Bring on the RIAA
mash-up or mash·up (mash’up’)
n. An audio recording that is a composite of samples from other recordings, usually from different musical styles.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Re-use of other people’s work is nothing new in modern music. Musicians have been singing each others’ songs for as long as they’ve been singing their own. And sampling and remixing took off with the advent of magnetic tape recording 50 years ago. As my mom says, imitation is high flattery.
In the last decade, digital music has enabled the new wave of re-use and re-imagination: the mashup. At worst, a mashup is a worthless rip-off of what may otherwise be great music. At best, it’s a sublime creation that is all its own.Sadly, while the paradigm has changed, the rules have stayed the same, making most mashups illegal. Let’s show our love for the RIAA by sharing our favorite (illegal) mashups.
