Girl Talk - "Still Here" (fan video)

Read all about Feed the Animals here.

The (Possible) Commercialization of Feed the Animals

What a week it has been devoting a post a day to Girl Talk's new album, Feed the Animals. We've looked at the album's legal implications, while comparing its creator to Andy Warhol, not to mention giving the album a more standard review and seeing what other critics were saying as well. Though we live in a fast-paced music world where fans (bloggers, especially) forget about albums very quickly, the implications and ideas of this record will have a lasting effect. The issues are still relevant - and Girl Talk's profile can only get bigger. This leads me to ask the question - what does the future hold for Girl Talk and Feed the Animals?

My prediction is that Feed the Animals will remain one of the most talked-about albums of the year, and that it will not be challenged legally by any of the major record companies. Instead, I expect the major labels and the culture industry to harness what Gregg Gillis has created and use it towards their own financial benefit. I think this will happen because a). it makes commercial sense and b). Gillis is totally game for it. Gillis may be a copyright rebel now, but his intent is undoubtedly one aimed at worldwide stardom. As Pitchfork's Ryan Dombal states in his review today, contextualizing the artist and album:

As I was finishing an interview with Gregg Gillis in July 2006, he casually mentioned his desire to see M. Night Shyamalan's just-released fantasy movie Lady in the Water. Given the film's wretched reviews - a pitiful 24% on Rotten Tomatoes - and the train-wreck hype surrounding it, I thought he was kidding. He wasn't; Gillis liked some of Shyamalan's other flicks, so he wanted to check this one out. Simple. And it's this omnivorous, pleasure-seeking attitude toward pop culture that defines his work as Girl Talk.

The major record labels could make Gillis a target - but would they want to given how out-of-touch with listeners they already seem? Furthermore, these musical collages may seem subversive now - but what was your older sister's favorite subversive art is now Coca Cola's major ad campaign. The culture industry can mass produce anything and frame it with the language of consumption (ex. punk rock, graffiti). If enough fans are eager to consume Girl Talk tracks - and it seems as though they are - what is stopping this industry from utilizing that. Perhaps a major soda manufacturer would license a Girl Talk track, clear the samples, use it for their ad campaign, while sending Mr. Gillis on a worldwide tour.

This is all speculation, but I have a creeping suspicion something like this is going to happen - that, or Gillis will turn reclusive.

Over the past week, we've looked at a number of issues that are a constant in the arts. Ultimately I am left believing that Feed the Animals is one of the most exciting and complex art works of recent memory. As we conclude this week of Feed the Animals posts, ponder the commercial implications of this album and the art form it represents. The pleasure of the album derives from the music created more than from the theoretical ideas it stimulates. But, were this art form to become somehow "legitimized" (or simply, commercial) would that make it any less valuable or important?

Whoomp. There it is.

Feed the Animals and Postmodernism: Girl Talk as Andy Warhol

Jean Baudrillard once said...

Everything is political. Everything is aesthetic. All at once… everything is now aestheticized: politics is aestheticized in the spectacle, sex in advertising and porn, and all kinds of activity in what is conventionally referred to as culture… When everything is aesthetic, nothing is beautiful or ugly anymore, and art itself disappears.

This disappearance of art dates back to the movements of Cubism, Dada, and even Pop Art, so it is wonder what Baudrillard might think of Girl Talk's Feed the Animals - a "pop music car wreck," as described by Tom Breihan in the Village Voice blog, Status Ain't Hood. Feed the Animals may not be a postmodern album, but it does incorporate a number of postmodern themes (not entirely by design), while the album's creator shares some interesting connections with pop artist Andy Warhol.

It would be too strong of a statement to claim that Feed the Animals represents the "death of music." Avant garde artists have been challenging the borders of music for decades. Furthermore, Girl Talk's song collage style is not unique to him only, and DJs have been creating albums solely from samples for some time now. But Feed the Animals represents a somewhat liberation death of music history. The tedious unfolding of history was another great Baudrillard declaration, and Feed the Animals is the soundtrack for the slow decay.

When songs of different genres and eras crash upon one another the way they do on a Girl Talk track, they are devoid of any historical context. Furthermore, Feed the Animals makes the argument that no era is more important than any other - The Band's "The Weight" is no more important culturally than Lil Wayne's "Lollipop." In the context of a specific era, the most popular songs become the most relevant. This can be a liberating idea - free from the constrains of history, music is no longer an elitist sport. As Gregg Gillis states, "I'm presenting these songs that people are supposed to hate for whatever reason."

The whole point of not liking something is being defensive because you're scared of not being cool. But I'm just making fun music so you can let your guard down and enjoy it, don't worry about what's cool and what's not. I think the lines are breaking down in general on that level.

Much like Warhol, Gillis's work functions by appropriating the work of others into a new context. Warhol appropriated advertisements and celebrity profiles, creating varieties of silkscreens, separating the works from their original context. Like Gillis and his samples, Warhol picked very recognizable images - a Campbell's soup can, Marilyn Monroe, Chairman Mao. While political commentary has been ascribed to what he was doing, Warhol claimed little political intent. Warhol was not so much critiquing American consumerism as he was participating in and celebrating it. Much is the same for Gillis, who states, "The music is in no way politically based."

But the thing about appropriation is that when a work is taken out of its original context, regardless of what the new author's stated intent is, the floodgates of interpretation are open. One can easily look at Warhol's "Mao" series and interpret a political history of how Mao's image once held great esteem only to later be reduced to a joke, and their interpretation would not be off-base. Similarly, Rolling Stone critic Christian Hoard notes a "striking" pairing of "'Hunger Strike,' Temple of the Dog's shout-out to poor folks, with Ludacris' cash-celebrating 'What's Your Fantasy.'"

Both Warhol's and Gillis's work is not about figuring out the artist's intent, but deciphering how we relate to images, sound, and media, and how that defines our interpretation of and relationship with culture.

What Everyone is Saying About Feed the Animals

I feel a real connection to virtually all music bloggers. It's rare that there is an album that every single one of us buys on the day of its release and feels compelled to write about it. On the third day of "Feed the Animals Week," we will look at how the critical music community at large views this album. Tomorrow, I will get wordy again with a post entitled - "Feed the Animals and Postmodernism: Girl Talk as Andy Warhol."

Choice quotes:

"Oh man, the 'Steal My Sunshine' sample. lolz for days. Bookending the album with 'International Players Anthem (I Choose You)' is pretty great, as is the extended "Roc Boys" over "Paranoid Android" section in 'Set It Off,' which would be jam of the year material if it lasted for longer than a minute." -David Greenwald, The Rawking Refuses To Stop

"People actually dance at Girl Talk shows. I'm not quite sure how this happens, but it does.... [A]t the Pitchfork festival last year, things got even weirder: as Gillis hunched over his laptop on the festival's fenced-in third-stage, a massive crowd converged: climbing trees, hanging off chain-link fences, whooping from across the street. For music so based in catching references as they fly by, Girl Talk sure seems to inspire a lot of dumbing out." -Tom Breihan, Status Ain't Hood

"That’s the beauty of Girl Talk: it’s not just a gimmick. Totally by coincidence, just last week I happened to be listening to Night Ripper for the first time in a while, and I realized that the album was still as good as the first time I’d heard it, if not better. It wasn’t just the surprise of hearing all the familiar hits rubbing up against each other—that wears off quickly. On the contrary, the canny musicality that I had detected on first blush shone through even after the gimmick had faded. Girl Talk’s collages are so effective because they work with the music itself, highlighting the best or most effective bits from hundreds of songs without bothering to keep any of the dross." -Tim O'Neil, PopMatters

"I think his strength isn’t putting disparate elements together–there are so many good mash-up artists that can do that–but putting so many disparate samples together in a way that’s still good and musical." -Adrian, ipickmynose

"[T]he album is more than just a gimmick: Gillis makes some samples sound like brand-new music with a more complicated message: One striking sequence on "Play Your Part (Pt. One)" pairs "Hunger Strike," Temple of the Dog's shout-out to poor folks, with Ludacris' cash-celebrating "What's Your Fantasy." And when Gillis sets Jay-Z's "Roc Boys" over Radiohead's "Paranoid Android" on "Set It Off," Hova's words take on darkness not apparent in the original. Rarely is postmodern art such bloody good fun." -Christian Hoard, Rolling Stone

"Attempting to explain Feed The Animals and identify what succeeds or fails with the set can’t be done on the level of an album in its entirety, it’s hard to even approach each track on an individual basis considering what they are.... The end product of his work is a piece of music that is almost impossible to recall, a piece of music that is fresh every time it is heard because of the fact that it passes the listener by with lightning-like speed." -Culture Bully

Video - Greg Gillis on Talking Head TV

Album of the Week: Feed the Animals / Girl Talk

When Danger Mouse crafted The Grey Album, he set out a very specific challenge for himself - creating "mash-ups" (for lack of a better word) out of songs from only two albums. The challenge, or the exercise, is quite different when Gregg Gillis compiles/composes a Girl Talk album. There's no formula as to how many songs create one track - or where they will come from. Gillis obviously has a taste for modern rap and R&B, but clearly he has an interest in nineties grunge, classic rock and old school hip hop as well. All these sounds from at least five decades of music meet and collide on Girl Talk's fourth release, Feed the Animals.

Feed the Animals is about many things - hence a week's worth of posts devoted to it - but at its core, it is simply about music; how we listen to music, how we evaluate it, and how we remember it. While Gillis claims no political intention with his mix of music, he does boast the ability to recontextualize songs in ways thaty can range from fun to profound. A particular highlight occurs when Pete Townsend's "Let My Love Open the Door" is brought underneath Unk's "Walk it Out" on opener "Play Your Part (Pt. 1)." On "Still Here," he revives the fabulous "No Diggity," propelled with Kanye's "Flashing Lights" beat. Also featuring a sped up "The Weight" and Cassidy's "My Drink, My Two Step" over Ace of Base, "Still Here" is a personal favorite.

With samples on the surface and many buried beneath, there is much discovery to be made while listening to this record. In fact, it took six or seven good listens for me to realize that Radiohead's "Karma Police" and Lil Wayne's "Lollipop" were among the sampled tracks. The risk with this kind of record is that there does ultimately reach a saturation point. While Gillis continues to perfect his art, he does not stray far from the fun party vibe he established on Night Ripper. After successive listens a Girl Talk record can become less fun - violent even - when it seems to be the soundtrack of an excessive culture.

Violent or fun, Feed the Animals remains a remarkable conversation piece - and we will continue to discuss it all week.

Feed the Animals: Fair Use or Illegal Art?

Illegal Art is the appropriately named label responsible for Girl Talk's Feed the Animals, as well as Greg Gillis's previous three releases under that moniker. The label has a history of challenging the copyright police - dating back to their first release, Deconstructing Beck. The label's founder, Philo T. Farnsworth, has described his stance on copyright law as such:

I should clarify that we are and we aren't anti-copyright. We're against copyright law when it impedes an artist's ability to interact with pre-existing recordings. We're not against copyright protecting artists from someone copying their material and selling it without compensating them.

One of the initial questions proposed by Feed the Animals and other Girl Talk releases propose is - at what point does sampling end, and a new creation with a new "songwriter" begin?

Girl Talk has yet to be challenged by any of the major record companies from whom his tracks contain snippets of numerous recordings. In the instance of legal action, Illegal Art is prepared with a "fair use" defense - a law in place to protect those using copyrighted works for purposes of "criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research." But the US Copyright Office states that:

The distinction between “fair use” and infringement may be unclear and not easily defined. There is no specific number of words, lines, or notes that may safely be taken without permission. Acknowledging the source of the copyrighted material does not substitute for obtaining permission.

I would contend that - if challenged - Girl Talk is one of many artists victim of a copyright system that infringes on the creative process. "We have a massive system to regulate creativity," says Lawrence Lessig, a Stanford legal professor, founding board member of the Creative Commons, and author of Free Culture. He continues:

A massive system of lawyers regulating creativity as copyright law has expanded in unrecognizable forms, going from a regulation of publishing to a regulation of copying.

(You can watch Lessig's speech on, "How creativity is being strangled by the law" at Ted.com).

Whether or not this claim of fair use will be tested by any major record company is unknown at this point. With songs containing tens of samples there is undoubtedly a new authorship that occurs within a Girl Talk track. At the same time, enjoyment of a Girl Talk track requires at least some knowledge of the sampled songs. Unlike the work of, say, DJ Shadow, Feed the Animals is as much about the original songs as it is about the new one. Since there is no clear cut definition of what makes a work fair use, we can simply look at some of the criteria:

Criticism: Were Girl Talk arguing that he was making political and social critique with his mixes, he may be able to claim fair use. But Gillis has stated himself that that is not the intention. ("The music is in no way politically based - I'm not trying to make a point about sampling," he told Pitchfork in 2006. "It may bring up issues but I'm not trying to push it on anyone.")

Profit: Another issue that arises during fair use claims is whether the artist-in-question is profiting. Timothy Gabriele poses an interesting question in his column for PopMatters, regarding the "name your price" aspect:

The problem with selling material with uncleared samples seems to be an issue over ownership of the sounds themselves. Would the same rules apply if said sampling artist were to only accept “donations” for their art? Consumers are not being asked to give money out for the purchase of Feed the Animals. They’re being ask to donate to a musician and his label for having made Feed the Animals, which they will gladly give you for free. In this context, Feed the Animals is about as illegal as any mashup some kid in his living room designed for his blog.

Problem is, that "kid" would probably still receive a cease-and-desist letter were enough people to download his mash-up. Furthermore, Girl Talk is profiting - he profits from those like myself who paid $13 to also receive a physical CD, and he profits from the exposure that will lead to ticket sales.

Girl Talk's intention is to be considered a stand-alone artist - "People can judge me on whatever level they think but I've always tried to make my own songs. They're blatantly sample based but I tried to make them so that you'd listen and think, 'Oh, that's that Girl Talk song,' as opposed to just a DJ mix." Feed the Animals - probably the single most important release this year - raises a number of questions. Should Girl Talk be allowed to continue creating and selling mixes copyright free? Should he qualify for fair use? Thoughts?

We will continue to explore this album and all of its dimensions for the entire week.

Next Week is Feed the Animals Week

Girl Talk's Feed the Animals is undoubtedly a party record with loads of "name that sample" fun to be had. But it also raises a number of issues regarding found art and copyright law, while its "name your price" sales strategy adds another layer to the dialogue of the evolving music business. Suffice to say, the issues that surround this record are worth more than just a CD review. All next week, we will be posting articles related to this release - in addition to our other content. Next week is "Feed the Animals Week!"