COPYCENSE

What a difference two months makes. Remember the all the sound and fury in February over DJ Dangermouse‘s Jay-Z-Beatles mash-up? Now, Audi is looking to cash in on the same concept, with the help of rocker David Bowie.

Audi, the German car maker, is sponsoring a contest that awards an Audi TT to the person who produces the best mash-up of any track on Bowie’s new Reality CD and another track from any other of the legendary rocker’s albums.

A mash-up is a song that takes the dominant part of one song — often its lyrics — and blends them with phrases, parts, bits, pieces and samples parts of other songs to make something new. At its best, the technique melds elements from wildly disparate genres — Tchaikovsky with the Thompson Twins, Jimi Hendrix with John Cage —  into a new composition that is fresh and unique.

And since U.S. copyright law generally prohibits this level of creativity, most people never hear the best mash-ups. Like The Grey Album.

Read the rest of this entry »