If you look at the art world you do not see this sort of arguement is
Damien Hirst, Jeff Kooms, Andy Warhol, etc etc a real artist or who is the
greater artist. ? All of these artists used found objects, got other people
to carry out tasks for them........... by producing their art in this type
of method thay are making a statement
Miles, as he seems to be the most popular choice, didn't live in a
cultural vacum, like all of us was/is a product of his society and
culure...( I use IS because the commodity/output that is miles Davis is
constantly being re-interpreted by different generations) he didn't pick up
his trumpet one day and and say I will play jazz, he knew what this jazz
was, he had heard other musicians and something must have moved him to what
to play this type of music, he then developed his own style by looking at
what had gone before, looking at where the boundaries of the art form are
(althought I think that Coltrane was very influential in his experimental
methods). Dj's in Englad are becoming as important as musicians because,
by mixing, laying down beats, etc ect they are creating something new, a
non-stop experience, which is what the audience want, a good DJ is
reactive to the crowd a will modify his set to how he interprets the
audience is moving, because when the punter goes home they will not
remember or merit the night on one particular record played but on the over
all feel of the night........because of the fewer locations and higher cost
of live performances. People go to a club dj to dance, ever had that
feeling why am I dancing why are all these other people dancing ? a club
can be like 'chewing gum for the brain' and body. A live performance
rquires more concentration
As for DJ's as defined as producers and samplers of rap, hip hop, trip hop
acid jazz etc etc by using riffs and beats from someone else's music, they
are making a statement (if we acept that there exists a hip hip history)
and locating the their music within a particular black culture..... this
music has always represented the the streets, held up a a mirror to
society, by using samples which is relatively easy, you don't have to
have 5 years classical training to have a voice( voice as expression of
your feelings) and because of the the ease of sampling there is an added
authenticity level to the music that they are "just like you" " you could
be doing this" Do you think that anyone would take PE, Ice Cube or any
other hardcore rap act seriously if they used a string quartet ? that's one
of the reasons people like vannila Ice, Snow, MC Hammer got away with it
in the mass culture sphere.
As for samples Mozart was not opposed to ripping off passages of other
peoples music, so do alot of "proper jazz" musicians its been going on
along time, the fact is because the sample is a copy it is just much more
easy to indentify the music influence
Chris Golya
School of Art, Design & Media
University of Portsmouth
do bee do bee doo
Frank Sinatra