I’ve wrote my whole shpeel on remixes a while back, but after looking at more material and examples I think I have an even better grasp of it. First I watched “Everything is a Remix Part 1“. This was really interesting to because I love music.

The video went through different genre’s of music, and showed how they used different lyrics, beats, melodies and baselines from other genre’s past… and ‘remixed’ them. Not always giving credit though. I am personally for giving credit where credit is due. But I still think it a creative act. The presentation of this remixed work is still very original. Led Zeppelin presented those lyrics to an audience that was more than likely unfamiliar with the works of Willie Dixon, Howlin Wolfs, etc.

The other video and website I checked out was that for the book by Austin Klean- “Steal like an Artist.” It showed a very positive view on ‘remixing’ and how it was the very essence of creativity. He does show that there is a good and bad way to “steal” though!

Remixing is the very essence of creativity I feel, and it leads to very interesting (sometimes interesting as in… just plain funny) creations. Watching the Buffy vs. Edward: Twilight Remixed and the Star Wars Call Me Maybe videos was a ton of fun. They are creations not made for crazy profiteering, they were made out of a creative passion. They were funny and amusing. The Star Wars video is NOT the Star Wars movie or the original ‘Call Me Maybe’ song, it is something completely different and unique. Same thing with the Twilight remix. Another was the 30 Classic Music Albums Recreated with Lego. This is very original work! It is taking the albums and presenting them in a manner that is brand new and fresh. It re-expresses them.

Remixing can be done negatively, but many times it can be done in an ethical and positive manner. Where that line is drawn is very relative and maybe even a bit vague… but so are most things concerning knowledge I think. If it wasn’t for remixing, we wouldn’t most music that is out, we wouldn’t have different models of cars, different computer brands, smartphones, even fashion… so for the sake of everything… I say we remix on.