Showing posts with label Girl Talk. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Girl Talk. Show all posts

Saturday, December 05, 2009

BIBJ Playlist of the 2000s entry #18: Smash Your Head by Girl Talk

Photo via Flickr
When Night Ripper was first released, it seemed like virtually every article about Greg Gillis mentioned that at some point, Gillis would likely be sued by every record label/band/rapper on the planet.  This has proven to not be the case at all.  Despite my best research, I couldn't find a case where anyone had taken legal action, and there's clearly a big sample size to choose from.  Granted, the fact that Gillis literally gives his albums away on Illegal Art's website means he's not breaking the bank from his studio outputs, so he's not flaunting riches in front of those whose work he drawing from.  Still, it seems kinda amazing that members of Kansas or Steve Winwood's attorneys haven't tossed out any cease and desist letters.

As Gillis himself pointed out last year, this exchange of media and variety of remix has developed to the point where it no longer contains the shock value of 2 Live Crew battling Roy Orbison over fair use copyright.  Today, original sounds are remixed or mashed-up and thrown onto youtube at record speeds.  And yet, as the number of amateur mash-up artists has exploded, Gillis's reputation has only grown, as his attention to detail and interplay between subjects has left the standard "slap one set of vocal over a different music track for a few minutes" schtick obsolete.