Posts Tagged ‘mash-up’
“Life is like a beautiful melody, only the lyrics are messed up”*…
Seinfeld caps + Kanye West lyrics: SeinYeWest
* Hans Christian Andersen (in translation)
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As we do the mash, we might recall that it was on this date in 410 that Rome was sacked by the Barbarian Visigoths, led by Alaric. Rome was no longer the capital of the Western Roman Empire (it had moved to Mediolanum and then to Ravenna); but it remained the Empire’s spiritual and cultural center. And it had not fallen to an enemy in almost 800 years (the Gauls sacked Rome in 387 BCE). As St. Jerome, living in Bethlehem at the time, wrote: “The City which had taken the whole world was itself taken.”
A 15th-century depiction of the Sack of Rome (with anachronistic details)
“An artist never really finishes his work, he merely abandons it”*…
“Adam and Eve in Paradise: (c. 1527), Mabuse + “Bitch Don’t Kill My Vibe,” Kendrick Lamar
Banksy has lamented (in Wall and Piece) that…
Art is not like other culture because its success is not made by its audience. The public fill concert halls and cinemas every day, we read novels by the millions, and buy records by the billions. ‘We the people’ affect the making and quality of most of our culture, but not our art…. The Art we look at is made by only a select few. A small group create, promote, purchase, exhibit and decide the success of Art. Only a few hundred people in the world have any real say. When you go to an Art gallery you are simply a tourist looking at the trophy cabinet of a few millionaires…
Fly Art is taking Art back:
Fly Art was a project born out of boredom, frustration, and the internet.
Inspired by a lot of other projects with similar themes like Swoosh Art and Carter Family Portraits, Fly Art is the marriage of two of the finer things in life: Hip hop and art.
“The Last Kiss of Romeo and Juliet” (1823), Francisco Hayez + “All of The Lights,” Kanye West ft. Rihanna, Kid Cudi with vocals by Fergie, Charlie Wilson, John Legend, Tony Williams, Alicia Keys, La Roux, The Dream, Ryan Leslie, Alvin Fields and Ken Lewis.
More marvelous mash-ups at Fly Art.
[TotH to @mattiekahn]
* Paul Valery
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As we hum along, we might recall that it was on this date in 1687 that (not yet Sir) Isaac Newton published Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (AKA “Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy”, AKA the Principia). In three volumes Newton laid out his laws of motion (his foundation of classical mechanics), his theory of universal gravitation, and a derivation of Kepler’s laws of planetary motion (which Kepler had obtained empirically).
As G.E. Smith wrote in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy,
Viewed retrospectively, no work was more seminal in the development of modern physics and astronomy than Newton’s Principia… no one could deny that [out of the Principia] a science had emerged that, at least in certain respects, so far exceeded anything that had ever gone before that it stood alone as the ultimate exemplar of science generally.
Title page of Principia, first edition
“I didn’t have to work anymore in life when the rappers started sampling… I’m the most sampled artist in history”*…
A big part of making music is the discovery aspect, is the surprise aspect. That’s why I think I’ll always love sampling. Because it involves combining the music fandom: collecting, searching, discovering music history, and artifacts of recording that you may not have known existed and you just kind of unlock parts of your brain, you know?
– Gotye
From Jonny Wilson– aka Eclectic Method…
email readers click here for video
* Rick James
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As we muse on mash-ups, we might recall that it was on this date in 1878 that the modern music business was effectively born: Thomas Edison was awarded U.S. Patent No. 200,521 for his invention, the phonograph.
Thomas Edison with his phonograph, photographed by Mathew Brady in Washington, April 1878
The Annals of Radical Juxtaposition: Bubbly Edition…
artwork: shag
“Risque, Illicit and Adult” is RIAA’s 2007 collection – single tracks, compilation cuts, and miscellany, including such nuttiness asThe Violent Femmes “Blister In The Sun” mixed with “Smoke on the Water.” Not the Deep Purple original, but Senor Coconut’s kooky electro-Latin version.
RIAA: “Risque, Illicit and Adult”
(After clicking the above link, scroll down for a choice of downloading options. You may have to wait a few secs.)1. I Wanna Be Your Girlfriend
2. Smoke on the Sun
3. Smells like your Muddah
4. Sexy Pipeline
5. sshhaakkee yyoouurruummpp
6. Everytime You Touch Titties
7. Pacifica Fish Dance
8. Revelation Fever
9. Down at Mississippi
10. The Harder They Party
11. Candy Enema Shok
12. (Models Gotta) Fight For Their Right (To Mambo)
13. Coming To Get Bloodstains
14. Wake Me Up When Sept 11 Ends
15. Mind Control CIA
16. Guess I’m Falling Into Bubbles
17. Walking on the Moog
18. Gristle Calypso
19. Lord Only Knows (with People Like Us)TRACK SOURCES: 1. Avril Lavigne vs The Rubinoos 2. Senor Coconut vs Violent Femmes 3. Alan Sherman vs Nirvana 4. Lords of Acid vs The Chantays 5. Beastie Boys vs Reuben Wilson 6. Gravy Train!!! vs Moby vs Rusty Warren 7. Chemical Brothers vs Los Straitjackets 8. Peggy Lee vs Son House 9. Howlin Wolf vs. Violator & Doughbelly Stray 10. Manu Dibango vs Rocker’s Revenge 11. Village People vs Wayne Newton (title is an anagram of “Danke Shoen” and “YMCA.” ) 12. Beastie Boys vs Tito Puente vs Kraftwerk 13. Agent Orange vs The Who Boys 14. Rudolph Giuliani vs Green Day vs Nader (winner of the Remix Rudy contest!) 15. Stone Roses, Curtis Mayfield, The Last Poets vs tv documentary “Mind Control: America’s Secret War” 16. Velvet Underground vs U.S. Army Airborne 17. The Police vs Fred Weinberg 18. Throbbing Gristle vs Kon Tiki steel drum band 19. George Harrison vs Beach Boys vs My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult (with People Like Us)
Additional beats and sounds: RIAA
More, at Music for Maniacs!! (“Bothering normal people since 2004”). And TotH to Dangerous Minds, where Marc Campbell added video to Track 16, above, and created this marvelous mash-up:
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As we march to a different drummer, we might recall that it was on this date in 1996 that “Macarena (Bayside Boys Mix)” began its record-setting run (14 weeks) at #1 on the pop charts. Still a favorite at weddings and parties-of-a-certain-sort, “Macarena” is the #1 “Greatest One-Hit Wonder of all Time” (per VH1), ranks at #5 on Billboard’s All Time Top 100, #1 on Billboard’s All Time Latin Songs, #1 dance song, and is one of only five foreign language songs to hit #1 since 1995’s modern rock era began.
High, Meet Low…
From our friends at Coudal Partners (they of “Who Owns the Fish?” fame), another play-along delight: “Booking Bands.” The idea is to mash up the name of a book with the name of a band. Here, few of Coudal’s examples to get one started:
The Things They Might Be Giants Carried
The Who Moved My Cheese
The Old Man and The Sea and Cake
Charlie Daniels and the Chocolate Factory
Catch 182
Horton Hears a Hoobastank
Of Mice and Men at Work
Bare Naked Lunch Ladies
The Agony and the XTC
Many more inspirational examples here.
As we reorder our library shelves, we might wish an extraordinarily-accomplished Happy Birthday to folklorist, anthropologist, and author, Zora Neale Hurston; she was born on this date in 1891. She studied anthropology at Barnard with Franz Boas, then collected folklore and made recordings in Florida and other areas of the South in the late 1920s. During the Depression, she helped Alan Lomax, the son of pioneer folksong collector John Lomax, document the folk music of Georgia, Florida, and the Bahamas. She also had short stints as a manicurist, a librarian, a dramatic coach with the Federal Theatre Project, a story consultant at Paramount Pictures, a maid, and a teacher. She published folklore collections, an autobiography, and several plays; but she is best remembered for her 1937 novel Their Eyes Were Watching God— or as Coudal might have it, “Their Eyes Were Watching Godsmack.”
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