Phil Gunderson is a mystery man who discusses "digital communism" and the shunning of mash-up artists such as Brian Burton, a.k.a. "Danger Mouse". Danger Mouse is a mash-up artist who is responsible for mixing together The Grey Album: a mix between the Beatles "White Album" and Jay-Z's Black Album. Many found Danger Mouse's work (as well as all the mash-up artists) tasteless and untalented. Gunderson discusses in grave detail and with scholarly words that "...our smiles and laughter signify our liberation from an excessively restrictive horizon of musical expectations". Based upon this statement, I believe Gunderson applauds "bedroom producers" because he realizes that artists such as Danger Mouse require a certain talent to be able to bring together commonly known treasures of the music world, and mash them together along with his sense of humor to create a new type of genre: one everyone can laugh and dance to.
In Gunderson's article "Danger Mouse's Grey Album, Mash-Ups, and the Age of Composition", he uses a particular way to reach out to his audience. He uses large words perhaps to speak on the level of scholars who will most likely read his articles. I think he should have made it more universal and for others who don't have to read it with a dictionary near by. His article is obviously a music review. He is attempting to reach out and tell others about the on growing problem and how we should all get over the inevitability.
Gunderson makes the argument that it takes a certain talent to be able to mix together an enjoyable beat created by several music sources that you can actually dance and feel a rhythm to. A song that anyone has the ear for and can be able to dance to it. Mash-up artists are usually damned and looked down upon for being talentless low-lifes who steal from "real" artists. He suggests that mash-up artists are simply taking from artists ideas and creating something unique and with their own ideas. For example, Takashi Murakami, a prestigious artists has a piece called And Then, And Then, And Then, And Then, And Then, Red which portrays lovable Disney character Mickey Mouse.
Is Murakami "stealing" Mickey Mouse? Or is he taking an idea used by Disney and creating his own unique character? Gunderson uses the same concept of Duchamp’s artwork that shows Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa with a goatee . These examples display the same concept of Danger Mouse's The Grey Album because Gunderson makes the point that Danger Mouse, as well as other mash-up artists, are being their own unique and creative producer without all of the cons of having a record label to exploit you. Murakami takes other ideas and makes his own, and there is no one to stop him. I know from experience that it is much harder to “mash” up a bastard child of a song as these mash-up artists do.
With this talent, comes a great gift. The gift of being able to divide the racial diversity that the music industry has created. Gunderson makes the claim that "radio bandwidth has been exploded into a stelliferous system of synchronic generic differences... and which interpellates a corresponding "type" of consumer, The Grey Album's juxtaposition of the Beatles and Jay-Z takes on the character of a musical contradiction". He is claiming that Danger Mouse's Grey Alubm is exactly what it is: a mixture between "white" and "black" music to make grey. The Grey Album represents the grey area that exists in the crowd whenever mash-up artists perform. For instance, check out this crowd at one of Girl Talk's shows. Notice the diversity and the great time everyone is having!
Gunderson is outspoken against how mash-up artists are not given enough credit for what they are worth. He explains in his wordy article that bedroom producers experience much more pro's that real artists such as being able to produce in your own room rather than playing the record company's "games". Mash up artists are going to continue doing what they do. It is a hobby, talent, and gift to the world and everyone deserves "free music". Maybe it isn't fair, or even creative; but it sure is fun to dance to.
