mike cullis (mike@perspectives.co.uk)
Wed, 28 Oct 1998 18:58:58 -0000
Oh well, here goes...
I actually work in advertising/promotions but I'm a deejay as well and I'd
hardly call myself a 'trendy' deejay - if I was then I'd be making a shed
load of money playing to the masses instead of playing what I like - Faze
Action, Jazzanova, Azymuth, 4 Hero, Norman Connors, Tribe Called Quest....
it goes on.
But I'd also say that if you took the Nike advertising in the UK for the
1998 World Cup as an example - who in the general public had heard of the
Tamba Trio - Mas Que Nada until then? All of a sudden it was re-released
and bought in large quantities and enjoyed by a new group of people - who
knows what they may buy as result of that one tune. So it can help to
spread the word.
Just a thought.
Mike
-----Original Message-----
From: Leslie [SMTP:icehouse@redshift.com]
Sent: 28 October 1998 16:20
To: Michael Aregood
Cc: acid-jazz@ucsd.edu
Subject: Re: trainspotting/Jimi
Hi Argo,
I was not really referring to "sampling" per se as a trend, it is more a
technological upgrade, but instead, as you put it, the gratuitous use of
recycled slabs of music beyond mere "sampling", this is wholesale something
else. I have no quibbles with someone using a true sample, but I do have a
beef with taking a slab of some 70's fusion and realigning it with newish
beats. There are "trendy" Dj's out there who do not begin to have the Piklz
originality or train of thought, they could never record and release what
they do, they would be in violation of all sorts of copyright shit,
would'nt
they? These people are definitely trendy and they lend too much credence to
what is happening on the commercial advertising scene.
As far as Jimi is concerned, does that apply to The Orb on the VW ad as
well? I think some of the music being used is of a high enough level to be
truly subversive in this commercial context and it therefore calls
attention
to itself way beyond the commercial, I am sure the creators of these spots
do not really want that, but, then again, perhaps they just do not care
that
much anyway, it is just a soundtrack.That, to me, is what is negative, to
consider Jimi's music to be just juice for another visual advertisement is
certainly to denigrate it, for me because I prize it so highly. My 2 is now
4 cents
leslie/the power of sound
-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Aregood <maregood@comcastpc.com>
To: Leslie <icehouse@redshift.com>; acid-jazz@ucsd.edu <acid-jazz@ucsd.edu>
Date: Wednesday, October 28, 1998 8:13 AM
Subject: RE: trainspotting/Jimi
>Good point about how this Jimi jingle came about. Definitely...but i
>think Jimi's stuff has been put into a new context, cheapened, and raped
>of any subversive messages that might be reaping havoc on the
>consciousness of everyday folk... aiigh what are ya gonna do. =(
>
>I don't know about calling sample based music a "trend". It really
>depends on what is done with it. Some use it as a crutch and it sounds
>gratuitous, others create depth and evoke emotion. It's all good ...in
>order to define an "in group" there needs to be an "out group". Puff
>daddy must exist for the Scratch Piklz to sound so fresh and exciting. 2
>cents for ya.
>
>argo
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Leslie [mailto:icehouse@redshift.com]
>Sent: Tuesday, October 27, 1998 7:08 PM
>To: acid-jazz@ucsd.edu
>Subject: trainspotting/Jimi
>
>
>Surely it is the heirs to the estate of Jimi Hendrix who are responsible
>for licensing the utilisation of his music for commercial use rather
>than the Madison Avenue troops or even the Product manufacturers such as
>Pontiac etc. It would seem to me that it is the trustees of Jimi's
>estate who are seeking to cash in on his legacy, possibly because the
>royalty streams have slowed over the years and the heirs want to cash in
>while they can. While on the one hand I hate to see this sort of crass
>commercialization taking place, were I an heir of this sort I might view
>the whole matter quite differently, especially if the estate had been
>largely mishandled over the years and I felt that I had somehow been
>shortchanged, which seems to be the situation in the case of Jimi's
>heirs. On the other hand, having Jimi's shit coyly working it's way into
>the everyday consciousness of folk might not be an entirely bad thing.
>There seems also to be a trend amongst trendy Dj's to re-cycle so much
>these days. Although I am a Dj myself, I am a purist in that I like to
>let the music I play stand by itself without worrying it to death by
>mixing in every sort of imaginable sample, from spoken words to muggy
>wildebeest grunts and regurgitated 70's fusion pap. I think this trend
>adds to the notion of using any piece of sound/music possible for effect
>and that this makes too much that is good and worthy of respect
>available for plucking by Madison Avenue types who are eternally
>searching for attention grabbing sounds, just the sort of attention they
>are getting as evidenced by the discussion here. While I do appreciate
>the Invisible Skratch Pickling-type mixing, I shudder at some of the
>stuff I am hearing that incorporates anything that can be grabbed off
>any old piece of vinyl, acceptable just because it happens to be on an
>old piece of vinyl. The advertisers are going to lurch and grab for
>anything that is getting attention and the re-cycling of older music is
>in full swing, why else would some of these old farts like Aerosmith be
>enjoying their current success? They are cashing in as well.
>It seems to be the sound of money to me, I do not love Jimi's music any
>less and I hope a few more people get to listen to it now and appreciate
>it. I am positive that Pontiac had nothing whatsoever to do with
>selecting the music, they just approved what the eager advert-sellers
>were promoting and they were probably just baby-boomers selling out and,
>yes, cashing in while they can. We might not personally do something
>like this, unless our jobs depended on it and the mortgage payment was
>due next week.
>
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