From the sampled-based hip-hop of Run-DMC and De La Soul to Gregg Gillis' lift-happy releases under the moniker Girl Talk, creative borrowing has been at the center of a musical copyfight cyclone that threatens to underwhelm us all.
The song remains the same, so to speak: We call it recycling. The man calls it stealing.
Last year, Gillis (pictured), 27, released one of the densest repurposings of all time: Feed the Animals, the fourth Girl Talk album, was built on more than 300 samples.
The fact that Feed the Animals became one of the most acclaimed releases of 2008 is instructive, given that the disc was built wholly from digitally rearranged samples of pop music's hottest hits from across the temporal spectrum.
And it's not like it was hard to spot them: From Ludacris and Outkast to the Spencer Davis Group, the samples stuck out like sore virtual thumbs. That was, after all, the point.
The copyfight mechanism that has claimed Pittsburgh-based Gillis as its center is explored in the forthcoming movie RiP: A Remix Manifesto, which lands online and onscreen March 15. The film, billed as the world's first open source documentary, analyzes the current strain of creative borrowing and capitalization with the help of Cory Doctorow, Lawrence Lessig, Gilberto Gil and more.
Wired.com caught up with Gillis by e-mail to chat about RiP, copyfight, tour vlogging and why he's advertising that he's a PC rather than a Mac.
Wired.com: How does it feel to be at the center of a film about the new battle over authenticity and homage in digital music?
__Gregg __Gillis: I just saw the film for the first time a couple weeks ago while the tour was in Montreal. It's wild. When they were putting it together, I didn't realize I would have such a major role. I didn't find that out until it was released, and people started telling me about it. I think it came out wonderful, and I'm honored to be apart of it.
Wired.com: Are you starting to feel for artists like De La Soul, who got hammered after blowing up sample-based hip-hop? Have you talked to other artists who have worked in similar fashions about their experiences?
Gillis: I've always felt for those who came before me and had to deal with copyright issues in a different era. Not much has changed with the legislation, but I think the mass mentality has definitely shifted. I've been able to talk briefly with people like Steinski, Mark Hosler of Negativland and John Oswald within the past year. It's always insightful to hear their take on where things are at right now.
Wired.com: What do you think RiP brings to copyfight's table?
Gillis: It's impossible to cover every angle of the copyright issue in the internet age. But I think the film covers a variety of ground while still being comprehensive.
Wired.com: How do you feel the issue has evolved in the last couple of decades? Where do you think it is headed?
Gillis: Sharing ideas and being influenced by those who come before you has always been the foundation of progress in art and music. I think it's become a lot more obvious in the internet age, though. People are more directly interactive with what they consume. People make collages in Photoshop, make their own videos for YouTube and remix music for their MySpace band page.
It's commonplace now for people to take pre-existing media, recontextualize it and show it to the world. This will keep evolving. People will continue to become more interactive with media. The tools to remix music and videos will become easier to use and more widely available.
Wired.com: Your CD release for Feed the Animals was pushed back. Where do you stand on discs?
Gillis: My CD got pushed back because it was an artwork issue. It was no big deal. I'm going to continue to buy CDs until it's not possible anymore, but I can definitely see them dying out. Artists are on the cover of magazines and legitimately famous before even having an album out these days. It's all because of the internet.
Wired.com: How did the tour vlogging work out?
Gillis: It was the most extensive tour I've been a part of, so it was pretty intense. I was able to bring a bunch of friends with me to help out with the production of the show, so that made it way smoother. One guy that came along was J.P. Coakley, who handled the merch and the vlogs. I was really pumped on how they came out. There is so much show and interview footage of mine on YouTube that we wanted to take a different angle. So we tried to get day-to-day activities, regardless of how mundane, just to give a quick glimpse into what we were up to when were weren't playing shows and partying. Occasionally, we would get someone else to do merch just so J.P. could capture some shows in their entirety. We did this at our largest show, in Chicago, and I was really impressed with what he was able to put together.
Wired.com: Finally, you've been showing up in Microsoft's "I'm a PC" ad campaign.
Gillis: I used a PC growing up, so that's what I got when I was going to college. That turned into my instrument, and I stuck by it.
Photo: Andrew Strasser
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