Mashups and Their Consequences

The term “mashup” refers to a combining of functionalities or ideas to create something which contributes information greater than the sum of its parts. Internet mashups often take the form of apps. One such app would be the popular dating/hookup app Tinder, which uses information from one’s social media account to match the individual with potential suitors based on location data. In the case of Tinder, the software which allows a device to pinpoint one’s geographic location is “mashed up” with the social media software that contains their ‘likes’ and ‘dislikes’ on Facebook in order to create a map of individuals that they may be interested in. In the article “InfoEnclosure 2.0”, authors Dmytri Kleiner and Brian Wyrick address the very real threat which internet mashups pose to copyright laws, due to the unregulated nature of its content, which originally made it difficult for companies to capitalize on it. They state, “Capitalism, therefore, is incompatible with free P2P networks, and thus, so long as the financing of internet development comes from private shareholders looking to capture value by owning internet resources, the network will only become more restricted and centralised.” Increased restrictions such as those Kleiner and Wyrick describe are attempts to assert some control over ever-growing internet.

While internet mashups concern web applications and the ways they interact to provide specific data, music mashups are often composed of elements of different songs with the goal of achieving a level of popularity that the original song(s) did not reach. In her New Yorker article “1+1+1=1: The New Math of Mashups”, Sasha Frere-Jones examines the rise of music mashups and how they have revolutionized the way in which people enjoy music, asserting that they are a labor of love and are legitimate despite the ways in which they borrow from copyrighted content. She writes, “Armed with free time and the right software, people are rifling through the lesser songs of pop music and, in frustration, choosing to make some of them as good as the great ones.” In my experience, music mashups can revitalize music that has been overplayed to make it fresh and relevant again. Take, for example, Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” (2009) and Dua Lipa’s “New Rules” (2017). When “Bad Romance” was released, it was severely overplayed (I love Gaga, but it’s true); In this 2017 mashup, the lyrics of “New Rules” are played over the beat of “Bad Romance”, which re-emphasizes the intensity of the romantic anxiety it was originally meant to convey. While both songs successfully retain their original lyrics and styles, the mashup allows “Bad Romance” to be made new again, and also serves to draw attention to the rising new music artist Dua Lipa. This mashup therefore benefits both artists and promotes their music, rather than “pirating” it.

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