Apples to Oranges (Cut Copy Remix)

Cut Copy is an indie synth pop band from Australia (wikipedia.org) (Ha! Eat it, Keen!) With last year's breakthrough album, In Ghost Colours, they've been pasted into the clubs and the consciouses of every indie hipster in Chicago. Like a lot of popular dance acts today, they welcome remixes of their music. In fact, it may even be fair to say that they make music to be remixed.

This is a user-made video that won a contest sponsored by Nokia. Its actually better than the official video.

Club culture was Napster before Napster, and believe it or not, Chicago was the catalyst. Its a community built around a commons, otherwise known as the dance floor. People come together there to share each other's music and to experience that music. The DJ chooses songs he likes and mixes them together to create an experience that is truly unique for every person, every time. For beginning and established artists alike, it is among their highest priorities to have their songs played in the clubs. If a smaller group like Cut Copy hear their song being mixed in a club, its a hit; instant gratification.

Before long those songs are being talked about, googled, downloaded, and eventually sold on iTunes. Major stations take notice of the increasing sales of the song(s) and put it on the airwaves. The song explodes and the artist is catapulted into the mainstream, almost overnight. (see Santogold, MGMT, M.I.A.) Once the song hits its peak, it has already been remixed a thousand times, whether by a DJ, another artist, or just a fan at home on his laptop. This is the music industry in Web 2.0, and I don't see anything wrong with it. It not only multiplies the number of times an artist's song is played or heard, but it enhances the user's experience by letting them participate in the process!

Should this process be applied to other areas of the arts, such as literature? Absolutely not. And I think it is unfair for Keen to compare the two. Its apples to oranges. The remix was born from music and has become an integral part of the hip-hop and club cultures. As a music business major, I especially believe in the remix. However, I don't think there is a place for that in the literary world, mostly because I just have a hard time imagining it. How and why would you re-edit a novel? Now a poem, I might understand, because it is closer to song lyrics, which are borrowed and shared all the time. But an entire book of text? How would you even go about doing that?

My only explanation would be this "liquid library," comparable to Wikipedia. So you post a book to a website, and then users who read it can go in and edit it. What is the point of that?? What does anyone stand to gain from that? A song is a moment. It is not a book. A book is usually a complete work, consisting of several phrases and chapters, and much more. It is an entire package to be sold as a single item, like a movie. It can't be broken down into bpm's or scenes or chapters to be sold individually on iTunes--you need every piece of the puzzle to get the whole picture. Whereas songs are little pictures all their own.