“Identify a media artefact produced outside the traditional mainstream media and explain what ‘qualities’ it has / does not have.”
The media artefact I have identified is the DJ Dangermouse remix album The Grey Album which remixes Jay-Z’s The Black Album with The Beatles’ S/T 9th album, also known as The White Album.
Although Jay-Z released an a capella version of The Black Album for the purpose of mashups and remixes DJ Dangermouse still needed to gain permission to use The Beatles’ samples and didn’t. This album had a (relatively) small pressing of 3000 and was distributed in a rather low-key fashion to friends and existing fans. I would suggest that it has been produced from outside mainstream media because even though it was sold it was originally intended just for friends, so any commerical or critical qualities it possessed could perhaps not have been for commerical purposes.
EMI, who owns the copyright to The Beatles’ samples used, discovered this and ordered DJ Dangermouse to cease and desist the further distribution of the album, this however attracted publicity and got DJ Dangermouse (and his remix album as a consequence) alot of attention from mainstream media.
Klein’s No Logo briefly mentions how things are different (in terms of digital rights) for independant artists than they are for artists affiliated with major record labels. She cites Beck as an example of someone who can litter their album with samples and because of the influence of their label (and sometimes they fact the label may infact own the rights to the sampes being used) they can get clearance without too much difficulty.
Although I can’t find much information of the full-length documentary there is something called Alternative Freedom which explores ideas about digital rights and what is ‘fair’. It features interviews with Lessig and DJ Dangermouse. Here’s a trailer:
Also worth watching is a video made in, I think, retrospect to the mashup’s release to promote it. This can be found here.
