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Title:
Everything is a Remix
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Description:
Remixing is a folk art but the techniques involved — collecting material, combining it, transforming it — are the same ones used at any level of creation. You could even say that everything is a remix.
To support this series please visit http://www.everythingisaremix.info/?page_id=14
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Remix.
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To combine or edit existing materials to produce something new
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The term remix originally applied to music.
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It rose to prominence late last century during the heyday of hip-hop,
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the first musical form to incorporate sampling from existing recordings.
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Early example:
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the Sugarhill Gang samples the bass riff from Chic’s “Good Times” in the 1979 hit “Rapper’s Delight”.
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Since then that same bassline has been sampled dozens of times.
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Skip ahead to the present and anybody can remix anything
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— music, video, photos, whatever —
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and distribute it globally pretty much instantly.
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You don’t need expensive tools,
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you don’t need a distributor,
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you don’t even need skills.
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Remixing is a folk art — anybody can do it.
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Yet these techniques
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— collecting material, combining it, transforming it —
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are the same ones used at any level of creation.
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You could even say that everything is a remix.
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To explain, let’s start in England in 1968.
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Part One: The Song Remains the Same
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Jimmy Page recruits John Paul Jones, Robert Plant, and John Bonham to form Led Zeppelin.
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They play extremely loud blues music that soon will be known as—
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Wait, let’s start in Paris in 1961.
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William Burroughs coins the term “heavy metal” in the novel “The Soft Machine,”
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a book composed using the cut-up technique,
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taking existing writing and literally chopping it up and rearranging it.
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So in 1961 William Burroughs not only invents the term “heavy metal,”
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the brand of music Zeppelin and a few other groups would pioneer,
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he also produces an early remix.
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Back to Zeppelin.
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By the mid-1970s Led Zeppelin are the biggest touring rock band in America,
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yet many critics and peers label them as
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rip-offs.
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The case goes like this.
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The opening and closing sections of “Bring it on Home” are lifted from a tune by Willie Dixon
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entitled — not coincidentally — “Bring it on Home.”
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Performed by Sonny Boy Williamson
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“The Lemon Song” lifts numerous lyrics from Howlin’ Wolf’s “Killing Floor.”
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“Black Mountain Side” lifts its melody from “Blackwaterside,” a traditional arranged by Bert Jansch.
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(Traditional, Arranged Jansch)
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“Dazed and Confused” features different lyrics but is clearly an uncredited cover of the same-titled song by Jake Holmes.
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Oddly enough, Holmes files suit over forty years later in 2010.
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And the big one, “Stairway to Heaven” pulls its opening from Spirit’s “Taurus.”
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Zeppelin toured with Spirit in 1968,
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three years before “Stairway” was released.
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Zeppelin clearly copied a lot of other people’s material,
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but that alone, isn’t unusual.
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Only two things distinguished Zeppelin from their peers.
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Firstly, when Zeppelin used someone else’s material,
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they didn’t attribute songwriting to the original artist.
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Most British blues groups were recording lots of covers,
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but unlike Zeppelin, they didn’t claim to have written them.
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Secondly, Led Zeppelin didn’t modify their versions enough to claim they were original.
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Many bands knock-off acts that came before them,
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but they tend to emulate the general sound rather than specific lyrics or melodies.
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Zeppelin copied without making fundamental changes.
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So, these two things.
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Covers: performances of other people’s material
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And knock-offs: copies that stay within legal boundaries
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These are long-standing examples of legal remixing.
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This stuff accounts for almost everything the entertainment industry produces,
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and that’s where we’re headed in part two.
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Written and Mixed by Kirby Ferguson
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Follow this project on Twitter: Twitter.com/RemixEverything
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Full sources, references, and purchase links at EverythingisaRemix.info
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Wait, one last thing.
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In the wake of their enormous success,
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Led Zeppelin went from the copier to the copied.
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First in the 70s with groups like Aerosmith, Heart and Boston,
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then during the eighties heavy metal craze,
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and on into the era of sampling.
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Here’s the beats from “When the Levee Breaks” getting sampled and remixed.
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In Zeppelin’s defense, they never sued anybody.
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Hi, I’m Kirby, I made the video you just watched, Everything is a Remix.
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If you enjoyed the video please head over to EverythingisaRemix.info and donate a little money.
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Anything you can muster would be greatly appreciated
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and will help me dedicate time to completing the remaining three episodes
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– it’s going to be a four part series.
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The site has plenty of complimentary information that I think you might find interesting as well.
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You can also find links to songs and videos and stuff from the video.
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If you happen to like them you can go there and purchase them.
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It’s also a good way to keep up with the latest with what’s going on with the series.
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I think that’s it.
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Okay, thank you for watching and I’ll see you next time.