http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N618fLxQP6w
This is a remix of the very famous YouTube hit, David After Dentist, which gives a very fun and entertaining twist to the original by turning it into a song.
In the book Remix, Lessig states on page 37 “The business model of both these distributions of RO culture depend upon controlling the distribution of copies of culture”. This I believe links to the remix I chose because of the way I got it. In today’s world just about everything is copyright protected and huge companies are trying to take control of who has access to it and not. Which has led to people wanting to revolt and get around their copyrighted material and post themselves. With this remix up on YouTube, it has no intent to give some people permission or charge people to see it, it is up for everyone to enjoy and share their creativity. This I believe has really expanded our RW culture in being able to showcase people’s talents as well as inspire and entertain others.
Another thing in his book I thought was very interesting that connected to my remix was Lessig’s story about trying to record the Oscars (page 45). Two of his friends were going to receive Oscars so he decided to record it on his VHS player. Well to his surprise it didn’t record and he was unable to see his friends win. He then searched online, iTunes, etc and it was no where to be found. To his surprise people had posted it on YouTube and he was then able to see it, and for free. Although YouTube contains a lot of copyrighted material (songs, shows, movies, etc), it has allowed information to be wide spread and known. It has almost become like a blog for some with adding clips of their favorite songs, tv shows, or in this case Oscar highlights where people can then comment on the video. Along with that it has also become a place to find information, sometimes more reliable then tv stations websites etc.
On page 56 Lessig stated “Remix is an essential act of RW.” This I believe correlated with my remix very closely in that with Remixes it allows people to create their own version or spin of an original. With David After Dentist (original) it was just a home video of a boy who is drugged up from a tooth extraction. However, with the remix someone took the time and creativity to add a beat and edit it in a way to add humor, a song, and completely give a whole new showcase of the over played original.
I feel sort of sorry for that kid, I’m not sure whether it’s because he’s an internet trend(?) before he can really appreciate it, or because the drugged up specter of his past is likely to haunt him later in life.
ReplyDeleteI like how you compare YouTube to a blog; it makes me consider the site in a new light. While a lot of videos are simply popular songs it still gives people a venue to react to the material as a sort of community. It’s a shaky community generally, but it’s still neat to run across some little clip of a familiar movie or game and see how others are responding to it. It allows us to share little slices of creativity and have cultural interactions with a much wider audience than we would otherwise be able to reach.
YouTube definitely fills a hole... The content providers are still operating on a business model based on artificial scarcity while their customers are accustomed to plentiful on-demand content - what you want to see, when you want to see it, for free or only a nominal fee.
ReplyDeleteIn a climate like that it's genuinely surprising to find out that programmers haven't embraced on-demand, especially in a time when YouTube videos of a cat being forced to play a piano gets better ratings than the Superbowl.
Nice example and good connections. The act of distribution (and the controls or lack thereof) is an important, and interesting, part of remix culture. I'm glad you touched on it. Also, the more I respond to posts today, the more I wonder if the remix, as Lessig defines it, is going to die. It probably will....so what will it be replaced with?
ReplyDeletehaha o my god that was a great clip. I havent seen that in a long time. I agree with Angela. That is a really interesting comparison of youtube to theblog. in many instances I see people using youtube in that fashion, a way to visually record that would otherwise a couple years ago atleast would have seen its form be in writing.
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ReplyDeleteThat clip is awesome haha. I agree with Tom, YouTube definitely fills the gap. It has given access to so many content creators and has open the minds of potential ones. A person watches a high rated video and strives to one up it by creating a video of their own. Competitive creating. Nice.
ReplyDeleteThat crazy high kid! I have not seen this remix before. I enjoy watching it. According to Lessig, a good remix is the one that can carry a message. And here we can see that the message is to entertain us and makes us laugh. Nice!
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