Image and text source: masternewmedia.org

This is an absolutely great cultural marketing initiative, spreading valuable passages from some of the best classical writings in remixes and mashups completely created by users. Penguin Books has in fact made available a good number of audio recordings containing the voices of some popular actors reading through classical passages. Users can freely download the recordings and remix them with music and sounds in any way they like.

The results are nothing short of astonishing.

In my personal view this has got to be one of the best ways to get exposure to the classics for today’s youth. Not only. It is my personal conviction and experience that by listening to the spoken word when associated to repetitive and not dominant music patterns the human brain can memorize and remember those words much more effectively.

Don’t think so? Give it a try:

http://www.penguinremixed.co.uk/site/

Image source: Wikipedia

Text source: Creative Commons Radio
The Creative Remix, with host Benjamen Walker, is an hour-long “lawyer free” examination of the art, culture, and history of the remix. The hour kicks off with a musical analysis of DJ Dangermouse’s infamous remix of the Beatles and Jay-Z. Then we go back in time to check out the ancient Roman art of the poetry mash-up, or the Cento. Then we rewind to the 18th century to check out the birth of copyright and how it effected writers like Alexander Pope; and the early 20th century when the visual artist Marcel Duchamp used the remix to reinvent everything. We also take a field trip to the Mass Mocca museum of modern art to check out the exhibit “Yankee Remix.” Walker brings along a few grad students and a pair of curmudgeonly New England antique collectors to investigate different attitudes towards remixing.

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Image and text source: beastiemania

Quick, what do these names have in common: the Prunes, Fatboy Slim, Large Professor, Prisoners of Technology, Prof D? If you guessed people who have remixed Beastie Boys songs, you would be correct. Huh? While you should be familiar with the first four names, the last and many other are evidence of the growing trend of fans becoming their very own mix masters.

Listen Everybody Cause I’m Shifting Gears I’m

In order to understand this phenomenon, it is necessary to travel back in time. Remixes used to be available in two ways, the most commercially available were B-Sides of a song released as a single. The Beastie Boys were especially prolific in the addition of numerous remixes and non album tracks to entice fans to purchase the single in addition to the album. This trend of including remixes began in the Paul’s Boutique era with the release of several remixes that were essentially dub versions of original songs such as And What You Give is What You Get, Dis Yourself in 89 (Just Do It) and 33% God.

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Image and text source: http://mixhistory.mixfreaks.nl/
In the 80s (’till the 90s) in Holland the mixing-season started.
A lot of guys started making mixes which where broadcasted on national radio.
I liked them and taped a lot of the mixes and decided to keep track on some remixers.
In the early 90s they stopped broadcasting those mixes on the radio. (and they started again in 2001!)
Those mixers kept going on offcourse.
Some started their own company, others kept remixing or started their own acts/studios.
On these pages I try to keep track on what projects/remixes they made.Around 2000 some new remixers popped up. They met together with other fans in an online community called Mixfreaks.
Some of these mixers also made mixes which were broadcasted on national dutch radio.

Radio Veronica had the ‘thuismixwedstrijden (79-83)’ ,the ‘Home-Edit Mixes(83..)’ & Ben Liebrand’s In the Mix, Grandmix and Minimix (1983-1992/2000-????) and Tros & Veronica Top 40 Mixes
TROS had its share with the Bond van Doorstarters, Tros Club Mix, Disco Mix Club and The Pitch Control ReRemix
AVRO had the RicksMix and the Avro’s Driemaal Doordraai Live-mixes
The Kro had ‘And The Beat Goes On’ (1983-1985)

TMF (The Music Factory) had from 1995 till 2000 the TMF Video Yearmix
Radio 538: 538 Yearmixes AND rebroadcast of Grandmixes AND the MilleniumMix And broadcasting of Liebrand’s Minimixes..
Slam FM : Klubbsound yearmixes since 1996 and “In 2 The MilleniumMix” all by Initial Studio

Image and text source: Youtube

Breakdancing has changed drastically since it began in the late seventies and early eighties. Today, dancers focus on keeping the body off the floor, specializing on moves that involve quick shifts from feet to hands to elbows directly to the head. Upper body strength is crucial as the torso and back touch the floor only ocassionally. This was not the case in the early days of breakdancing, when breakers would focus on combinations that would culminate in back to head generic celexa routines, complemented by shuffling of feet as foreplay. Below are some selections from Youtube that I find are good examples of the recent style. Contrast them to my previous selections.

Good edited (in part slow-mo) Reel, not sure who is the breakdancer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyMasVRj4KI
Good unedited one on one battle:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYma9jaszTE&mode=related&search=

One on one battle between Physics vs. Shie Chan:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKFpyvOXKW0&mode=related&search=
One on one: Benji vs. Junior
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Am8R2u_Wri4&mode=related&search=
Unedited battle between two crews in San Diego
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oukrazdTmyQ&mode=related&search=
Edited promo of Extreme Crew
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbb29psaWXU&mode=related&search=
Extreme Crew in Korea:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGlXeVh8OnU&mode=related&search=

Check the next generation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7yWFh9yxtc&mode=related&search=

Popping
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAyTK6jF5o8&NR=1
Popping Hyun Joon
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoGrAqRPaGY&mode=related&search=

Image and text source: bootieblog

Around the 15th of every month, Adrian & the Mysterious D — also known in the bootleg community as A plus D — pick ten of their current favorite mashups. Many of these are recent releases, while others may be forgotten favorites or great bootlegs that fell through the cracks. This list is highly-opinionated, and listed in alphabetical order by bootlegger

Bootie Blog

A plus D – Standing In The Way of Connection (The Gossip vs. Elastica) – San Francisco

Copycat – I Feel Love Is A Stranger (Eurythmics vs. Donna Summer) – Sweden

Dustria – The Kick Push Eple (Lupe Fiasco vs Royksopp) – Belgium

DJ Earworm – Funky Goes To Hollywood (Wild Cherry vs. Frankie Goes To Hollywood) – San Francisco BOOTIE EXCLUSIVE!

DJ Moule – Sympathy For Teen Spirit (Rolling Stones vs. Queen vs. Nirvana) – Bordeaux, France

Party Ben – Every Car You Chase (Snow Patrol vs. The Police) – San Francisco BOOTIE EXCLUSIVE!

DJ Schmolli – Upgrade The Casbah (The Clash vs. Beyoncé vs. Nelly Furtado vs. Ofra Haza) – Vienna, Austria BOOTIE EXCLUSIVE!

team9 – When You Were Starlight (The Killers vs. Muse) – Perth, Australia

Voicedude – Four Twenty (Luniz vs. Tom Petty vs. Cam Farrar vs. Afroman) – Orange County, USA

Wax Audio – Stayin’ Alive In The Wall (Pink Floyd vs. The BeeGees) – Sydney, Australia

Image and text source: National Geographic

April 2007

Photographs by David Alan Harvey

Whether you trace it to New York’s South Bronx or the villages of West Africa, hip-hop has become the voice of a generation demanding to be heard.

This is my nightmare: My daughter comes home with a guy and says, “Dad, we’re getting married.” And he’s a rapper, with a mouthful of gold teeth, a do-rag on his head, muscles popping out his arms, and a thug attitude. And then the nightmare gets deeper, because before you know it, I’m hearing the pitter-patter of little feet, their offspring, cascading through my living room, cascading through my life, drowning me with the sound of my own hypocrisy, because when I was young, I was a knucklehead, too, hearing my own music, my own sounds. And so I curse the day I saw his face, which is a reflection of my own, and I rue the day I heard his name, because I realize to my horror that rap—music seemingly without melody, sensibility, instruments, verse, or harmony, music with no beginning, end, or middle, music that doesn’t even seem to be music—rules the world. It is no longer my world. It is his world. And I live in it. I live on a hip-hop planet.

Read the entire feature at National Geographic