Remixes offer alternative to mainstream music

Subpar remixes of mainstream indie songs seem to circulate everywhere. In various Pittsburgh… Subpar remixes of mainstream indie songs seem to circulate everywhere. In various Pittsburgh shops and establishments, speakers blare a variety of remixed music, creating a clublike scene that may or may not represent the music that shoppers actually enjoy listening to.

But one thing is certain: Remixes are everywhere, and it doesn’t look like they are going to stop popping up anytime soon. It may be interesting to delve into the large and unending sphere of remixes, and today there are mashed-up versions of almost everything. Who knew that we lived in a world where both a moombahton remix of “Rack City” and a dubstep remix of “The Star-Spangled Banner” exist?

The issue of the omnipresence of remixes doesn’t exist solely as a discussion on whether or not these songs improve the original song or not. It also begs the question of the ethical components regarding this aspect of the music industry.

Are we OK with paying and supporting artists for creations that aren’t wholly original? The answer seems to be a resounding yes. Last Friday, mashup artist and Pittsburgh native Girl Talk played a sold-out show at Stage AE’s outdoor venue.

For those unfamiliar with Girl Talk — Gregg Gillis’ pseudonym — he’s an artist especially skilled at splicing songs, which include everything from top-40 hip-hop to 80s pop hits, and combining them into club-ready tunes that actually sound good.

And he’s not the only one. Other mashup artists, such as The White Panda and The Hood Internet, have achieved a cult Internet following by creating mashup mixtapes that are usually available for free download online.

It’s obvious that the rise of mashups and remixes stems almost entirely from the rise of technology, the Internet and their influence on music. Sites such as The Hype Machine and We Are Hunted — both of which aggregate the most-blogged about new tracks floating around the blogosphere — have entire sections dedicated to remixes alone.

Today, the chance of encountering a new track on Pitchfork that is a remix is higher than ever. And with the rise of skilled mixers and producers, such as Clams Casino, who have the ability to completely transform tracks (see his remix of Washed Out’s “Amor Fati” for a stellar example), this increase in popular remixes isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

However, for every great remix of a song that makes its way to the blogosphere, there’s 20 homemade dubstep remixes of the exact same track. There is a ridiculous number of remixing and digital music editing software available online (sometimes for free), all of which allows people who aren’t in the music industry to create amateur remixes and mashups from their computers at home.

These in-home “musicians” then stream tracks to sites like SoundCloud that allow them to upload their creations to the Internet in the hope that the blogosphere will pay them some attention. In other words, basically anyone with a little knowledge of music and technology can become an entry-level producer.

But, should we encourage this kind of behavior? It’s easy to argue that everything is just a derivative of something else, just as easy as it is to say that artists such as Flo Rida shouldn’t be making millions off a song that samples a song that samples another song (the “Inception” of sampling, if you will).

It wouldn’t be right to restrict remixing and mashups solely to famous producers, and in the end, this isn’t so much an issue of unoriginality in music as it is merely a realization of the shift in the direction of today’s music.

In a digital age where nothing is new, artists that can create something original out of already released music will stand out in the industry.