After reading a previous blog post by Jorden “A Different Kind of Remix.. or Remake?” I was inspired to continue the discussion on the connotation that remixes hold. Remixes are stereotypically known to be ‘much faster’ or ‘heavier’ then the original song beat. This stereotype is not true, and I want to bring awareness to remix culture, as it’s own entity. A remix of a song should be seen in its own entity. I am not saying it should be completely free of its referent, but it should be judged on its own. The referent is still important to compare the differences and similarities.
Using the ‘Specificity Thesis,” explained by Philosopher and theorist Noel Carroll, can be beneficial to explain that remix is a different art form from the original song because of its formal and physical medium. She explains the thesis is in place to correct the vagueness of tendency to reduce all art forms to their common denominator. The idea that there is something each medium does best, and in this case, remix is the formative building on ideas, beats, pictures, clips and formats that already exist.
Here is a song created (remixed) from all the sounds and voices heard in Alice In Wonderland to form an “original” song. I think it is actually such a pretty, calming song:
Here is the source for Noel Carroll:
Nonfiction Film and Postmodernist Skepticism." Post-Theory: Reconstructing Film Studies. Eds. David Bordwell and Carroll. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1996. pp. 283-306.
I totally agree with you. The mash up of images and words have created a very soothing song that one would not expect is from Alice In Wonderland. I would consider this song one of its own because if the video of Alice In Wonderland was not there,I would have never have guessed that this was the basis or root of this song.
ReplyDelete-Very Cool!
I absolutely LOVE this remix.
ReplyDeleteOne night in my apartment I walked past my roommates door and heard this song playing; at first I had NO idea what she was listening to, I assumed she was in a trance or something haha. So I opened the door to see the video on her screen. I sat and listened to the whole thing and felt a sense of calmness flood over the room. This is definitely a unique form of remixing, because instead of taking pre-recorded beats and melodies, it has to essentially create twice the amount of material. If you're familiar with the movie, it's easy to pull out each individual sound, and at times you almost forget what it's actually remixing. I completely agree with you when you stated that it should be judged as a its own entity. This remix focuses on speech, music, and visual images.
The song reminds me heavily of one of my favourite artists "Crystal Castles." I don't know if you've heard of them, but I'm going to post a video to their song/video "Celestica" because it's one of their more calming and relaxed remixes. They focus their genre on electronic and dance music, but their material is heavily remixed (even though it's using beats and voice that they recorded themselves).
Enjoy! I hope it sounds similar to you
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JITI0FskSG0
It's interesting to think of going back and watching Alice in Wonderland again after having watched and enjoying this remix (and I agree, it's pretty darn cool!), and how much your experience of viewing the film would change. I think the idea of remix not only offering a new meaning to an 'original' (I feel like I always need to slap quotes on the word now...) product but actually changing the experience of its foundational material when you revisit the source material itself being one of the most interesting components of remix. In this way, remix can be seen not only as able to fuse a future of new cultural meanings out of past stuff but also, in a weird way, as changing the past itself, in terms of how it'll be understood by future generations. If this remix attained enormous popularity, would future generations watching Alice in Wonderland draw the immediate association of relaxing beats rather than how we generally understand the movie? To make it even more weird, considering Alice was a book first, does that mean they would, be proxy, equate reading the book to listening to the remix? Literature as techno... now that's either an intriguing or terrifying vision for the future right there!
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