Blog #8- Bootleg Culture

Rojas makes some interesting insights in his piece "Bootleg Culture." He says, "where turntables now routinely outsell guitars, teenagers aspire to be Timbaland and the Automator, No. 1 singles rework or sample other records, and DJs have become pop stars in their own right, even surpassing in fame the very artists whose records they spin" (Rojas 1) I thought this was really interesting, being a teenager now, and relating with the material I just read. To me personally, i'd rather have turntables than a guitar, just because I think I could get more out of a turntable. Why? Because where I am as a person, in the music I listen to, and where our culture is, in the music we as a whole listen to, the turntable is almost a better investment. I remember a line from a Jedi Mind Tricks song, "Anybody with a tape recorder can rap now." I thought that was thought provoking and related to "Bootleg Culture," in a sense, because it's pretty much true. With youtube out there, anyone can make any sort of media and put it out there to be viewed. To go back to Rojas, I agree with his points completely. The "man" of the industry, throwing out what is illegal and what isn't (to a very extreme certain extent) is stifling musicians creativity. Who's to say what truthfully is a creative work. Apparently, according to some, creativity ONLY lies in making something one hundred percent original. Those people don't take into account the time and effort mashup, remix or bootleggers put into collaborating more than one sound (often many sounds), making it sound professional, and making it sell. They believe it's just a crime, when really, as Rojas brilliantly put it, "Pop culture in general seems more and more remixed -- samples and references are permeating more and more of mainstream music, film, and television, and remix culture appears to resonate strongly with consumers. We're at the point where it almost seems unnatural not to quote, reference, or sample the world around us" (Rojas 1).

I choose two pieces of media. This first is a parody of the funny 1996 movie "Happy Gilmore" starring Adam Sandler. As we have all seen, or know, Sandler is a comedic genius, and his early movies were some of the funniest comedies to ever be released (opinion based). Given that, it would be silly to comprehend his movie "Happy Gilmore" to be anything but a hilarious comedy (which it is). However, someone used different scenes in the movie, and scary music, to make the movie look like a horror flick. I think if done well, it's brilliant. Now who's to say that isn't creative? My other piece is the famous rapper Notorious B.I.G, where his song, "Party and Bullshit" is played over the new song "Party in the USA" by Miley Cyrus. I think it's done well, sounds professional and it's catchy. What more could you ask for in a song? I'm impressed as a listener, and that should be enough without having legality issues brought in. The only thing this song could do (in terms of sales) is promote more for both artist. Seems like a win win to me. What else I think is done well, is B.I.G is purely gangster rap, whereas Miley Cyrus is very new age pop. I think it put together is harmonized excellently which is very impressive to me, seeing as their very different genre's.