Congress’ coolest moment
p2pnet.net news:- On the one hand, there’s Hollywood Howard Berman, out there representing his constituents, the major Hollywood studios, against American students, many of whom live in or near Los Angeles and who may have helped get Berman elected. And on the other, in contrast, you have congressman Mike Doyle, mixing it with Tyree ‘DJ Drama‘ Simmons.
Except Doyle isn’t trying to pull Simmons down.
“It seems that we have a closet electronic music lover in the house,” posts Sean Garrett on The 463, going on, “And, by the house, I mean The House.”
Talking about the Future of Radio House Telecom and Internet sub-committee hearing, “that focused on the horrible ruling that could shut down Internet radio stations and the XM/Sirius proposed merger,” he says Doyle, “brought his fellow members into the current century with a story about one his constituents – who happens to be one of the hottest DJs of the moment …”
Below is Garret’s transcript of a video of Doyle’s contribution:
Mr. Chairman, I want to tell you a story of a local guy done good. His name is Greg Gillis and by day he is a biomedical engineer in Pittsburgh. At night, he DJs under the name Girl Talk. His latest mash-up record made the top 2006 albums list from Rolling Stone, Pitchfork and Spin Magazine amongst others. His shtick as the Chicago Tribune wrote about him is “based on the notion that some sampling of copyrighted material, especially when manipulated and recontextualized into a new art form is legit and deserves to be heard.”
In one example, Mr. Chairman, he blended Elton John, Notorious B-I-G, and Destiny’s Child all in the span of 30 seconds. And, while the legal indie-music download site eMusic.com took his stuff down due to possible copyright violation, he’s now flying all over the world to open concerts and remix for artists like Beck.
The same cannot be said for Atlanta-based, hop-hop, mix-tape king DJ Drama. Mix-tapes, actually made on CDs, are sold at Best Buys and local record shops across the country and they are seen as crucial in making or breaking new acts in hip-hop. But even though artists on major labels are paying DJ Drama to get their next mixed-tape, the major record labels are leading raids and sending people like him to jail.
I hope that everyone involved will take a step back and ask themselves if mash-ups and mixtapes are really different or if it’s the same as Paul McCartney admitting that he nicked the Chuck Berry bass-riff and used it on the Beatle’s hit “I Saw Her Standing There.”
Maybe it is. And, maybe Drama violated some clear bright lines. Or, maybe mixtapes are a powerful tool. And, maybe mash-ups are transformative new art that expands the consumers experience and doesn’t compete with what an artist has made available on iTunes or at the CD store. And, I don’t think Sir Paul asked for permission to borrow that bass line, but every time I listen to that song, I’m a little better off for him having done so.
Until our questions about the future of music get answered, we first have to look at the future of radio… (and then he wraps up his talk with a few words about the Webcast issues of the day)…
Wow.
Yup. Wow!
Also See:
against American students – Howard Berman attacks US schools, March 11, 2007
DJ Drama – Blogs vs Mainstream Media, Janbuary 30, 2007
The 463 – Perhaps the Coolest Moment in the History of Congress and Why it Matters, March 11, 2007
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Tired of being treated like a criminal? They depend on you, not the other way around. Don’t buy their ‘product’. Do bug your local politicians. Use emails, snail-mail, phone calls, faxes, IM, stop them in the street, blog. And if you’re into organizing, organize petitions, organize demonstrations and then turn up on your local political rep’s doorstep, making sure you’ve contacted your local tv/radio station/newspaper in advance. Don’t just complain. Do something!
March 12th, 2007 at 5:30 pm
Well, at least not EVERYONE is on the side of Big Business in Congress.
March 14th, 2007 at 6:48 am
This publicity stunt amounts to nothing because there are people like John Conyers the democrap from michigan and fellow democraps Diane Feinstien and Barbara Boxer who have no compunctions about taking kickbacks and bribes from the RIAA and MPAA diguised as”political contributions”.
Diane Feinstein represents me in California and she claims to be as a democrap to be the political party of the common masses but her and her jewish husband own a $16,000,000 mansion in pacific heights in the city of San Franscisco.
Just to fair and balanced the rethuglican party is not much better in being on the RIAA and Mpaa kickback and bribe list.