I forget to think about how I am lucky to have access to these media resources and how they actually may make my life better and most importantly how they can make the world better. We cannot take away the facebooks, YouTube’s, and Wikipedias so instead of complaining about them lets all use them for the right reasons and view them as an opportunity for our generation to take advantage of our knowledge and skills.  My dad is constantly asking me how to do stuff on the Internet and is amazed at the things my peers and I can do with the Internet. It is almost like our generation has learned and mastered a new language at a young age by growing up during a time where technology is progressing at a rapid rate. It will take my dad years to catch up and master the applications of the Internet that we as Santa Clara students use everyday and even if he attempted to learn he could never keep up because of the rapid rate of change that occurs in the media world. The way we can use the Internet to communicate is unprecedented in the past.  

Although we are young we must take action now. It is possible that soon a new generation will be equipped with skills that we cannot fathom obtaining and we will be stuck reminiscing on days when we were young and the experts. I see little kids who barley know how to tie their shoes texting away on their cell phones. Let us pave the wave for social change by using the technological skills we have been privileged with. This social change can come in a myriad different ways. We can do this by to teaching others our skills and attempt to make Internet accessible to all. Technology helps us look into the future and see the vast change it brings. If we focus on the positive changes and embrace them then we can use it to our advantage by helping others.