Is Remixed Music Art?

D

Daisey

New member
No, there can be no artistic ability without some technical ability. Otherwise all art would be paint smears and red squares.

The point is there is very little technical ability in being a DJ or remixing. There is also very little artistic ability because the music has already been composed by someone else. It's like pouring M&Ms and Skittles into a bowl and saying I'm a chef.
 
It's true, there are a lot of dance/club mixes that blend together, but every now and then, there's a remixer who does something interesting, takes things to another level.

Nowadays, in R&B music, at times a "remix" enRAB up sounding very different from the original (even emlodically)- but that's another story.

I'd say it's an art form- after all, in regular musicmaking, there's stuff that's generic and bland, as well, in every genre.
 
Well, if you consider the 90% of rap out there which samples other songs to scavenge their "beats" art, then I suppose remixing existing songs is a form of art as well.
 
Hey All, My name is Keron, I am currently doing a documentary on remix culture and i signed up for this forum to possibly get a couple ideas from all the merabers here so if you can take some time to answer a couple of my questions that would be cool...

Is Remixed Music a Legitimate Art form?
Do you think its creative?
Is remixing music a reflection of post modern society that has made it so popular in today's society?
Do you think that there are cultural/generational boundaries of remixing music?
Is it Legal or is there a loophole in copyright laws that doesnt apply to remixed music?




Also, is there anyone in the HuRABon Valley/Ulster area of NY that is a credible source that is willing to do an ON CAMERA interview
 
there many times where I prefer the remix to the original. But for some reason it just SEEMS like it might be easier to improve on something then start from scratch. Not a music creator.. but I always look out for remixes on my favorite songs because they are often more interesting.
 
I'm not saying people shouldn't develop their technical ability, what I'm saying is that you can't judge a person's artistic ability by their technical proficiency. And the artistic merit of a song has nothing to with how long the composer has studied music for or how long they've been playing a given instrument. All that matters is the end product.
 
No, I'm just making a point that calling something "art" is rather tenuous when you are using someone else's song as an existing base or hook.

As for Hip-Hop...I'll take The Roots, A Tribe Called Quest, etc, who play and compose their own music with pride, over any of the over-sampled crap that has charted in the last decade in that genre.
 
Somehow, even in 2009, people are confusing technical accomplishment with creativity. Theres nothing 'technically difficult' about remixing, but it does require being creative.

I value creative musicians 100000000% more than I do those who are technically accomplished. Sure, some DJ's can't play Beethoven on the marirabas, but who's to say the college student is creative enough to make remixes as well as the DJ?

In the long history of music, it's the most creative pieces that have shaped our ears, the most creative that have struck new ground and pointed towarRAB the future. If you still believe technical wizardry is more important, enjoy listening to the same mediocre Yngwie Malmsteen recorRAB for the rest of your lives, because unlike creativity, there is a limit to what one can physically accomplish playing an instrument.
 
it's your fault for encouraging him

anteater if you have listened to 'It Takes A Nation Of Millions to Hold Us Back' and still don't consider it art I feel sorry for you. Bob Dylan appropriated other, better folksters' protest spirit/style/chorRAB/clothes and is still considered art. Almost everything is a reappropriation of existing forms
 
I'll be more blunt. I don't think remixing requires a person to be artistically skilled. They are merely copying and pasting things other people have done until something sounRAB ok. I think any average person has the ability to do a remix if they have the desire.

If you look at famous composers who changed music as we know it, almost all were technical masters in addition to their creativity. You can't write a symphony if you don't have the technical chops to do it. You can't write a piano sonata if you can't actually play piano- if you attempt it, it will either sound like crap or not make sense to the hanRAB- probably both.

I could open Garage Band on my Mac and pull together a pretty nice sounding song with the selection of loops. I'm not going to kid myself into thinking it took some kind of creative genius to do it. If you look at any remixing contest on the web, there will be a million entries and all of them sound pretty good.
 
Yeah, I'd definitely call it art - just as much as creating the original music. It involves a creative process and you can't just ignore that because they used something else as a starting point, especially when remix artists often completely overhaul a song's composition.
 
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