The mash-up revolution

Though credited as the grandfathers of mash-ups, Ohio's Evolution Control Committee is more into satirical audio collage ("plunderphonics") than reinventing pop songs. When threatened with a lawsuit by CBS for sampling news anchor Dan Rather over AC/DC for a track on their latest compilation, "Plagiarhythm Nation, Vol 2.0," ECC responded that copyright law allows "fair use"of materials for parody purposes.

With Madonna and the Sex Pistols giving permission to Go Home Productions for its "Ray of Gob," mash-ups may yet go mainstream. "If it's official, things could get interesting," suggests XFM's Hyman. On the other hand, says Osymyso (aka Mark Nicholson), whose "Intro Inspection" crams 100 songs into a 12-minute tour de force, "Legitimizing these tracks will remove the spontaneity that made them work in the first place."

Though there are gazillions of club DJs in the U.S., it's tough to find mash-ups on American airwaves outside a handful of free-form stations. WFMU, the legendary indie station in Jersey City, N.J., features turntable artists during the show "Re: Mixology." Program director Ken Freedman (aka DJ Jesuspants) has scheduled such renowned mashers as Go Home Productions and the Australian DJ known as Dsico, "that No-Talent Hack" (sic).

"What does it matter if the remix of Justin Timberlake's 'Cry Me a River' with 'Let It Whip' as the track came from the label or not?" asks Sean Ross of Airplay Monitor, a radio trade publication. As long as 15 different mixes are provided for every song by labels and radio, he adds, "There's no reason listeners won't keep doing their own."

While a growing core of fans adores mash-ups, some consider them one-gag novelties. Some don't get them and others -- those who aren't willing to spelunk in the darker corners of pop culture's gray market -- literally can't get them. Disclaimers on mash-up sites generally state that music copyright is held by the artist, that remixes will be deleted on request and that listeners are downloading songs for "evaluation purposes only" and agree to erase all material within 48 hours.

After the Recording Industry Association of America succeeded in suing three students for file-sharing, launching a new front in its battle against piracy, president Cary Sherman proclaimed: "When individuals 'share' copyrighted music, without permission of the copyright holder, they are liable." The RIAA is now gathering evidence to prepare a new round of lawsuits in mid-August, potentially targeting anyone who downloads copyrighted music. To say the least, mash-up entrepreneurs are in the crosshairs.

"Record companies use the Web as too much of a scapegoat," says Hyman, of London's XFM. He notes that Apple's iTunes Music Store sold millions of songs in its first few weeks, clearly indicating that people will pay for music -- they just don't want to pay $20 for a crap album. Late to jump on the Internet bandwagon, the music industry is scrambling to recoup revenues it believes it has lost to bootleggers and file-sharers. (The industry's own numbers suggest a catastrophic 26 percent sales drop since 1999.)

The RIAA's refusal to accept downloading is like its fight against blank cassettes in the '80s, says E. Michael Harrington, a music professor at Belmont University in Nashville who specializes in intellectual property issues and has served as an expert witness in copyright lawsuits. Harrington compares the industry's effort to criminalize customers to the Titanic's captain ignoring the iceberg: "Oh, we're sinking. Let's sue the passengers. Creativity is being stifled by copyright laws that are outdated, unrealistic and misinterpreted."

There are potential violations galore in the world of sampling, Harrington explains, but the law is tricky. In some cases the lack of qualitative similarity between different songs has led judges to conclude that sampling is not copyright infringement, as with the U.S. Supreme Court's 1994 decision that 2 Live Crew's parody of Roy Orbison's "Oh, Pretty Woman" was acceptable under the fair-use doctrine. "At its best, the law reflects our values," says Harrington. "When it's not, it just regulates them."

As far back as Mozart, he adds, "There's an age-old tradition of fooling around with music everyone knows and casting it in a new light, giving it new meaning." It's a murky business when ideas of authorship and artistic control come into question. When is it filching, when is it flattery and when is it just funny?

Mash-ups may further muddy the legal waters because they can transform their original sources so dramatically. Organizations like the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Musicians Against Copyrighting of Samples say they are seeking "reasonable copyright" reforms that would permit sampling. Members of Negativland, the California experimental band sued by Island Records for its 1991 parody and remix of U2's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For," support a "sampling license" for remixers' use. BoomSelection, the now-defunct online clearinghouse for bootlegs, referred to the "plundering nature of pop music" in its last-ever Web posting, crediting mash-ups with pushing the boundaries of cool. "There's no longer any shame in loving Hall & Oates," read the site -- when mixed with Daft Punk, something new and improved is created.

Mash-ups might be better understood as part of a continuum rather than a new trend. They will likely mutate further and encourage more bands like Detroit's Electric Six, described as "White Stripes gone Studio 54." Anyone who wants to can download the vocal track to their song "Gay Bar," create their own remix and submit the new version to XFM for possible airplay on "The Remix." So far, Hyman says, the submissions have ranged from "the diabolical to the hilarious to the surreal." He has played "brave, cheeky and genius" versions backed by the "Batman" theme, reggae classics, the Village People's "YMCA," 50 Cent and Motorhead.

In DIY culture, consumers are the producers, owning the tools of production -- a laptop instead of guitar, bass and drums. The bedroom is the studio and factory machinery moves out of the nightclub onto the Internet for millions to access. The media monopolies are fighting back, but with the airwaves gobbled up by conglomerates, homespun mash-ups may be the people's digital antidote.

Hot Aussie remix DJ Dsico "that No-Talent Hack," who mashed Britney Spears vs. Chic to create "Goodtime Girl" -- guides the budding mash-up maker with how-to lessons. Select compatible melodies (mix an a cappella vocal with a different music track -- say, Snoop vs. Foo Fighters, or maybe J.Lo vs. Ben Folds). The possibilities are endless. Tweak tempos, mix and fix pitch, time loops with cheap or free software (audio apps such as Sonic Foundry, Pro-Tools Free, Cool Edit Pro, Acid, Wavelab or Peak). Arrange, adjust, upload. "You gunna be da next Freelance Hellraiser," Dsico declares. "The future is now."

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