It’s a fast-paced world, and sometimes we find ourselves way too busy to listen to songs one at a time — which is why we love jamming out to mashups. It’s called multitasking, people! One awesome song combined with another awesome song should get you twice the awesome in the same amount of time, right? Plus, it’s always fun finding out what would happen if you mushed together Britney with Adele, or Lil Wayne with the theme to an NBC sitcom! We’ve browsed our playlists and compiled our Top 10 Favorite Pop Mashups, which you can catch after the jump.

After checking out our Top 10, don’t forget to share your own all-time fave picks in the comments!

Jarod Ripley – “Rolling Till The World Ends” (Britney Spears’ “Till The World Ends” x Adele’s “Rolling In The Deep”)

Freelance Hellraiser – “A Stroke Of Genie-us” (The Strokes’ “Hard To Explain” x Christina Aguilera’s “Genie In A Bottle”)

Party Ben – “Boulevard Of Broken Songs” (Green Day’s “Boulevard Of Broken Dreams” x Oasis’ “Wonderwall” x Travis’ “Writing To Reach You” x Aerosmith’s “Dream On”)

A Plus D – “Gucci Gucci Girl Power” (Kreayshawn’s “Gucci Gucci” x Toni Basil’s “Hey Mickey” x The Ting Tings’ “That’s Not My Name” x The Go-Go’s “We Got The Beat”)

Clockwork – “Office Musik” (Lil Wayne’s “Hustler Musik” x The Office theme)

Glee – Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” x Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ “Heads Will Roll”

DJ Place Boing – Katy Perry’s “California Gurls” x Ke$ha’s “TiK ToK”

Party Ben – Rihanna’s “What’s My Name” x John Cougar Mellencamp’s “Jack And Diane”

DJ Earworm – “United States Of Pop 2009″

Girl Talk – “Get It Get It”

Did You Hear?

:: Britney Spears wrestled up $500,000 for filling her “Hold It Against Me” video with shots of Sony, Make Up Forever, and PlentyOfFish.com, as well as her own fragrance, Radiance. We’re positive that 500,000 Britney fans would have donated one dollar each for the video to be free of obvious product placement. [Rolling Stone]

:: Are these examples of product placement in Katy Perry music videos up to the pop star’s high standards? [Vulture]

:: Find out why James Franco won’t be singing a Cher song – with Cher — at the Oscars. [E! Online]

:: Taylor Swift whips her hair while rockin’ out in Hong Kong. [Pink Is The New Blog]

:: Mash-up master Girl Talk is going on tour — check out the dates at the source. Seeing him live must be like seeing about 100 different music acts all at the same time, no? [Consequence Of Sound]

After the jump, find out which music acts are performing on the tube today.

Music On TV:
:: Late Show with David Letterman (CBS) — the Mountain Goats
:: Tonight Show with Jay Leno (NBC) — Randy Jackson, Travie McCoy
:: Jimmy Kimmel Live (ABC) — Twilight Singers
:: Last Call with Carson Daly (ABC) — Lucero
:: Conan (TBS) — G. Love
:: Lopez Tonight (TBS) — Bobby V & Bobby Brown
:: Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (NBC) — Bell Biv Devoe
:: Ellen DeGeneres (ABC) — Kellie Pickler, Greyson Chance
:: The View (ABC) — Plain White T’s
:: The Talk (CBS) — Justin Bieber

With the year just about wrapped up, we here at Idolator decided to get together, pore over our individual iPods and revisit the music that got us motivated in 2010. Perhaps some of the following 10 albums weren’t the most critically acclaimed, but they were ones that inspired our hopes, heart-felt dreams and repeated plays while we navigated Planet Pop here on the website each day over the past 12 months. And so, in no particular order other than alphabetical…

ERIKA’S PICK: The Bird & The Bee, Interpreting The Masters Vol. 1: A Tribute To Daryl Hall And John Oates
I can’t decide what The Bird And The Bee accomplished more effectively: covering Daryl Hall and John Oates’ hits, or channeling the ’80s duo when trying their hand at their own tunes (“4th Of July”, “Heard It On The Radio”). This synth-pop/oh-so-melancholy covers album is somehow timeless, thanks in large part to Inara George’s velvety vocals. “Kiss On My List” is a “must add” track to your crush’s next mix CD—better yet, just lend them the whole album. You’ll thank me.

ERIKA’S PICK: Girl Talk, All Day
Though some might argue this album could have been called Feed The Animals Vol. 2, with All Day Gregg Gillis (a.k.a. Girl Talk) proved he hasn’t lost his touch since 2008. To me, this ultimate mash-up album (or mega party playlist) is an amazing comment on the way we consume music on our iPods in 2010: in short 20-second spurts, like an over-excited and overstimulated ADHD kindergartener at Chuck E. Cheese. Seriously, when was the last time you listened to an entire song while driving in your car? As with Belinda Carlisle, Derek And The Dominoes and B.o.B.’s “Haterz Everywhere” all in one song (“Down For The Count”), Greg musically transforms apples and oranges into addictive lemonade. Now, will Nike please get with it and release a Girl Talk workout program? This music was built for a hardcore cardio regimen.

ROBBIE’S PICK: Goldfrapp, Head First
When Brit duo Goldfrapp’s fifth album arrived in March, it provided the perfect soundtrack to thaw out to as both the winter and the previous decade faded away. Personally, their albums have always been hit or miss with me. But something about Head First just clicked: the Atari-on-the-dancefloor kick of “Rocket”; the exuberant “Young Turks”-esque bounce of “Believer”; the yearning and synth-y rush of “I Wanna Life.” In the interview I did with Alison Goldfrapp earlier this year, she said, “We wanted to write good, strong melodies… It was just time to get out the synths again, put your hands in the air.” Mission accomplished. Both Head First and its single “Rocket” are Grammy-nominated.

BECKY’S PICK: Gorillaz, Plastic Beach
Damon Albarn has always been able to blur (pun somewhat intended) the line between pop, electro, hip-hop, funk and sounds I can’t begin to compartmentalize. But the aural trip of Gorillaz’s Plastic Beach captures some of his most visceral, glittering, twinkling melodies yet. The result of his copious collaborations and sunny synth work on this set of tunes is something just as beautiful and lush as the scenic album cover implies.

ERIKA’S PICK: Kate Nash, My Best Friend Is You
Kate Nash managed to transport me back my 17-year-old self with this album. Listening to My Best Friend Is You hit me very much the way Fiona Apple’s When The Pawn… did, sitting on the floor of my bedroom with the liner notes spread out in an attempt to learn and decipher every lyric. If I was a teen today and on the hunt for my musical idol, Taylor Swift would come off too sweet and Lady Gaga too intense. Kate speaks to the girl who at first listen seems bright and cheerful, but on closer inspection is packing a razor sharp bite.

BECKY’S PICK: Kelis, Flesh Tone
Kelis was able to effortlessly transform from a quirky R&B/hip-hop artist to electro queen with this non-stop dance album, one that has yet to grow old on me after an infinite number of plays—while driving in my car, running the treadmill, dancing during a house party or just sitting back and taking in her collection of hypnotic beats. Not only was this surprising set irresistible, it was also one of the sweetest albums of the year—many of the songs are about the love for her son Knight, whom she was pregnant with while writing and recording the LP. Aww.

BECKY’S PICK: Ke$ha, Animal
As much of a guilty pleasure it is to earnestly enjoy K-Dolla’s debut Animal, I really don’t feel that guilty about it. The hooks on this album last for days and stick in your head long after the hangover is gone. Just like the masses flocking to Hot Tub Time Machine or Jersey Shore or some similar lowbrow form of entertainment, I get why Ke$ha became so popular with her drunk-and-proud-of-it persona, boasting lyrics so dumbed-down they make a tween’s text messages come off as clever. It’s all about not having to think too hard while letting loose and having fun—and fun is had in abundance on every incredibly-catchy track.

ROBBIE’S PICK: Kylie Minogue, Aphrodite
Like Madonna with Confessions On A Dancefloor, hooking up with producer Stuart Price turned out to be the perfect way for Kylie to give her already impressive career a fresh jolt. The Aussie pop queen’s 11th album hops from sweet (“All The Lovers”) and sassy (“Get Outta My Way”) dance-pop tunes to harder club jams (“Put Your Hands Up”) and fist-in-the-air anthem-like (“Aphrodite”) tracks. And yet Price somehow deftly made it all cohesive. Aphrodite pretty much was my Summer 2010.

ROBBIE’S PICK: Robyn, Body Talk
I’m not exactly sure how Robyn cuts right to the heart of the universal longing we all feel with her icy-cool pop jams, but she’s pretty damn good at it. Anyone who doesn’t believe music with electronic drums can evoke emotions needs to give “Call Your Girlfriend”, “Stars 4-ever” and “In My Eyes” a spin. Then deal yourself a final blow with the Grammy-nominated “Dancing On My Own.” Collecting the previous Body Talk mini albums as they were released over the course of the year was a fun exercise, but do yourself a favor and grab the whole LP.

BECKY’S PICK: Scissor Sisters, Night Work
The Scissters made a triumphant dance mix with producer Stuart Price (who also worked his magic on Kylie’s Aphrodite), and it’s impossible to stop yourself from moving and grooving to this disc, which brims over with tracks as perky as the derriere on the album’s cover art. Although not fully unappreciated—this disco-rave party album has scored them even more fans, including Adam Lambert, Katy Perry and Lady Gaga—we still can’t believe this haunting, wicked, cheeky record didn’t make more year-end lists.

• Toby Keith not running for Oklahoma governor because “being a politician would mean (having) to get along with too many people” (I swear that he said this) [newsOK via WP]
• Elton John‘s five-year Vegas run ends, but don’t worry, if the economy stays as shitty as it’s been he’ll be back [Billboard]
• Nokia’s all-you-can-eat mobile music program Comes With Music reportedly nabbed 23,000 subscribers since launching last year in the UK [BBC]
• Major labels talking to Hulu about adding music videos to the site, thus turning even more of the Internet into TV [Bloomberg]
• Girl Talk may actually make songs with structures more complex than “throw a bunch of shit into a Sparks can and shake” on his next album [Billboard]
• Ra Ra Riot and Vampire Weekend members collaborate, blogosphere falls in on itself [MOKB]

William Safire‘s “On Language” columns have gotten a lot more enjoyable since he stopped writing op-eds for The New York Times, but when he steps into a field with which he is not entirely familiar, the results cross that fine line between charming and cringey. Of course, it’s also hard to tell when he’s kidding—he self-consciously begins one sentence here with “I recall a letter written to Gov. William Scranton…”—but, well, he’s writing about “mashup.” And “remix.” You can probably tell where this is going.

Certainly he takes a different view of the medium than most of us would, though since we are not William Safire, I suppose we would be in the wrong. He attributes the genesis of mashups to “the hip-hop world in the mid-’90s,” while I would be more likely to say it started with Plunderphonics and caught on with 2 Many DJs. Maybe Bill is thinking of “freestyle”? He also does an odd skip over the very precise technical origins of “remix,” saying that it “began in 1969 as a variant of ‘re-recording’.” Er, isn’t it a variant of “mixing”? As in, it’s been mixed and finalized once and then someone mixes it again?

It seems to me there is a very simple difference between “mashup” and “remix,” one which informs all their non-musical uses. A mashup takes parts of two or more existing things and combines them without substantially altering the originals. A remix takes parts of a single thing and rearranges it. So something that combines, say, Google Maps with a set of data is a mashup, whereas something like The Wind Done Gone that takes an existing novel and rewrites it from the perspective of a different character could be called a remix. It’s nice that Safire took things outside the usual story, but if his column was aimed at people unfamiliar with the concepts, I’m not sure how much it helped.

On the bright side, it didn’t mention Girl Talk.

Rifacimento [NYT]

Muxtape is back! Sort of! Once the sleekest, niftiest way to trade mix streams of your fave raves, Muxtape is has now been relaunched as a platform for bands to offer their music for free! Cool! So it’s sort of like a space for my music to be held, you know?

The Muxtape dudes got 12 of their favorite artists to put up some streamy music. And their favorite artists run the gamut from middling indie rock (Of Montreal) to middling indie-electro (Apes And Androids) to middling indie retro dance (Old Gold) to middling whatever the fuck the Dresden Dolls are (Amanda Palmer). Wanna know how well this works? When I wanted to find out who Old Gold was so I could make fun of him, I went to his MySpace page.

It’s still new, so maybe I’m being a little harsh. And Muxtape gave me some pretty good times back in the day, so I’m glad the site kept its very cool, very clean design. Congrats on dudes still giving their program life in a way that is no longer ducking the RIAA… except for, you know, all the incredibly illegal samples on the Girl Talk content. And that Francis And The Lights song that sounds a little too close to “Rock With You” for my comfort.

Muxtape [Official site]

What were the 80 most important musical recordings, artists, trends, events, and performances of 2008? What were the eight things this year that broke our hearts—or, at least, our ears? We’re happy to announce 80 ’08 (and Heartbreak), Idolator’s year-end overview. The list is below the jump.

80. Andrew W.K., “McLaughlin Groove”
79. Elvis Costello puts his trust in Fall Out Boy
78. Wye Oak, “I Want for Nothing”
77. Nine Inch Nails’ flood of digitally distributed music
76. TV on the Radio, “Golden Age”
75. Journey welcomes the Web 2.0 Era (and a new singer) with open arms
74. Jenny Lewis, “Acid Tongue”
73. Radiohead scores the year’s strangest Top 40 hit
72. The Music Tapes at Athens Popfest, August 2008
71. Kanye, Lily, Pete, and Courtney form their own blogger nation
70. French Kicks, Swimming
69. Soundscan: down for the recount
68. Make It Stop! The Most of Ross Johnson
67. Parry Gripp, “Hamster on a Piano (Eating Popcorn)”
66. Okay, Huggable Dust
65. Mariah Carey, “Touch My Body”
64. 360 deals make heads spin
63. Daniel Amos, Darn Floor Big Bite
62. Cut Copy, In Ghost Colours
61. Solange, Sol-Angel and the Hadley St. Dreams
60. The Numa Numa Dance revival
59. The Gaslight Anthem, The ’59 Sound
58. ’90s alt-rock memoirs
57. Larry Norman and Sonseed
56. Sheryl Crow, “Shine Over Babylon”
55. DJ Koze
54. David Cook beats David Archuleta on American Idol
53. T-Pain, Thr33 Ringz
52. Perez Hilton Vs. Sony BMG: slapfight!
51. Justin Moore’s “Back That Thing Up” video
50. Optimo’s mix CDs
49. Extra Golden live at the Caledonia Lounge, Athens, GA, June 2008
48. Jamey Johnson, That Lonesome Song
47. Daveigh Chase sings “The Happiest Girl in the Whole USA” on HBO’s Big Love
46. Gnarls Barkley and the Raconteurs race each other to the record store
45. Pete Wentz tries to save the music video with FNMTV
44. R&B’s breakbeat vogue
43. Jobromance!
42. Dennis Wilson, Pacific Ocean Blue (Legacy Edition)
41. Miley Cyrus, “See You Again”
40. Max Martin and Dr. Luke infiltrate rock radio
39. Of Montreal get Skeletal
38. Poplife Presents Poplife Sucks
37. Alec Foege, Right of the Dial and Taylor Clark, Starbucked
36. Major labels fail to kill the single—again
35. Velvet Revolver brings the drama
34. Blake Leyh makes us listen closer to The Wire
33. Soulja Boy Tell ‘Em, “Yahhh!”
32. The end of TRL
31. The old-skool rave revival
30. Ida Maria, “Oh My God”
29. Fred Schneider on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
28. CMT’s Can You Duet
27. ’90s reunion fever
26. Estelle makes her way across the ocean
25. John Darnielle’s Master of Reality and Carl Wilson’s Let’s Talk About Love: A Journey to the End of Taste
24. Girl Talk, Feed the Animals
23. Santogold, “Lights Out”
22. Summer festival glut
21. Monotonix live in Baltimore
20. James Sullivan, The Hardest Working Man: How James Brown Saved the Soul of America
19. Be Your Own Pet, “Becky”
18. Kanye West’s aesthetics
17. “Vinyl is back!”
16. Global reissues bonanza
15. Beyoncé, “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)”
14. Rickrolling rolls on
13. M.I.A., “Paper Planes”
12. Alphabeat get “wonky”
11. The year of the remix
10. R. Kelly goes to court
9. Jarvis Cocker at Pitchfork Festival, Chicago, July 2008
8. The Ron Clark Academy, “You Can Vote However You Like”
7. Portishead, Third
6. Prince at Coachella Festival, April 2008
5. Erykah Badu, New Amerykah Part One (4th World War)
4. Guitar Hero / Rock Band
3. A very musical Presidential election
2. Lil Wayne: All things to all people
1. Ne-Yo, Year Of The Gentleman

HEARTBREAKS
1. Mamma Mia Misses The Essence Of ABBA (Kate Richardson)
2. The Death of Baltimore Club Music’s Queen, DJ K-Swift (Al Shipley)
3. The blogosphere as the new status quo (Lucas Jensen)
4. Britney Spears on the 2008 MTV VMAs (Molly McAleer)
5. Be Your Own Pet breaks up (Mike Barthel)
6. Everyone in the music business losing their freakin’ jobs (Michaelangelo Matos)
7. Guns N’ Roses, Chinese Democracy (Maura Johnston)
8. John Rich shills for the GOP (Chuck Eddy)

The non-music media loves to write about mash-ups, because it allows them to talk about the niche concern of pop music without much discussing music at all. Because mash-up artists use existing songs, journalists trade the difficulty of understanding new artists for reliable classics. They can talk about all the non-musical aspects of music—MP3s, piracy, copyright, major labels, downloading, iPods, etc—and they don’t look like the kind of old fuddy-duddies who champion bands that sound like the bands they themselves loved when they were young, such as Dr. Dog and Wilco.

It’s understandable why Greg Gillis would play into all of this, and it’s hard to begrudge anyone making a living off music these days, but it can make the music harder to hear. Still, a lot of people say this album is great, and while I feel like Night Ripper was much better, who am I to argue with mass appeal? For better or worse, Gillis was one of the biggest forces in music this year.

“Play Your Part (Pt. 1)” [YouTube]
Girl Talk [MySpace]
80 ’08 (and heartbreak)

Last year, Stephen King could only pick seven albums that he liked from the year’s offerings, but 2008 has apparently been kinder to King’s ears: Not only was he moved to pick a full top 10, he placed two albums—Buckcherry’s Black Butterfly and the Pretenders’ Break Up The Concrete—at No. 1. Whoa, don’t get too crazy now!

THE GOOD: Hey, I liked that Al Green album too.
THE BAD: The gallisticle (my new term for those pageview-inflating lists that are presented as galleries: feel free to pass it along!) is peppered with “dancing about architecture” punnery and “aw, gosh, EW, you don’t have to give me space in your mag” bloviation like the following: “Of all the things I write about for EW, pop music’s the hardest, because a columnist doesn’t get paid for saying, ‘I dunno, I just like it.’ But can I really explain why I love ‘I Kissed a Girl’ by Katy Perry and would be delighted never to hear Taylor Swift’s ‘You’re Not Sorry’ again? No. All I can say is that I find ‘the taste of her cherry ChapStick’ in ‘Girl’ entrancingly sexy, while everything about ‘You’re Not Sorry’… makes me sorry.” That’s the sort of wordplay that gets Uncle Stevie the big bucks! Suck it, layoff victims!
THE WHAAA? “This is as dense and allusive as James Joyce’s Ulysses, only you can dance to it.” Guess what copyright-busting PC user he said that about? Somewhere, some dude who gets paid to write about rock full-time (well, at least most of the time in this economy) is sobbing for not having thought of the Joyce allusion first.

1. Buckcherry, Black Butterfly / The Pretenders, Break Up The Concrete
2. AC/DC, Black Ice
3. James McMurtry, Just Us Kids
4. Girl Talk, Feed The Animals
5. Alejandro Escovedo, Real Animal
6. Coldplay, Viva La Vida
7. Al Green, Lay It Down
8. Lindsey Buckingham, Gift Of Screws
9. Randy Newman, Harps And Angels
10. James, Hey Ma

Stephen King’s Top 10 [EW via Stark Online]

Paste‘s 2008 best-of isn’t unlike the magazine itself: largely predictable, but with a few surprises seemingly thrown in to confuse or distract. The list hews rather closely to their adult alternative aesthetic, but as likely obligated by law, they threw in Lil Wayne (No. 29). He’s not quite as good as MGMT, in case you were wondering.

THE GOOD: It cheered my heart to see that Ida Maria’s Fortress Round My Heart placed highly (No. 13); the odd, but charming acknowledgment of Torche (No. 34) elicited a similar reaction. For the Christian rock enthusiast portion of my heart, seeing Sandra McCracken buried near the bottom of the list was nice, although almost a wink and a nod to those who wonder if Paste is a undercover Christian rock mag. They may recommend Lil Wayne, but don’t worry, true believers. They still have room for Jesus rock.
THE BAD: Im sure any Idolator reader could pick out a record they don’t particularly care for and go all critically nutzoid, but Girl Talk at No. 7 seems like an odd slap in the face to the parade of “real musicians” who fall afterwards. I like Girl Talk; I downloaded the disc, and it stayed in my car stereo for a few months. But the question ends up being whether these best of lists are really running down the “best” of the year, and that the idea of lasting value and meaning is taken into consideration, or whether a disc’s inclusion just means that it was awesome to hear at parties.
THE WHAAA? Although I was surprised not to see Al Green on the list, and to note that Santogold’s Diplo mixtape outranked her actual album, nothing could top my shock to see She & Him at No. 1. The magazine defends the selection: “Maybe it’s just a sweet little folk record—a tiny, flawless diamond. Or maybe it’s a pristine distillation of harmony and craft; 50 years of songwriting experience served up on a spinning silver platter. Either way, it’s our album of the year.” To my ears, neither assertion is true. Volume One is a cute novelty record that has more preciousness than innovation, skill, or any other sort of metric people tend to judge great albums by. Last year’s number one was the National’s Boxer… this year’s pick is a long slide down in quality.

1. She & Him, Volume One
2. Sigur Rós, Med sud i eyrum vid spilum endalaust
3. Vampire Weekend, Vampire Weekend
4. Bon Iver, For Emma, Forever Ago
5. Okkervil River - The Stand Ins
6. Fleet Foxes, Fleet Foxes
7. Girl Talk, Feed the Animals
8. Sun Kil Moon, April
9. Lucinda Williams, Little Honey
10. Deerhunter, Microcastle
11. The Hold Steady, Stay Positive
12. Of Montreal, Skeletal Lamping
13. Ida Maria, Fortress Round My Heart
14. Langhorne Slim, Langhorne Slim
15. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!
16. My Morning Jacket
, Evil Urges
17. Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Lie Down In The Light
18. Death Cab
 for Cutie, Narrow Stairs

19. Gentleman Jesse and His Men, Introducing Gentleman Jesse and His Men
20. Hot Chip, Made In The Dark
21. The Raveonettes, Lust Lust Lust
22. No Age, Nouns
23. Mates of State, Re-Arrange Us
24. Santogold and Diplo, Top Ranking

25. Mugison, Mugiboogie
26. Lee Ann Womack, Call Me Crazy
27. Liam Finn, I’ll Be Lightning
28. MGMT, Oracular Spectacular
29. Lil Wayne, Tha Carter III
30. I’m From Barcelona, Who Killed Harry Houdini?
31. The Walkmen, You & Me
32. Silver Jews, Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea
33. Santogold, Santogold
34. Torche, Meanderthal
35. Colour Revolt, Plunder, Beg and Curse
36. The Bridges, Limits of the Sky
37. Johnny Flynn & The Sussex Wit, A Larum
38. Jamie Lidell, Jim
39. The Dodos, Visiter
40. Flight of the Conchords, Flight of the Conchords
41. The Tallest Man On Earth, Shallow Grave
42. Thao Nguyen and the Get Down Stay Down, We Brave Bee Stings & All
43. Amanda Palmer, Who Killed Amanda Palmer
44. Kathleen Edwards, Asking For Flowers
45. M83, Saturdays = Youth
46. Lykke Li, Youth Novels
47. Laura Marling, Alas, I Cannot Swim
48. REM, Accelerate
49. Sandra McCracken, Red Balloon
50. TV On The Radio, Dear Science

Signs of Life 2008: Best Music [Paste]

I’ve been asked to comment on Mike Barthel’s excellent “Girl Talk is Not Fair Use,” which appeared on Idolator yesterday. I’m a transactional entertainment lawyer, so I never actually litigate copyrights. Nevertheless, I’m treading in dangerous waters because I often represent copyright owners. I don’t claim to know how federal courts would analyze a hypothetical infringement claim against Girl Talk, a.k.a. Gregg Gillis; historically courts have been inconsistent in applying fair use analysis. I do, however, have some thoughts about how such a case should be decided.

In the interest of full disclosure, I’ll confess that I enjoy Mr. Gillis’ work; he did a legitimate remix of a track by a client of mine that I enjoyed and appreciated. I’m by no means a hardcore fan, but I have sufficient familiarity with his work for purposes of this piece.

Mike set forth the factors that courts consider when analyzing a fair use defense, so I’ll cut to the analysis. In practical terms when considering whether copyright laws overreach or overprotect, I refer back to the policy of copyright, as stated in Article I of the United States Constitution: “[Congress has the power to pass laws] to promote the progress of science and useful Arts.” Copyright, by securing for limited times certain exclusive rights to owners, is intended to encourage creativity. So if copyright stifles creativity, then it is not furthering the underlying policy of copyright. I realize this is an oversimplification, but the policy is very relevant to this analysis.

It’s by no means a coincidence that my interest in hip-hop started to wane around the time of the Grand Upright v. Warner decision (the so-called Biz Markie case in 1991, an opinion that opens with the ominous words “thou shalt not steal”). Grand Upright sent the proverbial shot across the bow to rap producers, and the golden age of the postmodern hip hop sound collage (Paul’s Boutique, Three Feet High and Rising, It Takes a Nation of Millions, etc.), in my opinion, came to a crashing end. Underground hip hop took the biggest hit, as sampling became the domain of the haves (artists and producers with sufficient money and leverage to clear samples) and the have nots were left out in the cold (everyone else). As technology has facilitated postmodern expressions such as the mash-up, artists on the cutting edge have been forced to work underground, ignoring copyright laws.

Regarding the fair use argument in the context of sound collages or mash-ups, analysis should really turn on the purpose and character of the use, specifically whether or not the use is transformative. Mike correctly stated that the nature of the copyrighted work is a non-starter because the copyrighted works are in each case creative expression. I will punt on the third and fourth factors for the moment and get to the transformative use analysis.

The U.S. Supreme Court stated in Acuff Rose that the policy of copyright, stated above, is furthered by transformative works. Whereas fair use analysis often turns on whether the market of the copyrighted work is harmed, when a work is transformative the other factors are given less weight–including whether or not the work is commercial. Although parody has an obvious foothold in the statutory language of criticism and comment, parody is but one example of a transformative work. Under Acuff Rose, the question becomes whether by shedding new light on an earlier work, the artist in essence creates a new work. In the words of the Court, “context is everything.”

I’m not sufficiently familiar with the Girl Talk recordings to know whether Gregg Gillis adds any original sounds (as in sounds created by him) to the works. Courts are more likely to find transformative use if the artist adds a large amount of new material; however, it doesn’t really matter whether the “new material” he brings to any given sample is itself original. Even if the copyrighted track is juxtaposed solely against other copyrighted tracks, so long as the work is presented in a new light so that the commentary becomes creative expression, the resulting work should be considered transformative.

Although the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit recently established a bright line rule that even a very short sample of a copyrighted sound recording without a license constitutes infringement, the “amount and substantiality” factor should not be dispositive. It is clear that for a transformative work to effectively comment on or criticize an existing work, enough of the work must be presented to make the copyrighted work recognizable to the listener. This is certainly true of Girl Talk: Gillis’ work would be far less clever or interesting if he chopped up the samples so as to make them unrecognizable. Thus, the weight given the amount and substantiality factor really depends upon the analysis of harm to the potential market.

Mike correctly points out that nobody would buy a Girl Talk recording to hear the original works; however, there is a possibility that at least some of the recordings used by Girl Talk (such as long passages from hip-hop recordings) have a potential derivative market in re-contextualized works. Such a market could be adversely affected by Gillis’s works. Nevertheless, in my opinion courts should focus on the extent to which the use is transformative.

It’s a little scary to leave it to the courts to determine anything resembling artistic merit; however, Acuff Rose provides guidance. If the commentary “has no bearing on the substance or style of the original composition, which the alleged infringer merely uses to get attention or to avoid the drudgery in working up something fresh, the claim to fairness…diminishes.” So maybe just sounding awesome together is enough after all.

Toronto alt-weeklies Eye and Now took sides on Greg Gillis, a.k.a. Girl Talk, in warring cover stories last week. Marc Weisblott’s piece in Eye takes the “anti-” position, expanding on some of the criticism of copyfighters posted here in recent weeks and raising further questions about the implications of the BoingBoing model for the record industry. Evan Davies’ Now piece goes for the “pro,” though copyfight supporters might wish he didn’t, given ridiculous arguments like “what [Gillis is] doing isn’t really any different from what Beethoven did early on after studying Mozart.” While both articles assume that what Gillis is doing amounts to theft, they never actually demonstrate that this assumption is true. Indeed, Gillis contends that his CDs are entirely legal, and should be classified not as copyright infringement but as fair use. But would his fair use defense really stand up in court?

Well, why not ask a lawyer? Unfortunately, in this fraught area, any lawyer you ask seems to have a self-interested answer. Ask Creative Commons co-founder Lawrence Lessig, and he thinks that what Gillis is doing amounts to fair use. Ask entertainment lawyer Barry Slotnik, and guess what? He thinks it doesn’t. But hey, who says we need some fancy lawyer to understand the law? We should be able to figure this out on our own.

As I understand it, fair use is intended to make sure copyright continues to be used for its original purpose of encouraging creativity. More specifically, it provides a way for people to use copyrighted material in the context of criticism or education. That’s not to say that it doesn’t apply to new art, but it does not apply to all art that uses other art. To make the distinction of what is fair use and what is not, you’re supposed to look at four factors: the purpose and character of the use, the nature of the copyrighted work, the amount and substantiality of the use, and the effect of the use on the market value for the original copyrighted work. Let’s take them one at a time.

Purpose and character. At issue here is whether the use is only intended to supplant the original work, or if it constitutes a new work Supporters of Gillis’ position argue that because his work is “transformative” rather than “derivative,” it does not violate this consideration. But whether the work is transformative is only part of what makes the purpose and character of a use fair. Again, the reason for fair use is to allow for criticism and education. Girl Talk is not educational music, and since music criticism does not generally get a party started, he would probably have to argue that it’s parody, a form that the courts have protected in the past. A use that employs a copyrighted work to comment upon the original work, like 2 Live Crew’s “Pretty Woman,” is fair use. But though Girl Talk may transform the songs he samples, he doesn’t really do so to make a critical observation about the original. Where 2 Live Crew changed Orbison’s lyrics as a way of making fun of the song, it’s hard to argue that all or even most of Girl Talk’s juxtapositions are commenting on the works involved. If we’re being honest, most of them just sound awesome together. That’s great, but it’s not fair use.

Nature of the copyrighted work. This one’s pretty straightforward. Fair use can be argued for works that aren’t creative but are just ideas or information, and fair use can sometimes be argued for private creations that have been made public. As the recordings Gillis is sampling are regular old copyrighted works, he doesn’t qualify under this consideration.

The amount and substantiality of the use. Gillis and his supporters have repeatedly invoked this consideration, too, arguing that the samples he uses are too short to be considered infringement. (From the NYT article: “Because his samples are short, and his music sounds so little like the songs he takes from that it is unlikely to affect their sales, Mr. Gillis contends he should be covered under fair use.”) But this is pretty obviously not true. Some musicians that sample other songs really do use only a small portion of the song, but Gillis lifts entire verses from rap songs, and 33% of a piece of art would almost certainly be considered a “substantial” chunk Even the short riffs that Gillis drops into his songs may not be considered fair use if they are–as they tend to be–the main riff from the track being sampled. The Supreme Court has ruled that, even if the copied portion is small, if the portion is the most important portion in the original work, the person copying is still guilty of infringement. Gillis loses on this one, too.

Effect on the original work’s value. This is the other thing copyfighters like to harp on (see quote above), and yep, Gillis wins on this one. No reasonable person would buy a Girl Talk CD if they really wanted to hear the artists being sampled, and a good case can be made that Gillis has actually increased the market value for some of the works he samples by making them sound fresh.

Those, then, are the four considerations, and Gillis only wins on one of them. Theoretically, it could be enough for him to be in the clear, since the courts only require that these four aspects of a piece of art be taken into consideration, not that one side win on a majority of them. It seems unlikely, though, and leaving aside the subjective issue of his possible success in court, this non-lawyer thinks it’s fair to say that Girl Talk is not fair use.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I really enjoy Girl Talk, and I’ve written previously about how his use of samples allows him to experiment wildly and productively with arrangement without having to worry about making the raw material. He’s been able to demonstrate some very interesting new structural ideas. I do think it’s good and important art on those grounds, and I would very much like him to keep making music.

And just because his music isn’t fair use doesn’t mean that I think the fair-use test is the best way to judge the legality of 21st-century artworks. I’m fully aware of all the absurdities of modern intellectual property law, and I strongly support efforts to change the system of licensing, to clarify and expand the protections for incidental uses, and to overhaul the whole damn thing in general. (This comic is a good primer on all those issues.) For instance, it would be great if recorded media could be licensed in the same statutory manner as compositions, so that a copyright holder isn’t allowed to deny you a license and the federal government sets a low maximum rate that you can be charged. Or whatever! Again, I’m not a lawyer, but there are some very smart people working on this problem. I would very much like for them to change things.

What I don’t like is the way that Girl Talk’s music has become a political statement–because it’s not a very good one. His claims to fair use, as I hope I’ve demonstrated here, are disingenuous. And while it’s true that, as many smart people have pointed out, it would be nearly impossible for Girl Talk to have put his album out legally, that doesn’t mean we should change the law so Greg Gillis can make more money. There have always been practical impediments to art, and there always will be. Indeed, those impediments are arguably good for creators. While copyright law may be absurd, it is demonstrably not preventing Greg Gilis from making his music, or from making money off it. Considering that he’s almost certainly breaking the law, that seems more like an argument against the onerousness of copyright than for it.

Loose Lips Sink Ships [Eye]
Hail to the Thief [NOW]

A lot of you out there have probably heard about the sweaty, dayglo, incessantly referential shows put on by the apocalypse-anticipating laptop-slinger who goes by the stage name Girl Talk. You might be wondering, “Are these shows for me? Would I have a good time? Where would I keep my wallet and keys during the parts of the show where everyone in the audience takes their clothes off?” We sent Molly McAleer to two Girl Talk shows in Los Angeles this weekend in hopes of bringing our readers a field guide of sorts to their shows. After the jump, the fruits of her labor.

Girl Talk In Los Angles [YouTube]

Ever wonder what Gregg Gillis would have to go through if he wanted to actually clear the hundreds of samples he stitches together on the albums he records as Girl Talk? The Future Of Music Colaition outlines the “incredibly complex and contentious” process, and wonders if it may in fact be a microcosm of the industry as a whole. [Future Of Music Coalition Blog]

The Girl Talk dude is planning his final show for Dec. 21, 2012–the day that the world will end, according to the Mayan calendar. It’ll be 24 hours long and “really make it bad for [the audience] for like 20 hours and … kill it for four hours, and everyone will be really excited.” Hey, why does he even have to worry about killing it for four hours? It’s not like anyone will be able to irritably blog about what happened in the moments right before they were pulverized to smithereens. [MTV]

MTV’s James Montgomery recently found himself in a bit of a kwinky-dink when he realized he was listening to Girl Talk’s Feed The Animals on a plane while LL Cool J, whose “Mama Said Knock You Out” is sampled with impunity, sat in first class, oblivious to the lift. Should the writer leave coach and (if he doesn’t get tackled by a member of L’s entourage or an undercover agent) reveal this thievery to the superstar? “It’s an entirely post-millennial dilemma, one that’s right up there in the minds of today’s music journalists with ‘If you are talking to Paris Hilton on a red carpet, do you acknowledge the fact that you have seen her naked?’ and ‘Do you tell a band that you’ve downloaded their new album from LimeWire to prep for this interview?’” Yeah, what could be more “post-millennial” than using an uncleared sample? The idea of using someone else’s hook without permission would undoubtedly blow LL Cool J’s mind in its post-millennial audacity. What ’80s rapper wouldn’t be shocked to hear of such a thing?

That is why Animals, which can be downloaded through Illegal Art’s Web site, is so amazing. It’s completely fearless in approach and scope, a record that makes no bones about sampling Kanye, Lil Wayne, Jimi Hendrix, Prince, Radiohead, Michael Jackson and Metallica, released by a guy not hiding in any way, shape or form. And while it lacks the breakneck, “Holy sh–, did you hear that?!?” pacing of Gillis’ last album, 2006′s Night Ripper, it’s in a lot of ways a better record. It’s Gillis making a statement, whether it’s in the caliber of the artists he’s jacking (clearly, any of the aforementioned acts possess legal teams that could positively destroy him) or in the meanings behind those jackings.

Take, for example,the two Beastie Boys samples used on the record: the booming drums of “So What’cha Want” (which, to be fair, Beck also sampled on his track “E-Pro”) and the hook of “Body Movin’.” It might be reading too much into things, but the message to me is clear: The Beasties might have started this whole “mash-up” thing with their ’89 opus Paul’s Boutique, but now the jackers have become the jackees. … It’s Gillis’ game now.

Or perhaps writers who acknowledge Paul’s Boutique, where the countless samples can be enjoyed as rap-backing grooves and sound effects by the unfamiliar, and yet claim “it’s Gillis’ game now” because he created an hour long mash-up medley that has no value beyond “recognize this?” bricolage, are the ones jacking.

But anyway, inquiring minds want to know. Did Montgomery reveal to LL Cool J that the future is now? Did the superstar choke on a pastry and scream for his lawyers to stop these irreverent shenanigans?

But where was I? Oh yeah, LL Cool J. I didn’t tell him about the Girl Talk album, in part because I am such a fan of Gillis’ work, but also because you could probably fill an airplane with people who have more reason to gripe than LL does. He’s only been snippetized on Feed The Animals, whereas anyone in Queen, the Police, Faith No More or Dexy’s Midnight Runners would have a, shall we say, much larger bone to pick with Gillis (so would Avril Lavigne, Twisted Sister, Temple of the Dog, the Band, Flo Rida, Lil Mama, Young Jeezy and Fergie, for that matter.)

I guess by writing this column, I am opening Gillis up to all sorts of bad things. And I hope that doesn’t happen. But I felt the need to do this because his new album is so great, the kind of thing that could not have existed 10 years ago, an audio time capsule of the era in which we live. The kind of thing that can inspire post-millennial dilemmas at 37,000 feet.

I just hope LL doesn’t read this.

Word. I don’t even want to think about what kind of Jive Bunny-esque “LL Megamix” he might commission.

Lil Wayne, Kanye West And LL Cool J Fly Girl Talk’s Friendly Skies, Unknowingly, In Bigger Than The Sound [MTV]

ARTIST: Girl Talk
ALBUM: Feed The Animals
WEB DEBUT: June 19, 2008

ONE-LISTEN VERDICT: A near-hour of clips from hits songs merged with clips of hit songs that adds up to a huge medley of… what, exactly? Unlike the best 1% of mash-ups (the ones that aren’t ruined by grating off-key moments left by their lazy creators), there aren’t any new songs or even a consistent groove created here. (Not that a steady beat makes Jive Bunny & The Mastermixers’ similar, if less dense, work enjoyable.) Greg Gillis isn’t proving he can take 40 songs and turn them into one; he’s proving he can take 40 songs and turn them into 20 by playing each for 20 seconds.

Feed The Animals would be a lot more engaging if it didn’t try to cram so much in; it’s possible I’d love a track that puts a popular rap over a rock chestnut, like when T-Pain sings about boots with the fur over the Velvets’ “Sunday Morning.” But in this obese context, Gillis’ trickery barely gets an eyebrow raise. I can see how people could be amused or impressed by his craft, but I can’t imagine this album will hold anyone’s attention for the entire running time, when it has even less of an attention span than any of us. I planned on comparing it negatively to Osymyso’s “Intro-Introspection,” praising the song for its thematic unity, but listening to it after Girl Talk’s Casey Kasem casserole made it sound just as unengaging and relatively slower. So thanks for ruining that for me too, Girl Talk.

WHERE YOU CAN GET IT: Illegal Art.

I have opted to pay $0.00 because:

• I may donate later
• I can’t afford to pay
• I don’t really like Girl Talk
• I don’t believe in paying for music
• I have already purchased this album
• I don’t value music made from sampling
• I am part of the press, radio, or music industry
• Other reasons

Hey, I value music made from sampling, Girl Talk. If you make some, let me know.

I suppose the new Girl Talk disc could be considered “highly anticipated” since Night Ripper was a hit inside our creepy Internet circles, at least to the extent that Greg Gillis could quit his job to seemingly play the same “not a DJ” set at every festival, parking lot and bar mitzvah over the course of the last two years. Somehow, the new album will focus more on easily recognizable pop samples, which seems difficult to comprehend, but I guess we’ll find out in a week or so–according to Billboard, the new album will be available on the Illegal Art Web site using the “pay-what-you-want” model, which contrasts with Gillis’ own “pay nothing” approach to clearing the countless samples that appear on the album itself. [Billboard]

At a St. Louis college gig by laptop bootlegger Girl Talk on Friday, an audience member was so moved by the DJ’s wacky blends of classic indie-rocking cheese with today’s chart-topping hip-hop cheese that he proceeded to strip down to his skivvies and start acting like a raging dipshit. At which point he recieved an attitude adjustment from local police, applied directly to the buttocks.

According to a Gargoyle Student Committee member and other eyewitnesses, trouble began when the man was asked to leave by concert security. When he resisted, the police were summoned. According witnesses, police asked the man, who was topless, to put his shirt back on. He then began to remove his pants. Witnesses say police then seized the man and began handcuffing him. When he resisted a taser was used, an officer on the scene confirmed.

“He was tased in the ass for a prolonged period of time,” one female witness stated. “It was terrible.”

Despite what many of you meanies are probably hoping, Mr. Girl Talk was not the pantsless showoff who got 1.21 gigawatts to the anus. Instead, GT and crew “ended up moving the show to a frat basement,” where drunk, half-naked assholes have long been able to dance to Young Jeezy in peace.

Man Tased At Girl Talk Show At The Gargoyle [Riverfront Times via the Daily Swarm; Photo: Frank Hamilton]

The easy way out of any music review is the relentless slam, the cynical rant against whatever perceived injustice against what is good and just, and the music industry has a unique talent for serving up easy targets. (Courtney Love authorizes a Z-Trip remix of a Nirvana track? Excellent!) The minute I saw the listing for Tempe, Arizona’s Southern Comfort Music Experience mini-festival, it seemed like another softball thrown right down the middle. A lineup selected from the Hype Machine charts? A temporary venue set up in the parking lot of a new mall? Seemingly endless corporate sponsorship? Sounds like a the easiest blog post in the world. The only problem is when the event ends up resembling an actual good idea.

I probably should have seen the problem coming a mile away. While I was navigating the PR maze in my attempt to get a press pass, I was busy preparing a line of questions revolving entirely around the venue’s mall surroundings (“So, Cold War Kids, how do you feel about the new menu items at Red Robin,” etc.). The Southern Comfort people were incredibly accommodating (even after reading my sad excuse for a writing portfolio), setting up an interview with Architecture in Helsinki and the Southern Comfort VP of the Americas, which I assume is an important job, despite the fact that I am dubious that there is another America out there somewhere. Again, this should have been a sign that this wasn’t going to be as easy as I thought.

It turns out that Campbell Brown, the VP of these alleged “Americas”, is a decent guy–or I’m just an incredible sucker for clever marketing. He’s totally open about his desire to sell some booze to twentysomethings, and to do so by making a connection to music’s aesthetic of cool, but it’s hard to argue with the method–diverse lineups at a free show, adding a few new cities each year. He’s not naïve enough to believe that Southern Comfort is going to go head-to-head with Lollapalooza or Coachella, but he does want to put on a show that promotes the brand without the audience “having to take a shower afterwards.” I mean, how do you argue with that? Aside from trying to figure out who thought the Sick Puppies should appear? (Brown admitted it was “a weird time of year” for booking acts.)

Don’t get me wrong, there were some incredibly cheesy aspects of the “Experience.” Was anyone going to get excited about a glorified beanbag toss? The event could have done without the DJ who seemingly brought his crates from his gig at the End of Summer Kappa Sig Watermelon Bash, and who announced early on he would be there all day “mixing it up on the wheels of steel.” Also, if the main stage MC actually believed that “Cold War Kids will change the way you see rock performance,” Southern Comfort (described by Lou Kummerer, bassist of local band The Loveblisters, as “the Hall and Oates of whiskeys”) is more powerful that I would ever imagine.

But here’s the thing: For all the underlying corporate ridiculousness (and the Sick Puppies), the show seems like a decent thing for everyone involved… even to the point that I almost think we should welcome the expansion of the SoCo Music Experience Brand. Outside of the largely horrible local acts (who play for free), it’s a good deal for the bands, who get a nice paycheck to go along with their Stereogum raves. The free admission, which allows people to just walk up and check the show, makes the ever-present advertising a little more palatable–after all, there was just as much (if not more) advertising at Coachella, and I seem to remember those tickets being slightly more expensive than zero dollars. Gregg Gillis from Girl Talk was up to his normal antics, with a stage full of dancers, but it worked. The music was fun (although a sorority girl in my vicinity commented that she “just didn’t get it”), and you could avoid the girls trying to hand out beads if you didn’t establish eye contact. Girl Talk hadn’t played the Phoenix area since his “Night Ripper” fame kicked in, and he kept yelling that it was Saturday night and we should have fun since the show was free and the booze was cheap.

He had a point.