Here is a paper I wrote for my English class about Girl Talk. Also about the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Kelly Clarkson. Intrigued? Read on....
The title of the paper is "Musical Reproduction: Modifications, Mash-Ups, and the Mix CD."
The ability to reproduce artistic works entirely changes the context in which art is interpreted. Historically, the single location in which a specific work of art existed was part of an individual artistic experience. When the ability to reproduce art became easy and effortless, the process of giving meaning to art became much more complex. Textual information and what is seen before or after a piece directly affects viewer’s relationship with that work. More importantly, the reproduction lends itself to the possibility of serving a vast amount of contrasting functions. In Ways of Seeing, John Berger states that, “Reproduction makes it possible, even inevitable, that an image will be used for many different purposes” (148).
Berger’s position on artistic reproduction is relevant to 21st century music. “Maps” is a 2003 rock hit by the band the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. The song has a catchy melody, simple lyrics, and recognizable guitar riff. When the single was released in 2004, it became an instant hit. The ability to make physical reproductions of this song allowed it to be bought, downloaded, and loved by millions across the country.
The millions that heard this song did so as the musicians intended through the artists’ deliberate recording. However, the song traveled to the listener, rather than the listener to the song. This means that the Yeah Yeah Yeahs had no control over the context in which their work was heard. Listeners could choose to listen to the song loudly or quietly, with the bass turned up or down, with friends or all alone. They could choose what to listen to before or after they heard this song and which lyrics are meaningful. The reproduction of the work takes away the artist’s control over the context of the piece. As Berger would say, the meaning “multiplies and fragments into many meanings” (143).
Despite the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ regular play on radio stations nationwide and invitation to the prestigious Grammy Music Awards, the band has managed to maintain an identity as an independent, alternative band. This goes beyond the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s musical sound to the presence and persona of the band itself. Lead singer Karen O embraces a personality far from the typical pop star. The singer is recognized for her outrageous, dynamic, and memorable fashion statements and regularly performs intense dance sequences during live performances.
In addition, the band retains its indie identity by rejecting the conventional craving for stardom and fame. In an interview with The Observer, Karen O claimed to have “ambitions for our music and our art” rather than status and popularity (Hanley 2). When the band’s fan base suddenly grew substantially, Karen O decided to spend a year away from the musical scene getting “plugged back in to the normal life” before recording another album (Hanley 2).
Listeners of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs could conceivably know about the band’s eccentric profile and dismissal of conventional artistic standards before their listening experience. Listeners may appreciate this song more because of the band’s longstanding “indie” credibility, even though the band has become popular enough that they have entered the mainstream. This shows how the context in which a piece of art is understood has an effect on the work’s meaning. A listener’s previous knowledge about the band, exposure or lack of exposure to other types of music, and prior associations with the tune will play a role in the meaning they create during their listening experience.
Berger pointedly states that meaning associated with art is easily modified or changed (143). Individuals can choose to draw different meaning from the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s song based on their personal background. According to Berger, “the way we see things is affected by what we know or what we believe,” (134).
The relationship between reproduction and the meaning of a work of art goes beyond the changing context in which a piece is interpreted. The reproduction of art enables it to be altered to serve entirely unrelated purposes. “Since U Been Gone” is a 2004 pop hit by singer Kelly Clarkson. A listener does not have to examine the song too closely to detect its similarities to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ “Maps.” Even to the untrained ear, the guitar break from Clarkson’s song is nearly identical to a quickened version of the break in “Maps.” While the chord progression is nearly identical, Clarkson’s song attracts a much different audience. With a polished production value, clean pop vocals, and romantic lyrics, the song has a greater mainstream appeal.
An interesting question to ask is why Kelly Clarkson has swiped this distinct guitar riff from this particular band. It is possible that Clarkson accidentally imitated this sequence of notes without any knowledge of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs previous recoding of it. While this coincidence is conceivable, the uniqueness of the riff and exactness of Clarkson’s emulation make it seem highly unlikely.
Another possibility is that Clarkson was trying to gain success by mimicking the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s in her own style. It is notable that both “Maps” and “Since U Been Gone” are songs about lost love. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs primary lyric is, “They don’t love you like I love you” and Clarkson sings, “You’re dedicated, you took the time / It wasn’t long till I called you mine.” Clarkson could have included the riff and lyrics into her song to try to appeal to the large “indie” crowd that provided the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s with their success. Contrastingly, Clarkson could have been inspired by the riff in “Maps” to write “Since U Been Gone,” assuming that audiences would not take note of the similarities between the two songs.
The undeniable likeness of the two pieces reflects the changing authority of art that comes from reproduction. In an interview with The Rolling Stone, Karen O stated, “If it wasn’t [Kelly Clarkson] it just would’ve been Ashlee Simspon,” (Sheffield 2). This attitude reflects Berger’s sentiments about the inevitability of reproduction to destroy the authority of art. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs do not hold the rights over the arrangement of a few notes of melody. It is possible that the Yeah Yeah Yeahs also copied this riff, intentionally or otherwise, from a previous artists work. The lines of possession of artistic works are hazy. Reproduction has permitted all art to become recycled, and no single artist holds complete authority over all parts of an original artistic work.
Girl Talk is a musician that reproduces art in a much different way. Girl Talk borrows entire samples from other musicians, mashes them together into mixes, and creates his own unique piece of music. He offers very little original instrumentation, instead relying almost entirely on the pre-recorded words, melody, and harmony of other musicians to serve as his source of artistic expression.
In one of Girl Talk’s mash-ups, he crosses Kelly Clarkson’s “Since U Been Gone” with an array of vastly different musicians, including Nine Inch Nails, Nelly Furtado, and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
This is an entirely different form of reproduction. There is no pretense with Girl Talk that the music he creates is original. If every combination of musical notes has already been produced in one way or another, as I established earlier, than the only way to create “new” music is to recycle those notes that have already been played. Rather than directly copying a series of notes as Kelly Clarkson has done, Girl Talk reorganizes recognizable artistic works in a fresh order.
The authority of the piece is more preserved in this method of reproduction than those previously mentioned. Girl Talk listeners easily identify the songs they are familiar with. It could be argued that Girl Talk acts as an advertiser for other artists, increasing general interest and awareness of their original work. In an interview with Pitchfork Magazine, Girl Talk said, “I don’t think I’m creating competition for the artists; it’s just further spreading the message” (Richardson 5). Listening to Girl Talk often makes me want to hear the entire song he samples. Yet this form of obvious reproduction is illegal while the less overtly reproduced piece Clarkson produced is not.
The illegality of musical mash-ups pushes one to question the legality of other forms of artistic duplication. Girl Talk rearranges previously recorded works of art, changing what comes directly before and after the original pieces. Is this any different than burning a mix CD of assorted artists? What about published collections of various musicians? Movie soundtracks? Should songs be played at all during movies, when they cannot be properly identified and claimed?
Girl Talk generally samples recognizable popular and mainstream tunes. While some of his choices are less known, the majority, including The Cure, The Beastie Boys, and Michael Jackson, are assumed to be familiar to the average listener. It is possible that this is one of the primary reasons for Girl Talk’s musical success. Listeners identify with Girl Talk’s music and easily place it in the context in which they know it. As I previously mentioned, the context in which a piece of art is understood is crucial to its relationship with the listener. Because the music Girl Talk samples has already been contextualized by the majority of listeners, they already have memories, experiences, and personal stories associated with the tunes.
By mashing together many popular tunes in a short period of time, Girl Talk is able to appeal to the audience’s preconceived contextualization at a heightened rate than traditional musicians. Each listener will have a unique reaction to his work based on their previous experience or lack of experience with the tunes he samples. Even if the listeners don’t have a positive reaction to Top 40 hits like “Since U Been Gone,” they are most likely familiar with the tune and have some association with it. They may find the song humorous, annoying, or nostalgic to a certain period of their life. The actual reaction of the listener is insignificant, because the point is that it already exists and it is fleeting. The listener need only to wait a few seconds for the mash-up to progress into a Peter, Bjorn, and John song that they may have a positive emotional reaction to.
Girl Talk plays to listener’s emotions based on their preconceived musical connections. Musican’s like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs or Kelly Clarkson must independently develop a sense of musical intimacy with their listeners. This is not always easy to do, which may be one reason why artists like Kelly Clarkson are tempted to “borrow” segments from previously familiarized musicians. Girl Talk does the same thing as Kelly Clarkson in a less conventional way.
When a piece of music is recontextualized, the meaning associated with the original piece is also recontextualized. The next time a listener hears “Since U Been Gone” after they hear Girl Talk sample it, they may recall Girl Talk’s rendition and react to it differently. It is possible that they have never heard the tune before. In this case, the authority of the song entirely belongs to Girl Talk.
Regardless, the listener’s relationship to the piece of music has changed. This is another possible reason for Girl Talk’s popularity. Because Girl Talk samples over 300 songs in a 60-minute period, he recontextualizes listeners preconceived musical associations at an increased rate. Listeners could potentially identify 300 previously separate artistic experiences with one musician: Girl Talk.
The relationship between the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Kelly Clarkson, and Girl Talk amplify the important role context plays in artistic experience. The context in which a listener experiences a piece of music undoubtedly affects their relationship with that song. The reproduction of musical work allows the context in which the song is understood to be endlessly changed and modified. This changes not only how it is received by its audience, but also how it can be manipulated to serve contrasting functions.
Works Cited
Berger, John. “Ways of Seeing.” Ways of Reading. 7th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s,
2005.
Clarkson, Kelly. “Since U Been Gone.” Breakaway. RCA Records, 2004.
Hanley, Lynsey. “Affirmative Action.” The Observer. 26 Feb 2006.
Sheffield, Rob. “Yeah Yeah Yeahs: Goth, Nerd, Slut.” The Rolling Stone. 7 April 2006.
Richardson, Mark. “Interview: Girl Talk.” Pitchfork Magazine. 6 October 2008.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs. “Maps.” Fever to Tell. Interscope Records, 2003.
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