February 25, 2004
Grey Tuesday, Reconsidered
Sippey.typepad.com offers a rather snide dismissal of Grey Tuesday.
Needless to say, his judgement is immediately called into question when he deems The Grey Album "unlistenable" (I do agree it is overrated. But then again so is Prince's Black Album.. overrated due to its backstory but far from wack). And he doesn't make it very clear, in the original post, what inspires his disdain for Grey Tuesday.. Does he believe that a protest's relevance is best gauged by the amount of effort it takes to join, and he considers this one too easy? I'm pretty sure I disagree with that.
But in the comments he does offer something more substantive:
The acts of protest being undertaken today speak more to the issue of *distribution* (making it easier to find these works) than it does to the issue of sampling and recombinatorial art. A more effective protest would be to encourage website owners to create their own remixes -- integrating and transforming artifacts from popular culture in order to make something new, on their own.
By turning the protest into an issue of distribution, Capitol/EMI gets to change the nature of the debate, and paint the civil disobedients with the broader "illegal downloading and distribution brush." The core message of the protest -- creating a change in the copyright law to allow for things like compulsory licensing -- will get lost in the noise.
His proposal would be far less inclusive, as most people don't have the means to make such a remix (or at least to make one that doesn't suck). But he makes a very good point, Grey Tuesday's protest did confuse two distinct and different issues: Dangermouse's right as an artist to reinterpret copyrighted material within his own work, and our right to distribute and download copyrighted material as consumers. They made it too easy for EMI to dodge discussion of the first issue by conflating it with the second.
I'd also agree that Grey Tuesday, by itself, doesn't amount to much. But to paraphrase what I was saying here, every journey is made up of small steps. Grey Tuesday (like the Grey Album) has been a highly successful publicity stunt, and brought lots of people to downhillbattle's website. The question now is what they will do with this newfound attention.. can they keep moving past that first step, or is this the extent of their vision? It may well turn out to be the latter, but I don't think it's fair to poo-poo their efforts just yet.
Posted by jsmooth995 at February 25, 2004 02:05 AM
i was going to download the grey album when i heard about it a few weeks ago, but i decided against it because:
1) i don't like the black album
2) i don't like the white album
3) these full-album remixes are getting on my nerves
4) the whole idea is banal (black album + white album = gray album = duh = predictable)
Posted by: big zone at February 25, 2004 07:34 AM
honestly when i first heard it (the grey album) i was pissed that people were touting it as the second coming of Reasonable Doubt ot something - and really, it's maybe two steps above mediocre. i respect the vision it took to even think about something like that, but let's just be real - it's pretty garbage.
but in all of the hoopla i myself wound up at the downhillbattle site and that makes the ear torture more than worth it.
Posted by: girlwonder at February 25, 2004 09:51 AM
You know what? I've thought this whole remix album trend was corny for a while and, even though I thought the concept was kind of clever for this one, it seemed like the "Grey Album" was probably going to be the most gimmicky one of all. Listening to some mp3 files online seemed to only confirm that. But when I finally got an actual copy and started to listen to it properly, it was only then that I really started to appreciate what DM has done. It'll blow your wig off.
Granted by DM's own admission, this is really just an experimental music project rather than a fully-realized proper album but, in parts and way more often than not, this album is really good. The hype is way out control now but at the end of the day there is some merit to the "Grey Album" and who knows? It may well become a catalyst responsible for helping to rewrite copyright law if the "Grey Tuesday" protest is at least partially successful.
Posted by: ian at February 25, 2004 11:56 AM
Coolfer was kind of cool on Grey Tuesday also.
Posted by: ian at February 25, 2004 12:09 PM
It's not much of a protest if only one person is benefitting (Dangermouse). C'mon, this is a publicity stunt, plain and simple.
Dangermouse -- et al -- are a little behind the curve here. I myself -- along with millions of others -- have been protesting copyrights for about 5 or 6 years now. If he or any of his fellow "buzz creators" want to help with real protests, they can contact the EFF and ask how they can help.
Most likely, the issue of copyright infringement will not be settled through civil disobedience, it will probably be settled through court cases. Distributing uncleared samples is no different from illegally distributing copies of the original recordings.
I, personally, am against ALL forms of copyright, but upping the ante is NOT good PR for the anti-copyright side of the battle. We will benefit from slow and steady increases in p2p freedom, not self-serving publicity stunts.
Posted by: eric at February 25, 2004 04:31 PM
"The acts of protest being undertaken today speak more to the issue of *distribution* (making it easier to find these works) than it does to the issue of sampling and recombinatorial art. A more effective protest would be to encourage website owners to create their own remixes -- integrating and transforming artifacts from popular culture in order to make something new, on their own.
By turning the protest into an issue of distribution, Capitol/EMI gets to change the nature of the debate, and paint the civil disobedients with the broader "illegal downloading and distribution brush." The core message of the protest -- creating a change in the copyright law to allow for things like compulsory licensing -- will get lost in the noise."
I agree with that whole heartedly. That said, I downloaded the album yesterday.
The bigger question is how do we find intellectual property and copyright law in today's technological age? And how much control should an artist/publisher/music license owner have?
What if it's the reverse? What if a rock band does a complete musical reinterpretation of 50 Cent's Get Rich or Die Trying, keeping all the lyrics but changing all the music?
or even more accurate, does Eminem have the right to sue Apple for their commercial featuring people rhyming his track (who was it in the commercial? Chris Rock?)?
Posted by: Jason at February 25, 2004 04:32 PM
Yeah ian, a rather odd spectactle to see coolfer raging for the machine, lol. If everyone thought like coolfer hip-hop would have never existed, among many other things.
Posted by: Jay Smooth at February 27, 2004 04:01 PM
Well i understand what i hear here. But, regarless of what it seems, the "Grey Album" is hot. Danger mouse did his thing on this one. I peeped it today. I don't really feel this full-album remix thing either, unless you remix very well. DM seems to know what he's doing. It's wild hoe each track actually fits the a capella words. It seems like jay might have been in the studio and used these tracks first to practice on. The Public service announcement, and the What more can i say tracks do define quility in my mind. Real hip-hop requires originality and inginuity. And i feel it has been displayed in it's purest form on TGA. It's easy to access, so get it and hear it. Don't sleep on a revolution in hip-hop. Cheers up. 1.
Posted by: Dj Iron Mic at March 11, 2004 11:09 AM
Well i understand what i hear here. But, regarless of what it seems, the "Grey Album" is hot. Danger mouse did his thing on this one. I peeped it today. I don't really feel this full-album remix thing either, unless you remix very well. DM seems to know what he's doing. It's wild how each track actually fits the a capella words. It seems like jay might have been in the studio and used these tracks first to practice on. The Public service announcement, and the What more can i say tracks do define quility in my mind. Real hip-hop requires originality and inginuity. And i feel it has been displayed in it's purest form on TGA. It's easy to access, so get it and hear it. Don't sleep on a revolution in hip-hop. Cheers up. 1.
Posted by: Dj Iron Mic at March 11, 2004 11:09 AM
grey album was exiting for a while but once i downloaded it it wasnt that great itz overrated and i do think its a pub. stunt.
it aint all that hot s**t!!!
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