Remix culture, sometimes read-write culture, is a term describing a
society
A society is a Social group, group of individuals involved in persistent Social relation, social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same Politics, political authority an ...
that allows and encourages
derivative work
In copyright law, a derivative work is an expressive creation that includes major copyrightable elements of an original, previously created first work (the underlying work). The derivative work becomes a second, separate work independent in fo ...
s by combining or editing existing materials to produce a new creative work or product. A remix culture would be, by default, permissive of efforts to improve upon, change, integrate, or otherwise
remix
A remix (or reorchestration) is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, video, poem, or photograph can all be remixes. The o ...
the work of creators and copyright holders, with or without their permission. While combining elements has always been a common practice of artists of all domains throughout human history,
the growth of exclusive copyright restrictions in the last several decades limits this practice more and more by the legal
chilling effect
In a legal context, a chilling effect is the inhibition or discouragement of the legitimate exercise of natural and legal rights by the threat of legal sanction. A chilling effect may be caused by legal actions such as the passing of a law, the ...
.
In reaction,
Harvard law professor
Lawrence Lessig
Lester Lawrence Lessig III (born June 3, 1961) is an American academic, attorney, and political activist. He is the Roy L. Furman Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and the former director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard ...
, who considers remixing a desirable concept for human creativity, has worked since the early 2000s on a transfer of the remixing concept into the
digital age. Lessig founded the
Creative Commons
Creative Commons (CC) is an American non-profit organization and international network devoted to educational access and expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has releas ...
in 2001, which released
License
A license (or licence) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit).
A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another party (licensee) as an element of an agreeme ...
s as tools to enable remix culture again, as remixing is legally prevented by the default
exclusive
Exclusive may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Exclusive'' (album), by R&B singer Chris Brown
* ''Exclusive'' (EP), an EP by U2
* ''Exclusive'', a 1937 American film
* ''Exclusive'', a 1989 play by Jeffrey Archer
* ''Exclusive'' (TV serie ...
copyright
A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, education ...
regime applied currently on
intellectual property
Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, cop ...
. The remix culture for cultural works is related to and inspired by the earlier
Free and open-source software
Free and open-source software (FOSS) is a term used to refer to groups of software consisting of both free software and open-source software where anyone is freely licensed to use, copy, study, and change the software in any way, and the source ...
for software movement, which encourages the reuse and remixing of software works.
Description
Lawrence Lessig
Lester Lawrence Lessig III (born June 3, 1961) is an American academic, attorney, and political activist. He is the Roy L. Furman Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and the former director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard ...
described the Remix culture in his 2008 book
''Remix''. Lawrence compared the default media culture of the 20th century to the usage of
computer technology
Computing is any goal-oriented activity requiring, benefiting from, or creating computing machinery. It includes the study and experimentation of algorithmic processes, and development of both hardware and software. Computing has scientific, e ...
terminology as
Read/Write culture (RW) vs.
Read Only culture (RO).
In the usual ''
Read Only'' media culture, the culture is consumed more or less passively.
The information or product is provided by a 'professional' source, the content industry, that possesses an authority on that particular product/information. There is a one-way flow only of creative content and ideas due to a clear role separation between content producer and content consumer. The emergence of
Analog
Analog or analogue may refer to:
Computing and electronics
* Analog signal, in which information is encoded in a continuous variable
** Analog device, an apparatus that operates on analog signals
*** Analog electronics, circuits which use analo ...
mass production and duplication technologies (pre-
Digital revolution and
internet
The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a ''internetworking, network of networks'' that consists ...
like radio broad-casting) enabled the RO culture's business model of production and distribution and limited the role of the consumer to consumption of media.
Digital technology does not have the 'natural' constraints of the analog that preceded it. RO culture had to be recoded in order to compete with the "free" distribution made possible by the Internet. This is primarily done in the form of
Digital Rights Management
Digital rights management (DRM) is the management of legal access to digital content. Various tools or technological protection measures (TPM) such as access control technologies can restrict the use of proprietary hardware and copyrighted work ...
(DRM), which imposes largely arbitrary restrictions on usage. Regardless, DRM has proven largely ineffective in enforcing the constraints of analog media onto digital media.
''Read/Write culture'' has a reciprocal relationship between the producer and the consumer. Taking works, such as songs, and appropriating them in private circles is exemplary of RW culture, which was considered to be the 'popular' culture before the advent of reproduction technologies.
The technologies and copyright laws that soon followed, however, changed the dynamics of popular culture. As it became professionalized, people were taught to defer production to the professionals.
Digital technologies provide the tools for reviving RW culture and democratizing production, sometimes referred to as
Web 2.0. Blogs explain the three layers of this democratization. Blogs have redefined our relationship to the content industry as they allowed access to non-professional,
user-generated content
User-generated content (UGC), alternatively known as user-created content (UCC), is any form of content, such as images, videos, text, testimonials, and audio, that has been posted by users on online platforms such as social media, discussion ...
. The 'comments' feature that soon followed provided a space for readers to have a dialogue with the amateur contributors. 'Tagging' of the blogs by users based on the content provided the necessary layer for users to filter the sea of content according to their interest. The third layer added bots that analyzed the relationship between various websites by counting the clicks between them and, thus, organizing a database of preferences. The three layers working together established an ecosystem of reputation that served to guide users through the
blogosphere. While there is no doubt many amateur online publications cannot compete with the validity of professional sources, the democratization of digital RW culture and the ecosystem of reputation provides a space for many talented voices to be heard that was not available in the pre-digital RO model.
History
Remixing was always a part of the human culture.
US media scholar Professor
Henry Jenkins
Henry Jenkins III (born June 4, 1958) is an American media scholar and Provost Professor of Communication, Journalism, and Cinematic Arts, a joint professorship at the University of Southern California (USC) Annenberg School for Communication an ...
argued that "the story of American arts in the 19th century might be told in terms of the mixing, matching and merging of folk traditions taken from various indigenous and immigrant populations." Another historical example of remixing is
Cento
The Middle East Treaty Organization (METO), also known as the Baghdad Pact and subsequently known as the Central Treaty Organization (CENTO), was a military alliance of the Cold War. It was formed in 24 February 1955 by Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Tur ...
, a literary genre popular in
Medieval Europe
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
consisting mainly of verses or extracts directly borrowed from the works of other authors and arranged in a new form or order.
The balance between creation and consumption shifted with the technological progress on media recording and reproduction. Notable events are the invention of book
printing press
A printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a print medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring the ink. It marked a dramatic improvement on earlier printing methods in which the ...
and the analog
Sound recording and reproduction
Sound recording and reproduction is the electrical, mechanical, electronic, or digital inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of sound recordin ...
leading to severe cultural and legal changes.
Analog era
In the beginning of the 20th century, on the dawn of the analog
Sound recording and reproduction
Sound recording and reproduction is the electrical, mechanical, electronic, or digital inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of sound recordin ...
revolution,
John Philip Sousa
John Philip Sousa ( ; November 6, 1854 – March 6, 1932) was an American composer and conductor of the late Romantic era known primarily for American military marches. He is known as "The March King" or the "American March King", to di ...
, an American composer and conductor of the late
Romantic era
Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...
, warned in 1906 in a
congressional
A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...
hearing on a negative change of the musical culture by the now available "canned music".
[Bierley, Paul Edmund, "The Incredible Band of John Philip Sousa". ]University of Illinois Press
The University of Illinois Press (UIP) is an American university press and is part of the University of Illinois system. Founded in 1918, the press publishes some 120 new books each year, plus 33 scholarly journals, and several electronic projec ...
, 2006. Page 82
Specialized, expensive creation devices ("read-write") and specialized cheap consumption ("read-only") devices allowed a centralized production by few and decentralized consumption by many. Analog devices for consumers for low prices, lacking the capability of writing and creating, spread out fast:
Newspapers
A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background.
Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sport ...
,
Jukebox
A jukebox is a partially automated music-playing device, usually a coin-operated machine, that will play a patron's selection from self-contained media. The classic jukebox has buttons, with letters and numbers on them, which are used to selec ...
,
radio
Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transm ...
,
television
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication Media (communication), medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of Transmission (telecommunications), television tra ...
. This new business model, an
Industrial information economy
Industrial information economy is a term coined by Harvard University Professor Yochai Benkler. Benkler discusses this term in-depth in his 2006 book '' The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom''.
Industrial in ...
, demanded and resulted in the strengthening of the
exclusive
Exclusive may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Exclusive'' (album), by R&B singer Chris Brown
* ''Exclusive'' (EP), an EP by U2
* ''Exclusive'', a 1937 American film
* ''Exclusive'', a 1989 play by Jeffrey Archer
* ''Exclusive'' (TV serie ...
copyright
A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, education ...
and a weakening of the remix culture and the
Public domain
The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable. Because those rights have expired, ...
in throughout the 19th and 20th century.
Analog creation devices were expensive and also limited in their editing and rearranging capability. An analog copy of a work (e.g. an
audio tape) cannot be edited, copied and worked on infinite often as the quality continuously worsens. Despite that, a creative remixing culture survived to some limited degree. For instance composer
John Oswald coined in 1985 the
Plunderphonics term in his
essay
An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a letter, a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have been sub-classified as formal ...
''Plunderphonics, or Audio Piracy as a Compositional Prerogative'' for
sound collage
In music, montage (literally "putting together") or sound collage ("gluing together") is a technique where newly branded sound objects or Musical composition, compositions, including songs, are created from collage, also known as Photomontage, ...
s based on existing
audio recordings and altering them in some way to make a new
composition.
Remixing as digital age phenomena
Technology changed fundamentally with the
digital revolution.
Digital information could be reproduced and edited infinitely, often without quality loss. Still, in the 1960s the first digital general computing devices with such capabilities were meant only for specialists and professionals and were extremely expensive; the first consumer oriented devices like
video game console
A video game console is an electronic device that outputs a video signal or image to display a video game that can be played with a game controller. These may be home consoles, which are generally placed in a permanent location connected to ...
s inherently lacked RW capability. But in the 1980s, the arrival of the
home computer and especially the
IBM personal computer
The IBM Personal Computer (model 5150, commonly known as the IBM PC) is the first microcomputer released in the IBM PC model line and the basis for the IBM PC compatible de facto standard. Released on August 12, 1981, it was created by a tea ...
brought a digital
prosumer
A prosumer is an individual who both consumes and produces. The term is a portmanteau of the words ''producer'' and ''consumer''. Research has identified six types of prosumers: DIY prosumers, self-service prosumers, customizing prosumers, colla ...
device, a device usable for production and consumption at the same time, to the masses for an affordable price. Similarly for software, in the 1990s the
free and open-source software
Free and open-source software (FOSS) is a term used to refer to groups of software consisting of both free software and open-source software where anyone is freely licensed to use, copy, study, and change the software in any way, and the source ...
movement implemented a software ecosystem based on the idea of edit-ability by anyone.
Internet and Web 2.0
The broad diffusion of the Internet and of the Web in the late 1990s and early 2000s created a highly effective way to re-implement a "remix culture" in all domains of art, technology and society. Unlike TV and radio, with a
unidirectional information transport (producer to consumer), the Internet is inherently
bidirectional, enabling a
peer-to-peer
Peer-to-peer (P2P) computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads between peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the network. They are said to form a peer-to-peer ...
dynamic. This accelerated with
Web 2.0 and more
user-generated content
User-generated content (UGC), alternatively known as user-created content (UCC), is any form of content, such as images, videos, text, testimonials, and audio, that has been posted by users on online platforms such as social media, discussion ...
due to
Commons-based peer production
Commons-based peer production (CBPP) is a term coined by Harvard Law School professor Yochai Benkler. It describes a model of socio-economic production in which large numbers of people work cooperatively; usually over the Internet. Commons-bas ...
possibilities. Remixes of songs, videos, and photos are easily distributed and created. There is a constant revision to what is being created, which is done on both a professional and amateur scale. The availability of various end-user oriented software such as
GarageBand and
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop is a raster graphics editor developed and published by Adobe Inc. for Windows and macOS. It was originally created in 1988 by Thomas and John Knoll. Since then, the software has become the industry standard not only in ras ...
makes it easy to remix. The Internet allows distribution of remixes to the masses.
Internet meme
An Internet meme, commonly known simply as a meme ( ), is an idea, behavior, style, or image that is spread via the Internet, often through social media platforms. What is considered a meme may vary across different communities on the Internet ...
s are Internet-specific creative content which are created, filtered and transformed by the viral spreading process made possible by the web and its users.
Foundation of the Creative Commons
As a response to a more restrictive copyright system (
Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension,
DMCA), which started to limit the blooming sharing and remixing activities of the web,
Lawrence Lessig
Lester Lawrence Lessig III (born June 3, 1961) is an American academic, attorney, and political activist. He is the Roy L. Furman Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and the former director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard ...
founded the
Creative Commons
Creative Commons (CC) is an American non-profit organization and international network devoted to educational access and expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has releas ...
in 2001. In 2002 the Creative Commons released a set of
license
A license (or licence) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit).
A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another party (licensee) as an element of an agreeme ...
s as tools to enable remix culture, by allowing a balanced,
fair enabling release of creative works, "some rights reserved" instead of the usual "
all rights reserved". Several companies and governmental organizations adapted this approach and licenses in the following years, for instance
flickr
Flickr ( ; ) is an American image hosting and video hosting service, as well as an online community, founded in Canada and headquartered in the United States. It was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and was a popular way for amateur and professiona ...
,
DeviantART
DeviantArt (historically stylized as deviantART) is an American online art community that features artwork, videography and photography, launched on August 7, 2000 by Angelo Sotira, Scott Jarkoff, and Matthew Stephens among others.
DeviantArt ...
and
Europeana
Europeana is a web portal created by the European Union containing digitised cultural heritage collections of more than 3,000 institutions across Europe. It includes records of over 50 million cultural and scientific artefacts, brought togeth ...
using or offering CC license options which allow remixing. There are several webpages addressing this remix culture, for instance
ccMixter founded 2004.
The 2008
open-source film by
Brett Gaylor
Brett Gaylor is a Canadian documentary filmmaker living in Victoria, British Columbia. He grew up on Galiano Island, British Columbia. He was formerly the VP of Mozilla's Webmaker Program. His documentary, '' Do Not Track'', explores privacy a ...
''
RiP!: A Remix Manifesto'' documents "the changing concept of
copyright
A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, education ...
".
In 2012,
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...
's
Copyright Modernization Act explicitly added a new exemption which allows non-commercial remixing.
In 2013 the US court ruling
Lenz v. Universal Music Corp. acknowledged that amateur remixing might fall under fair use and copyright holders are requested to check and respect
fair use
Fair use is a doctrine in United States law that permits limited use of copyrighted material without having to first acquire permission from the copyright holder. Fair use is one of the limitations to copyright intended to balance the intere ...
before doing
DMCA take down notice
The Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act (OCILLA) is United States federal law that creates a conditional 'safe harbor' for online service providers (OSP) (a group which includes internet service providers (ISP) and other Inter ...
s.
Copyright
Under
copyright laws
A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, educatio ...
of many countries, anyone with the intent to remix an existing work without permission is liable for lawsuit because the laws protect the
intellectual property
Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, cop ...
of the work. However, current copyright laws are proving to be ineffective at preventing sampling of content. On the other hand,
fair-use does not address a wide enough range of use-cases and its borders are not well established and defined, making usage under "fair use" legally risky. Lessig argues that there needs to be a change in the current state of copyright laws to legalize remix culture, especially for fair-use cases. He states that "outdated copyright laws have turned our children into criminals." One proposition is to adopt the system of
citation
A citation is a reference to a source. More precisely, a citation is an abbreviated alphanumeric expression embedded in the body of an intellectual work that denotes an entry in the bibliographic references section of the work for the purpose of ...
used with book references. The artist would cite the intellectual property she sampled which would give the original creator the credit, as is common with literature references. As tools for doing so Lawrence Lessig proposed the
Creative Commons license
A Creative Commons (CC) license is one of several public copyright licenses that enable the free distribution of an otherwise copyrighted "work".A "work" is any creative material made by a person. A painting, a graphic, a book, a song/lyric ...
s which demand for instance
Attribution without restricting the general use of a creative work. One step further is the
Free content movement, which proposes that creative content should be released under
free license
A free license or open license is a license which allows others to reuse another creator’s work as they wish. Without a special license, these uses are normally prohibited by copyright, patent or commercial license. Most free licenses are wo ...
s. The
Copyright reform movement tries to tackle the problem by cutting for instance the excessively long
copyright terms, as it was debated by scholar
Rufus Pollock.
Other copyright scholars, such as
Yochai Benkler
Yochai Benkler (; born 1964) is an Israeli-American author and the Berkman Professor of Entrepreneurial Legal Studies at Harvard Law School. He is also a faculty co-director of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Univer ...
and Erez Reuveni, promulgate ideas that are closely related to remix culture. Some scholars argue that the academic and legal institutions must change with the culture towards one that is remix-based.
In June 2015, a
WIPO
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO; french: link=no, Organisation mondiale de la propriété intellectuelle (OMPI)) is one of the 15 specialized agencies of the United Nations (UN). Pursuant to the 1967 Convention Establishin ...
article named "Remix Culture and Amateur Creativity: A Copyright Dilemma" acknowledged the "age of remixing" and the need for a
copyright reform.
Domains of remixing
Folklore and vocal traditions
*
Folklore
Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as Narrative, tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, r ...
existed long before any copyright law. All
folk tales
Oral literature, orature or folk literature is a genre of literature that is spoken or sung as opposed to that which is written, though much oral literature has been transcribed. There is no standard definition, as anthropologists have used vary ...
,
folk song
Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has ...
s,
folk art
Folk art covers all forms of visual art made in the context of folk culture. Definitions vary, but generally the objects have practical utility of some kind, rather than being exclusively decorative. The makers of folk art are typically tr ...
,
folk poetry
Folk poetry (sometimes referred to as ''poetry in action'') is poetry that is part of a society's folklore, usually part of their oral tradition. When sung, folk poetry becomes a folk song.
Description
Folk poetry in general has several characteri ...
, etc. was revised constantly through the
folk process. According to
Ramsay Wood, the oldest known example of remix culture is the
Panchatantra
The ''Panchatantra'' ( IAST: Pañcatantra, ISO: Pañcatantra, sa, पञ्चतन्त्र, "Five Treatises") is an ancient Indian collection of interrelated animal fables in Sanskrit verse and prose, arranged within a frame stor ...
, an ancient
India
India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...
n collection of interrelated
animal fables in verse and prose, arranged within a
frame story
A frame is often a structural system that supports other components of a physical construction and/or steel frame that limits the construction's extent.
Frame and FRAME may also refer to:
Physical objects
In building construction
* Framing ( ...
. The original
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominalization, nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cul ...
work is believed to be composed around the 3rd century BCE,
based on older
oral tradition
Oral tradition, or oral lore, is a form of human communication wherein knowledge, art, ideas and cultural material is received, preserved, and transmitted orally from one generation to another. Vansina, Jan: ''Oral Tradition as History'' (1985 ...
s, including "animal fables that are as old as we are able to imagine".
The Panchatantra was reinterpreted in the following 2300 years at least 200 times in 50 different languages all around the world.
*
Cooking recipes might be among the oldest knowledge of mankind which was inherited further and shared unrestricted for adaption and improvement. A recent example is the
Free Beer
Opay Beer, originally known as Vores øl - An open source beer (English: ''Our Beer''), is a brand of beer and the first with an "open"/"free" brand and recipe. The recipe and trademark elements are published under the Creative Commons CC ...
project of
Superflex which has recipe and label artwork under a
creative commons license
A Creative Commons (CC) license is one of several public copyright licenses that enable the free distribution of an otherwise copyrighted "work".A "work" is any creative material made by a person. A painting, a graphic, a book, a song/lyric ...
, actively encouraging free adaption and reuse.
*
Parodies
A parody, also known as a spoof, a satire, a send-up, a take-off, a lampoon, a play on (something), or a caricature, is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satiric or ironic imitation. Often its su ...
are a form of
satire
Satire is a genre of the visual arts, visual, literature, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently Nonfiction, non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ...
that adapt another work of
art in order to ridicule it. Parodies date back at least to
ancient Greek
Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...
times. Parody exists in all art media, including
literature
Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to inclu ...
,
music
Music is generally defined as the The arts, art of arranging sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Exact definition of music, definitions of mu ...
and
cinema.
Graphic arts
* Remixing in the graphical arts is long known as
appropriation. An example for appropriation in
graphic
Graphics () are visual images or designs on some surface, such as a wall, canvas, screen, paper, or stone, to inform, illustrate, or entertain. In contemporary usage, it includes a pictorial representation of data, as in design and manufacture, ...
s is the never-ending remix of
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 14522 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, Drawing, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially re ...
's piece ''
Mona Lisa
The ''Mona Lisa'' ( ; it, Gioconda or ; french: Joconde ) is a Half length portrait, half-length portrait painting by Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci. Considered an archetypal masterpiece of the Italian Renaissance, it has been described ...
'' (see
Mona Lisa replicas and reinterpretations
Leonardo da Vinci's '' Mona Lisa'' is one of the most recognizable and famous works of art in the world, and also one of the most replicated and reinterpreted. ''Mona Lisa'' replicas were already being painted during Leonardo's lifetime by his o ...
and
Derivative works of Mona Lisa). This painting has been reproduced innumerable times with different faces and
Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop is a raster graphics editor developed and published by Adobe Inc. for Windows and macOS. It was originally created in 1988 by Thomas and John Knoll. Since then, the software has become the industry standard not only in ras ...
effects, such as
Marcel Duchamp
Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp (, , ; 28 July 1887 – 2 October 1968) was a French painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer whose work is associated with Cubism, Dada, and conceptual art. Duchamp is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Picasso ...
's
L.H.O.O.Q.
''L.H.O.O.Q.'' () is a work of art by Marcel Duchamp. First conceived in 1919, the work is one of what Duchamp referred to as readymades, or more specifically a rectified ready-made. Some remixed images include
Photoshopped
Photograph manipulation involves the transformation or alteration of a photograph using various methods and techniques to achieve desired results. Some photograph manipulations are considered to be skillful artwork, while others are conside ...
images of the Mona Lisa mixed with
Mr. Bean and an alien-like version.
*
Graffiti
Graffiti (plural; singular ''graffiti'' or ''graffito'', the latter rarely used except in archeology) is art that is written, painted or drawn on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from s ...
is an example of read/write culture where the participants interact with their surroundings and environment. In much the same way that advertisements decorate walls, graffiti allows the public to choose the images to have displayed on their buildings. By using
spray paint, or other mediums, the artists essentially remix and change the wall or other surface to display their twist or critique. Street art is a sub-genre of graffiti, distinguished by emphasizing artistic elements other than text, and utilizing a variety of mediums, including paint, stenciling, collage, and the incorporation of physical surfaces and objects, while often providing critical social commentary.
Street artist
Shepard Fairey
Frank Shepard Fairey (born February 15, 1970) is an American contemporary artist, activist and founder of OBEY Clothing who emerged from the skateboarding scene. In 1989 he designed the " Andre the Giant Has a Posse" (...OBEY...) sticker campai ...
built their personal brand on a remixed image of professional wrestler Andre the Giant, done in a
Pop Art style, with the term OBEY printed beneath the portrait. Fairey applied a similar technique when designing the popular
HOPE
Hope is an optimistic state of mind that is based on an expectation of positive outcomes with respect to events and circumstances in one's life or the world at large.
As a verb, its definitions include: "expect with confidence" and "to cherish ...
campaign poster in support of then 2008 U.S. Presidential Candidate Barack Obama. Fairey's HOPE image was also similar in composition to the iconic posterized image of Che Guevara, adapted from the photograph ''
Guerrillero Heroico''.
That same image of Guevara has also been remixed by notable contemporary English graffiti artist
Banksy
Banksy is a pseudonymous England-based street artist, political activist and film director whose real name and identity remain unconfirmed and the subject of speculation. Active since the 1990s, his satirical street art and subversive epigram ...
, who adapted the pastiche in their work ''Haight Street Rat'' which depicts a rat wearing Guevara's red beret, and holding a red marker next to the words "This is where I draw the line."
Books and other information
*
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a multilingual free online encyclopedia written and maintained by a community of volunteers, known as Wikipedians, through open collaboration and using a wiki-based editing system. Wikipedia is the largest and most-read ref ...
is an example of a written remix, where the public is encouraged to add their knowledge in an
encyclopedia
An encyclopedia (American English) or encyclopædia (British English) is a reference work or compendium providing summaries of knowledge either general or special to a particular field or discipline. Encyclopedias are divided into articles ...
. The
wiki
A wiki ( ) is an online hypertext publication collaboratively edited and managed by its own audience, using a web browser. A typical wiki contains multiple pages for the subjects or scope of the project, and could be either open to the pu ...
-based website essentially allows a user to remix the information presented.
Amazon.com called Wikipedia "the world's most exhaustive and up-to-date encyclopedia" because it is edited and produced by such a large pool of people.
*
Scanlations are
fan-made translation
Translation is the communication of the Meaning (linguistic), meaning of a #Source and target languages, source-language text by means of an Dynamic and formal equivalence, equivalent #Source and target languages, target-language text. The ...
s of
comics from a language into another language.
*
Book mashups, combining multiple books, received attention in 2009 with
Seth Grahame-Smith
Seth Grahame-Smith (born Seth Jared Greenberg; January 4, 1976) is an American writer and film producer, best known as the author of ''The New York Times'' best-selling novels '' Pride and Prejudice and Zombies'' and ''Abraham Lincoln, Vampire ...
's ''
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies''.
* The
OpenStreetMap
OpenStreetMap (OSM) is a free, open geographic database updated and maintained by a community of volunteers via open collaboration. Contributors collect data from surveys, trace from aerial imagery and also import from other freely licensed ...
project creates a
free
Free may refer to:
Concept
* Freedom, having the ability to do something, without having to obey anyone/anything
* Freethought, a position that beliefs should be formed only on the basis of logic, reason, and empiricism
* Emancipate, to procur ...
editable
map of the world,
with over two million registered users who collect data using manual surveys,
GPS devices,
aerial photography
Aerial photography (or airborne imagery) is the taking of photographs from an aircraft or other airborne platforms. When taking motion pictures, it is also known as aerial videography.
Platforms for aerial photography include fixed-wing aircr ...
, and other free sources.
* The
Wikimedia Commons
Wikimedia Commons (or simply Commons) is a media repository of free-to-use images, sounds, videos and other media. It is a project of the Wikimedia Foundation.
Files from Wikimedia Commons can be used across all of the Wikimedia projects in ...
is digital data repository open for
free content contribution from the public. The content, mostly images and sound files, is licensed under
Creative Commons license
A Creative Commons (CC) license is one of several public copyright licenses that enable the free distribution of an otherwise copyrighted "work".A "work" is any creative material made by a person. A painting, a graphic, a book, a song/lyric ...
s enabling free reuse and remixing by anyone. Another examples are the collaborative image hosting sites
Flickr
Flickr ( ; ) is an American image hosting and video hosting service, as well as an online community, founded in Canada and headquartered in the United States. It was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and was a popular way for amateur and professiona ...
and
Deviantart
DeviantArt (historically stylized as deviantART) is an American online art community that features artwork, videography and photography, launched on August 7, 2000 by Angelo Sotira, Scott Jarkoff, and Matthew Stephens among others.
DeviantArt ...
who offer Creative Commons license options.
Software and other digital goods
Software
Software is a set of computer programs and associated software documentation, documentation and data (computing), data. This is in contrast to Computer hardware, hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work.
...
as
digital good
Digital goods or e-goods are intangible goods that exist in digital form. Examples are Wikipedia articles; digital media, such as e-books, downloadable music, internet radio, internet television and streaming media; fonts, logos, photos and graphi ...
is well suited for adaption and remixing.
* Pre-internet
Public domain software of the 1960s and 1970s was software which was shared, edited and improved constantly as
type-in program
A type-in program or type-in listing was computer source code printed in a home computer magazine or book. It was meant to be entered via the Keyboard (computing), keyboard by the reader and then saved to Compact Cassette (data), cassette tape or ...
s. The
Free and open-source software
Free and open-source software (FOSS) is a term used to refer to groups of software consisting of both free software and open-source software where anyone is freely licensed to use, copy, study, and change the software in any way, and the source ...
movement can be seen as a kind of successor to those programs.
* In the
Free and open-source software
Free and open-source software (FOSS) is a term used to refer to groups of software consisting of both free software and open-source software where anyone is freely licensed to use, copy, study, and change the software in any way, and the source ...
culture, established in the 1990s as opposition to the "Read-only"
proprietary software
Proprietary software is computer software, software that is deemed within the free and open-source software to be non-free because its creator, publisher, or other rightsholder or rightsholder partner exercises a legal monopoly afforded by modern ...
, sharing,
forking and reusing are natural parts of the development model. For instance, the
Linux
Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which i ...
operating system
An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs.
Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ef ...
, with its commercial offspring
Android
Android may refer to:
Science and technology
* Android (robot), a humanoid robot or synthetic organism designed to imitate a human
* Android (operating system), Google's mobile operating system
** Bugdroid, a Google mascot sometimes referred to ...
and
ChromeOS
ChromeOS, sometimes stylized as chromeOS and formerly styled as Chrome OS, is a Linux-based operating system designed by Google. It is derived from the open-source ChromiumOS and uses the Google Chrome web browser as its principal user interfac ...
, is a highly successful result of a software "remix culture".
* The arrival of Internet facing
software repositories helped the remix software development model enormously in the 2000s.
GitHub
GitHub, Inc. () is an Internet hosting service for software development and version control using Git. It provides the distributed version control of Git plus access control, bug tracking, software feature requests, task management, co ...
helped since 2008 further the collaborative software development in remix style, especially
web development
Web development is the work involved in developing a website for the Internet (World Wide Web) or an intranet (a private network). Web development can range from developing a simple single static page of plain text to complex web application ...
.
*
Fangames are
video game
Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device to gener ...
s
made by fans based on one or more established
video game
Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device to gener ...
s, often acting as a sequel when no official sequel exists.
Dōjin soft
is software created by Japanese hobbyists or hobbyist groups (referred to as "circles"), more for fun than for profit. The term includes digital , which are essentially the Japanese equivalent of independent video games or fangames (the term " ...
is the Japanese-specific variant, and
homebrew
Homebrewing mainly refers to small-scale, non-commercial manufacture of a drink, typically beer.
Homebrew or home brew may also refer to:
Computing
* Homebrew Computer Club
* Homebrew (package manager), for macOS and Linux
* Homebrew (video game ...
typically for proprietary hardware consoles.
*
OverClocked ReMix is a community dedicated to
preserving and paying tribute to
video game music
Video game music (or VGM) is the soundtrack that accompanies video games. Early video game music was once limited to sounds of early sound chips, such as programmable sound generators (PSG) or FM synthesis chips. These limitations have led to ...
through
non-commercial
A non-commercial (also spelled noncommercial) activity is an activity that does not, in some sense, involve commerce, at least relative to similar activities that do have a commercial objective or emphasis. For example, advertising-free community ...
re-arranging and re-interpreting the songs.
*
Video game modding
Video game modding (short for "modification") is the process of alteration by players or fans of one or more aspects of a video game, such as how it looks or behaves, and is a sub-discipline of general modding. Mods may range from small changes an ...
is the creative adaption of a released
video game
Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device to gener ...
. In the 2000s the video game industry noticed the potential and supports often mod makers actively with modding kits. Special cases are
fan patches,
server emulators and
Fan translation of video games who made by fans to alleviate
bugs
Bugs may refer to:
* Plural of bug
Arts, entertainment and media Fictional characters
* Bugs Bunny, a character
* Bugs Meany, a character in the ''Encyclopedia Brown'' books
Films
* ''Bugs'' (2003 film), a science-fiction-horror film
* ''Bugs ...
or shortcomings.
*
Machinimas are
fan-made videos "remixed" from and with video games, going far beyond the original scope and intent.
*
Retrocomputing and computer and
digital preservation
In library and archival science, digital preservation is a formal endeavor to ensure that digital information of continuing value remains accessible and usable. It involves planning, resource allocation, and application of preservation methods an ...
activities as
emulation and
reverse engineering
Reverse engineering (also known as backwards engineering or back engineering) is a process or method through which one attempts to understand through deductive reasoning how a previously made device, process, system, or piece of software accompli ...
were described as aspects of the remixing culture.
* Household
3D printing
3D printing or additive manufacturing is the construction of a three-dimensional object from a CAD model or a digital 3D model. It can be done in a variety of processes in which material is deposited, joined or solidified under computer ...
heavily relies on remixing as this allows users to repurpose existing designs. Several academic studies have highlighted the importance of remixing for the 3D printing community.
Thingiverse
Thingiverse is a website dedicated to the sharing of user-created digital design files. Providing primarily free, open-source hardware designs licensed under the GNU General Public License or Creative Commons licenses, the site allows contributors ...
is a 3D printing community that allows its users to create, share, and access a broad range of printable digital models. The possibility to remix existing models is the core of this platform. In 2016
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation, multinational technology company, technology corporation producing Software, computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at th ...
started Remix3D.com, a community that is also dedicated to 3D printing models.
Music
*
DJing is the act of live rearranging and remixing of pre-recorded music material to new compositions. From this music, the term remix spread to other domains.
*
Sampling in music making is an example of reuse and remix to produce a new work. Sampling is widely popular within
hip-hop culture.
Grandmaster Flash and
Afrika Bambaataa
Lance Taylor (born on April 17, 1957), also known as Afrika Bambaataa (), is an American DJ, rapper, and producer from the South Bronx, New York. He is notable for releasing a series of genre-defining electro tracks in the 1980s that influence ...
were some of the earliest hip-hop artists to employ the practice of sampling. This practice can also be traced to artists such as
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin were an English rock band formed in London in 1968. The group comprised vocalist Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham. With a heavy, guitar-driven sound, they are c ...
, who interpolated substantial portions of music by many acts including
Willie Dixon,
Howlin' Wolf
Chester Arthur Burnett (June 10, 1910January 10, 1976), better known by his stage name Howlin' Wolf, was an American blues singer and guitarist. He is regarded as one of the most influential blues musicians of all time. Over a four-decade car ...
,
Jake Holmes, and
Spirit. By taking a small clip of an existing song, changing different parameters such as pitch, and incorporating it into a new piece, the artist can make it their own.
*
Music mashups are blends of existing music tracks. The 2004 album ''dj BC presents
The Beastles
The Beastles is the name of a fictional band created by dj BC. The music is a mashup of music from the Beatles and Beastie Boys.
dj BC received both acclaim and controversy after the release of the self-made album 2004 ''dj BC presents The Beastl ...
'' received acclaim and was featured in ''
Newsweek
''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely ...
'' and ''
Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its co ...
''. A second album named ''Let It Beast'' with cover art by cartoonist
Josh Neufeld
Josh Neufeld (born August 9, 1967) is an alternative cartoonist known for his nonfiction comics on subjects like Hurricane Katrina, international travel, and finance, as well as his collaborations with writers like Harvey Pekar and Brooke Gladsto ...
was produced in 2006. Mashup DJ Gregg Gillis, who performs as
Girl Talk, crafts entire albums out of remixed material, and cites Fair Use privileges to sample copyrighted works. Other notable mashup DJs include
Danger Mouse Danger Mouse may refer (or appear in) to:
* ''Danger Mouse'' (1981 TV series), a 1981 British animated television series
* ''Danger Mouse'' (2015 TV series), a 2015 reboot of the British animated television series
* Danger Mouse (musician) (born ...
,
Dean Gray, and
DJ Earworm
Jordan Roseman (born March 25, 1982), known professionally as DJ Earworm, is an American mashup artist from San Francisco, California, who has achieved recognition for his technically sophisticated, songwriting oriented music and video mashups. ...
.
*Some genres of music are defined by their usage of remixing.
DJ Screw created the
Chopped and Screwed
Chopped and screwed (also called screwed and chopped or slowed and throwed) is a music genre and technique of remixing music that involves slowing down the tempo and deejaying. It developed in the Houston hip hop scene in the early 1990s by D ...
genre by accidentally playing a record that was meant for 45 rpm at 33 1⁄3 rpm, creating a slowed, laid-back, psychedelic effect. Over the slowed down track Screw would layer drum tracks and then scratch the records to create a classic Southern hip-hop sound.
[Vargas, Samantha G. (2021-05). ]
Chopped and Screwed: The Impact of DJ Screw
'(Thesis). Texas State University Nightcore is a genre that speeds up mainstream rock, pop, and EDM songs, often with additional production. The sped -up nature leads to the original song playing at a higher pitch, so the production added usually fills out the low-end with heavy bass and then adds other high pitched elements to enhance the energy of the song.
Building upon
Plunderphonics and
Chopped and Screwed
Chopped and screwed (also called screwed and chopped or slowed and throwed) is a music genre and technique of remixing music that involves slowing down the tempo and deejaying. It developed in the Houston hip hop scene in the early 1990s by D ...
,
Vaporwave as a musical genre involves slowing down smooth jazz, RnB, and Elevator music and usually adding reverb and backing synths, creating a trippy new-age ambience.
Film and video
In
film, remixing is often done and happens in many forms.
* Most new movies are adaptations of
comics,
graphic novel
A graphic novel is a long-form, fictional work of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comic scholars and industry ...
s,
book
A book is a medium for recording information in the form of writing or images, typically composed of many pages (made of papyrus, parchment, vellum, or paper) bound together and protected by a cover. The technical term for this phys ...
s, or other forms of media. The majority of other Hollywood cinema works are typically
genre films that follow strict generic plots. These forms of movies hardly appear original and creative, but rather rely on adapting material from previous works or genre formulas, which is a form of remix. A prime example is the film ''
Kill Bill'' which takes many techniques and scene templates from other films (predating all these were ''
The Magnificent Seven
''The Magnificent Seven'' is a 1960 American Western film directed by John Sturges. The screenplay by William Roberts is a remake – in an Old West–style – of Akira Kurosawa's 1954 Japanese film '' Seven Samurai'' (itself initially ...
'', an official remake of ''
The Seven Samurai'', and Sergio Leone's ''
A Fistful of Dollars
''A Fistful of Dollars'' ( it, Per un pugno di dollari, lit=For a Fistful of Dollars titled on-screen as ''Fistful of Dollars'') is a 1964 Spaghetti Western film directed by Sergio Leone and starring Clint Eastwood in his first leading role, ...
'').
*
Video mashups combine multiple pre-existing
video
Video is an Electronics, electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving picture, moving image, visual Media (communication), media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, whi ...
sources with no discernible relation with each other into a unified video. Examples of mashup videos include
movie trailer remixes
A remix (or reorchestration) is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, video, poem, or photograph can all be remixes. The o ...
,
vids,
YouTube Poop, and
supercuts.
*
Vidding is the
fan labor practice in
media fandom
A fandom is a subculture composed of fans characterized by a feeling of empathy and camaraderie with others who share a common interest. Fans typically are interested in even minor details of the objects of their fandom and spend a significant ...
of creating music videos from the footage of one or more visual media sources, thereby exploring the source itself in a new way. The specialized form for animation shows is called
Anime music video
An anime music video (AMV) is a fan-made music video consisting of clips from one or more Japanese animated shows or movies set to an audio track, often songs or promotional trailer audio. The term is generally specific to Japanese anime, howev ...
s, also made by fans.
*
VJing
VJing (pronounced: ''VEE-JAY-ing'') is a broad designation for realtime visual performance. Characteristics of VJing are the creation or manipulation of imagery in realtime through technological mediation and for an audience, in synchronization ...
, similar to
DJing, is the real-time manipulation of imagery through technological mediation and for an audience, in synchronization to music.
*
Fandubs and
Fansubs are reworks of fans on released film material.
*
Walt Disney
Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...
works are important company remixing examples, for instance
''Beauty and the Beast'',
''Aladdin'',
''Frozen''. These remixes are based on earlier
public domain
The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable. Because those rights have expired, ...
works (although Disney films are altered from their original sources). Lawrence Lessig therefore called
Walt Disney
Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...
a ''"remixer extraordinaire"'' and praised him as ideal of the remix culture in 2010. Some journalists however report that Disney tolerates fan remixes (
Fan art
Fan art or fanart is artwork created by fans of a work of fiction and derived from a series character or other aspect of that work. They are usually done by amateur artists, semi-professionals or professionals. As fan labor, fan art refers t ...
) more than in earlier times.
GIFs
GIFs are another example of remix culture. They are illustrations and small clips from films used for personal expressions in online conversations. GIFs are commonly taken from an online video form such as film, TV, or
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second most ...
videos.
Each clip usually lasts for about 3 seconds
and is "looped, extended and repeated." GIFs take a mass media sample and reimagines, or remixes, its meaning from the original context to use it as a form of personal expression in a different context. They are used throughout various media platforms but are most popular in
Tumblr
Tumblr (stylized as tumblr; pronounced "tumbler") is an American microblogging and social networking website founded by David Karp in 2007 and currently owned by Automattic. The service allows users to post multimedia and other content to a ...
where they are used to articulate a punch line.
Fan fiction
Fanfiction
Fan fiction or fanfiction (also abbreviated to fan fic, fanfic, fic or FF) is fictional writing written in an amateur capacity by fans, unauthorized by, but based on an existing work of fiction. The author uses copyrighted characters, sett ...
is an example of remix culture in action, in relation to various forms of fictional and non-fictional media, including books, TV shows, movies, musicians, actors, and more. Fan fiction is a written, remixed fiction which draws on the characters of the writers fandom, in order to tell the fan fiction writers own story, or their version of the original story. Remix Culture relies on creators taking one work and repurposing it for another use just as fanfiction takes an existing work and repurposes it for a new story, or series of events. Steven Hetcher writes that fanfiction, and remix culture at a broader level, can provide social benefit to the societies who participate in writing and reading fanfiction by providing a creative outlet. Fanfiction remixes sometimes change aspects of the characters or setting, often called an alternative universe, with some writers putting pre-existing characters in a new setting, and others taking an established setting and placing in new characters. In the social norms of fan fiction, it is rare for writers to publish or profit off of their works, and so copyright owners and authors rarely enforce copyright law, as these works help form communities and promote the original work.
TikTok
The app
TikTok
TikTok, known in China as Douyin (), is a short-form video hosting service owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from 15 seconds to 10 minutes.
TikTok is an international version ...
has become a relevant media platform that utilizes remix culture as a marketing and engagement technique, using it to market products to viewers while also entertaining them. Content creators and brands can now collaborate in an environment where remixing content is accepted and encouraged to gain followers through creative videos following trending actions, audios, and memes. Older songs and celebrities are making comebacks by being attached to remix trends, their music or content is now being viewed again by being attached to a trend. Garnering attention for the artist and these bits is a marketing technique that makes viewers want to investigate the artist more. Musicians like
Doja Cat
Amala Ratna Zandile Dlamini (born October 21, 1995), known professionally as Doja Cat ( ), is an American rapper and singer. Born and raised in Los Angeles, California, she began making and releasing music on SoundCloud as a teenager. Her song ...
and Lil Nas X are two current musicians that have culminated their music in the TikTok remix culture. For example, "
Remember (Walking In The Sand)" the 1960s song by the
Shangri-Las has recently been remixed to an EDM track that brought more attention to the song and a following into it due to a popular TikTok trend circulating largely in 2020. These trending songs allow for music on TikTok to become spreadable and testable. Companies and artists can test out music bits and loops to see how successful they may become before fully releasing them.
Remixing in religion
Throughout history remix culture has been truthful not only in exchange of oral stories but also through the
Bible
The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts o ...
.
Eugene H. Peterson reinterpreted bible stories in his 2002 book "
The Message// Remix" which makes the Bible easier for readers to interpret. An idea of remixing dated back to the
Quakers
Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belief in each human's abil ...
who would interpret the scripture and create a biblical narrative by using their own voices, which went against the "read-only" practice that was more common.
Intertwining of media cultures
For remix culture to survive, it must be shared and created by others. This is where
participatory culture
Participatory culture, an opposing concept to consumer culture, is a culture in which private individuals (the public) do not act as consumers only, but also as contributors or producers ( prosumers). The term is most often applied to the produc ...
comes into play, because consumers start participating by becoming contributors, especially the many teens growing up with these media cultures. A book was published in 2013 by
Henry Jenkins
Henry Jenkins III (born June 4, 1958) is an American media scholar and Provost Professor of Communication, Journalism, and Cinematic Arts, a joint professorship at the University of Southern California (USC) Annenberg School for Communication an ...
called "Reading in a Participatory Culture" which focuses on his technique of remixing the original story ''
Moby-Dick
''Moby-Dick; or, The Whale'' is an 1851 novel by American writer Herman Melville. The book is the sailor Ishmael's narrative of the obsessive quest of Ahab, captain of the whaling ship ''Pequod'', for revenge against Moby Dick, the giant white ...
'' to make it a new and fresh experience for students. This form of teaching enforces the correlation between participatory and remix culture while highlighting its importance in evolving literature. Remix culture can be an integral part of education. Arguably, scholars are constantly remixing when they are analyzing and reporting on the work of others. One study examined the use of remixing among students when presenting learned information. For example, students will pull images, text, and other information from various original sources and place those elements in a presentable format, such as a slide presentation, in order to demonstrate understanding of material reviewed. Media culture consumers start to look at art and content as something that can be repurposed or recreated, therefore they can become the producer. According to an article from Popular Music and Society, the idea of remix culture has become a defining characteristic of modern day technology which has incorporated all forms of digital media where the consumers are also the producers.
Effects on artists
Artists participating in remix culture can potentially suffer consequences for violating copywrite or intellectual property law. English rock band
The Verve
The Verve were an English rock band formed in Wigan in 1990 by lead vocalist Richard Ashcroft, guitarist Nick McCabe, bass guitarist Simon Jones and drummer Peter Salisbury. Guitarist and keyboard player Simon Tong later became a member i ...
were sued over their song "
Bittersweet Symphony" sampling an arrangement of
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the gritty, rhythmically d ...
' "
The Last Time."
The Verve were court-ordered to pay 100% of the song's royalties to The Rolling Stones' publishers and to give writing credit to
Jagger and Richards.
This was resolved in 2019 as
Richard Ashcroft of The Verve announced that Jagger and Richards signed over the publishing rights to the song, admitting it was their manager's decision to claim the songs' royalties.
Remix culture has created an environment that is nearly impossible for artists to create or own "
original work". Media and the internet have made art so public that it leaves the work up for other interpretation and, in return, remixing. A major example of this in the 21st century is the idea of
meme
A meme ( ) is an idea, behavior, or style that spreads by means of imitation from person to person within a culture and often carries symbolic meaning representing a particular phenomenon or theme. A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural i ...
s. Once a meme is put into
cyberspace
Cyberspace is a concept describing a widespread interconnected digital technology. "The expression dates back from the first decade of the diffusion of the internet. It refers to the online world as a world 'apart', as distinct from everyday re ...
it is automatically assumed that someone else can come along and remix the picture. For example, the 1964 self-portrait created by artist
René Magritte
René François Ghislain Magritte (; 21 November 1898 – 15 August 1967) was a Belgian surrealist artist known for his depictions of familiar objects in unfamiliar, unexpected contexts, which often provoked questions about the nature and bounda ...
,
"Le Fils De L'Homme", was remixed and recreated by street artist
Ron English in his piece "Stereo Magritte". (See Memes in "Reception and Impact")
Meanwhile, despite the legal complexities of copywrite protections, remixed works continue to be popular in the mainstream. Rapper Lil Nas X's "Old Town Road," released in 2018, includes a sample by the industrial metal band Nine Inch Nails, while also blending the genres of hip-hop and country music. "Old Town Road" was a smash hit, setting a record of 19 weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart.
Four official remixes of "Old Town Road" were released, the first of which featured country singer Billy Ray Cyrus. This formula for genre-hybridization inspired countless unofficial remixes of the track, appropriated for various uses.
Copyright and remixing for disability services
An exemption exists for disability service technology to change copyrighted media to make it accessible to them.
The American Foundation of the Blind (AFB), American Council of the Blind (ACB) and Samuelson-Glushko Technology Law & Policy Clinic (TLPC) work with U.S. Copyright Office, Library of Congress to renew the exemptions that allow the visually impaired to convert visual texts in copyrighted work into e-readers and other forms of technology that make it possible for them to access. So long as the copyrighted material is obtained in the legal way, the exemption allows for it to be remixed to help to be accessible to anyone disabled.
This exemption extends broadly, including transcribing public broadcasts such as television or radio to be transcribed to braille or visual text if need be.
With the proper license, obtained by anyone with a disability that can limit perception, copyrighted material that is obtained legally can be remixed for their understanding.
It has last been renewed in 2012 and continues to stand.
Reception and impact
In February 2010,
Cato Institute
The Cato Institute is an American libertarian think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1977 by Ed Crane, Murray Rothbard, and Charles Koch, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Koch Industries.Koch Indus ...
's
Julian Sanchez praised the remix activities for its social value, "for performing social realities" and remarked that copyright should be evaluated regarding the "level of control permitted to be exercised over our social realities". Memes have also become a form of
political protest
A protest (also called a demonstration, remonstration or remonstrance) is a public expression of objection, disapproval or dissent towards an idea or action, typically a political one.
Protests can be thought of as acts of coopera ...
and
dissent
Dissent is an opinion, philosophy or sentiment of non-agreement or opposition to a prevailing idea or policy enforced under the authority of a government, political party or other entity or individual. A dissenting person may be referred to ...
as well as tools used by everyday people as a form of a
subversion
Subversion () refers to a process by which the values and principles of a system in place are contradicted or reversed in an attempt to transform the established social order and its structures of power, authority, hierarchy, and social norms. Sub ...
of the power narrative. Author Apryl Williams asserts that #LivingWhileBlack memes helped the
Black Lives Matter
Black Lives Matter (abbreviated BLM) is a decentralized political and social movement that seeks to highlight racism, discrimination, and racial inequality experienced by black people. Its primary concerns are incidents of police brut ...
movement raise awareness of issues and shift the cultural narrative.
According to
Kirby Ferguson in his popular video series and
TED talk
TED Conferences, LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an American-Canadian non-profit media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan "ideas worth spreading". TED was founded by Richard Sau ...
,
everything is a remix, and that all original material builds off of and remixes previously existing material. He argues if all intellectual property is influenced by other pieces of work, copyright laws would be unnecessary. Ferguson described that, the three key elements of creativity — copy, transform, and combine — are the building blocks of all original ideas; building on Pablo Picasso's famous quote "Good artists copy, great artists steal.".
[The Three Key Steps to Creativity: Copy, Transform, and Combine](_blank)
by Eric Ravenscraft on lifehacker.com (2014-10-04)
Criticism
But the culture is not without its critics even going so far in accusations of plagiarism. In his 2006 book ''Cult of the Amateur'',
[Keen, Andrew (May 16, 2006)]
Web 2.0; The second generation of the Internet has arrived. It's worse than you think.
''The Weekly Standard'' Web 2.0 critic Andrew Keen criticizes the culture. In 2011 UC Davis professor Thomas W. Joo criticized remix culture for romanticizing free culture movement, free culture while Terry Hart had a similar line of criticism in 2012.
Remix Without Romance: What Free Culture Gets Wrong
Terry Hart, April 18, 2012, Copyhype.com
See also
* Commons-based peer production
Commons-based peer production (CBPP) is a term coined by Harvard Law School professor Yochai Benkler. It describes a model of socio-economic production in which large numbers of people work cooperatively; usually over the Internet. Commons-bas ...
* Culture jamming
* Fandom
* ''Good Copy Bad Copy''
* Prosumer
* Recombinant culture
References
External links
* Video resources
*
Remix Culture Symposium: Panel 1: Creative Commons Music
*
Remix Culture Symposium: Panel 2: Legal, Licensing and CC
*
Remix Culture Symposium: Panel 3: Creativity and the Commons
*
Total Recut
Everything Is a Remix
Remixthebook
by Mark Amerika
Remix Theory
by Eduardo Navas
RE/Mixed Media Festival
{{DEFAULTSORT:Remix Culture
Political neologisms
2008 neologisms
Creativity
Popular culture
Unofficial adaptations
Free culture movement