![\"Girl](\"http:\/\/www.nialler9.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/12\/girltalk.jpg\")
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Speaking of mashes here’s a great, interesting and thought provoking <\/em>piece by Nick Sylvester and W. David Marx on Girl Talk. For those who don’t know, Girl Talk does fairly dense\u00c2\u00a0 mashup albums.(He’s playing Dublin in March, I think I may even be supporting him)<\/p>\n Quote<\/p>\n …t<\/em>he extent to which the music he’s working with is so portable, so building-block ready, makes it seem like he’s not making art so much as merely following industry directions: Step by step, like he’s putting together a Lego spaceship. There is no violence in this process, in other words; he’s hardly repurposing much of anything. Instead it’s like a video game in which Gillis has found the warp level \u00e2\u20ac\u201d yet keep in mind, somebody somewhere had to program that warp level precisely so that it would be discovered.<\/em><\/p>\n On a boat on the Shannon last summer listening to the Girl Talk album with my friend the film maker, Eamonn, I got him excited by suggesting that a program could be easily written to mix and mash tunes by their key and Bpm. I’ve since came across Mixmeister which pretty much does this and it’s a matter of months before it or something similar is used as a plug in for media players.<\/p>\n The piece makes some interesting points and is a good read, though quoting Adorno to the effect that pop isn’t art muddies the waters. The pop he was talking about was Jazz and tin pan alley etc. It’s also a bit unclear what their problem with Girl Talk is – that he claims to be an artist? That he’s ‘only’ a technician?<\/p>\n The problem here is the usual one that the word art doesn’t actually mean anything.<\/p>\n From the hitch hikers guide to the galaxy <\/a><\/p>\n Generally, art is a human activity, made with the intention of stimulating thoughts and emotions. Beyond this description, there is no general agreed-upon definition of art<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n –<\/strong><\/em>So every thing apart from work then.<\/p>\n Art used to glorify God, now it glorifies the market. Either everything is art or nothing is. I’d go with nothing. Good stuff, bad stuff, stuff I like, stuff that suits my agenda, but don’t go putting wings or halos on any of it.<\/p>\n It’s important to bear in mind the contexts of mashes and the processes that produce them and with that the fact that they create their own contexts. I remember in the days of Boomselection\u00c2\u00a0<\/a> thinking mashes were done, but they keep going, to the point they are now a model for new technologies.<\/a> Saying they are soulless is a bit of a so what?- That isn’t nescessariliy a bad thing. We’ve just had over twenty years of dancing to a drum machine and searching for the smallest atom of funk…which has been good fun.<\/p>\n To what extent is Coltrane’s\u00c2\u00a0 ‘Favourite things’ a mash? Anyway read the piece, it’ll get you thinking. More mash theory here<\/a>.<\/p>\n