Saturday, January 08, 2005

Mash-ups: The Trend is Over, You Were With Me All The While

Mash-ups have scaled the Olympian heights of Stereogum ("holy, holy, holy -- thrice holy"), only to descend, tomorrow, into the low grade piece of ass that is the pages of The New York Times Arts and Leisure section (no offense, guys), thus signifying, that in gaining the attentions of The Old Gray Lady, alas, RIP, that the trend is officially over.

Jeff Leeds chronicles how "how the mash-up went legitimate," ironically, in the process, deligitimizing the entire genre in one fell swoop. Leeds starts in 1976 --which sounds like a "freelancer stretch" to me, as he includes, in 1979, The Sugarhill Gang's 'Rapper's Delight,' which, "samples 'Good Times,' a disco track by Chic."

Ah, Chic, how could we forget when Chic was "banging"? But is "sampling" intellectual cousin to the "mash up"? Perhaps. From 1979, Leeds quantum leaps to 1986, where, he relates, "The rock band Aerosmith collaborates with the rap group Run-DMC to create a rap-rock version of Aerosmith's classic 'Walk This Way,' and the video becomes a hit on MTV."

Then, Leeds walks us through "December 1991," where, "A federal judge deals a blow to rap artists, ruling that Biz Markie's unauthorized use of a snippet from Gilbert O'Sullivan's 1970's pop hit 'Alone Again (Naturally)' amounted to copyright infringement"

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Biz Markie! (The Corsair launches into drunken revelry singing:) "You ... got what I need ... but you say she's just a friend ..." (Update: Wonkette notes that Biz Markie is going to be at the Bush inaugural. How off the chain is that?)

But we digress; Well, the article, which ought to be of historical significance as the jumping the shark of a musical genre is something to behold, is here, if you are interested.








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