Mash Ups on SoundCloud

In his book, Remix Culture, Larry Lessig makes the argument that throughout the 20th century we have moved from a Read/Write (RW) culture to a Read/Only (RO) culture because of the advancements of technology. He describes a RW culture as one where people consume it and then are able to change or redirect it. However, a RO culture is one that the audience only consumes it without any form of response. Lessig claims that technologies such as television have enforced a RO culture because people sit around in a lazy manner, while only taking in the medium and not changing it in any way.

However, newer technologies have helped take our culture back into a RW culture, or a remix culture. For example, on the Internet people are able to take audio from different songs and mash them together to form new songs. This is currently one of the most controversial issues related to remix culture, as it brings in issues of copyright law. 'Mash up' artists have been uploading their new songs on the internet, where listeners are able to download them for free but the original artists of those songs used do not receive any rewards for the use of their intellectual property.

Some artists have been fighting back, such as Carl Craig, a Detroit DJ whose mashed up tracks were put on the social networking music site SoundCloud. SoundCloud is a site where anyone can upload music and sounds which then can be spread throughout social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Although this is another way for mash up artists to spread their (arguably) illegal work, I think it is a good concept as it allows for even more interaction among people, but is directed to a specific type of consumer.