No cure for the remix blues

Infotainment
By LUKE MORITZ

Ever since there were musical instruments, there have existed remixes and sampling. But just because something has been around so long does not mean it is right. It happens often that I am driving along and, while listening to the radio, I hear something that sounds an awful lot like a song that just hit the top 40 a week ago.

The song so many people have been singing along with at the top of their lungs for the last few weeks is, in fact, a new version of a song that my parents might have listened to growing up. It is the dreaded remix and sampling technique.

Every time I have this epiphany, and it happens more than you might think, I seem to lose a little more faith in the world.

I tend to look at the world in a positive light, and maybe sometimes I am a little too naïve. I want to believe that every time I listen to a song it is, in fact, the original brainchild of an artist who wanted to share his or her thoughts, ideas and feelings with me.

When I realize he or she took the song and added in some modern sounds to give it that extra bump for a party, I feel like crying. Some creativity is put into the process of remixing or sampling a song, but it just isn’t the same.

It seems like a cultural trend that people take originals and make “improvements” on them. All you have to do to see this is walk over to the parking lot or the street and look at the multitude of vehicles that have had rims, spoilers or fancy paint jobs added to them.

What does this say about our society?

Maybe nothing, maybe this actually has been going on for thousands of years, and, since I am finally in college and more aware of the world in which I live, I just notice these things more. What it seems like, though, is that people tend to think less originally and more adjunctively.

Maybe we as humans are close to or already have reached our potential to be creative and original, but I seriously doubt it. People just need to think outside the box, or maybe even forget about the box altogether and think about a cylinder or cone. We have a lot of potential, so let’s utilize it.

Look at the world around you and ask yourself what the most ridiculous thing you can think of is, and then we’ll be headed in the right direction. Of course, that is just my opinion.