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Claunesha Williams
Anne Kingsley
English 126
September 16, 2015
Building a Theory - Remix

My favorite genre is smooth Hip-Hop and R&B. Theres always going to be a song for
every emotion you feel in your body at any time of day. R&B is something that gives you a
brighter outlook on life or, simply just relates to what someone may be going through. One of my
favorite songs just so happens to be Human Nature by the King of Pop, Michael Jackson.
Whats so alluring about this piece is that it has been remixed twice by two well-known artists:
SWV (1990s) and Chris Brown (2000s). I never really gave much thought on what it meant to
actually remix something until I heard completely different lyrics from both songs, but also
heard that exact, same familiar beat with a twist.
The idea of remix can be described as a chunk of media, a piece of literature, or a sample
of art thats been reshaped from its original form by adding, removing, or switching pieces of an
item and transforming it into something new. There are many reasons to why remix has been
considered ubiquitous in our American cultural society. It has practically become a part of our
everyday lives. At this day and age, remix has been the station of rejuvenating the old into the
new. With close observations, youll come to find that remix is everything we are and do.
Remixing can be used to express creativity, pay a tribute to something or someone, or simply
bring something back to life. There are even political and economic, cultural and social, and
artistic significances regarding that of a remix.

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Humor has always been the escape gate that we Americans thrive from. Today it is seen
as one of the most popular ways to get the people involved or at least to understand the
fundamentals of politics. But why is that politicians use such funny or sarcastic statements to
gain their audiences. According to Remixing Politics and Pedagogy from Bowling Green State
University, Since irreverent composition ignores or mocks authority, it seems appropriate that
most texts of this caliber (including the ones I observed in the CNN-YouTube Debates) would
rely on humor to some degree for their rhetorical effectiveness (bgcs.edu). Remixing politics
is another phrase for appealing to the crowd. Majority of the US population probably knows less
than average about politics, but they do know about entertainment and what will catch their
attention. Donald Trump running for President is a perfect example of remixing politics, because
hes not the typical traditional candidate. Everything he says (agree to disagree) has a sort of
twist, but he is still keeping his focus on the point that hes trying to make. Everything about us
is remix.
It seems as though culture continues to change within every decade. From clothing to
slang language, music genres, and society, you would think that history might just be repeating
itself. But its actually all a remix, and through this process, we can gain new understandings
and perspectives on our past, our present, ourselves (Minneapolis Institute of Art). There has
never been a problem with any original or contemporary piece, but this form of
altering/tampering with its originality generates that whole idea of freedom of expression from
different kinds of individuals. It also could have been as a sort of acknowledgement or tribute to
that of which it came. When dealing with culture, expressions can be the results of things, items,
songs, movies and lifestyles that one was inspired by. In the article, Remixing Culture by
Ben Murray, The remix should be seen as a transformative work of creativity that forms part of

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the fabric of our wider cultural environment. A simple tweak on an old song, or a few cuts on a
t-shirt is considered a remix. Our culture, both past and present, comes from the inspirations we
get and in solution, we have a remix, which in addition has a major effect on our artistic
expression.
Art has a lot to do with the idea of remix. Art is one of those things that can be interpreted
in many types of ways. Whats interesting is the whole process of interrogation one does with a
piece in order to call it a remix

. Questions like: what will I call it? Do I keep the name?

What should I take out? What should I leave in? How do I feel about this piece? How can I turn
it into my own? Remixing art isnt just something that one does, but something created from
another something that was already created. We get these inspirations from life experiences,
things we see on TV, idols we look up to, etc., and everything gets incorporated, one way or
another into these masterpieces that we call something of a remix. Artistic remix also plays a
significant role in freedom of speech. There are millions of art pieces with war, revolutionary,
and movement symbolism that comes from artists being the voice of the people. According to
Kevin Youngs, Final Chorus: Planet Rock, he writes, What no one seemed to understand was
the way Do the Right thing was not interested in reality per se but prophecy. Soon enough, the
uprisings in Los Angles would speak louder than any cinematic riot (Young 352). They way art
is differentiated flows with the attitudes and behaviors of individuals.
Remix in itself is a piece of art/literature that has been altered from its original form by
attaching, shortening, paraphrasing, and/or removing and transforming it into something else.
What makes this type of style so popular is that youre chunking melodies and different pieces of

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work, some of which are very famous and easy to spot, and creating it into some new without
completely dismantling the old version.