We could steal The Times, just for one day… (Well, they started it!)
The Times here in the UK today has published a large piece regarding David Bowie, mash-ups, and the whole concept of bedroom DJs. Entitled:
The latter starts with the line: ?IF YOU can?t beat them, join them? has long been David Bowie?s battle cry. Actually, I don’t think it has. “You can beat them if you don’t join them.” would be more Bowie and I don’t think he actually said: “Just steal my greatest hits” either, but I guess it’s all in the spirit of the thing. Here are David’s direct quotes from the piece:
Mash ups were a great appropriation idea just waiting to happen. I first heard of them when 2 many dj’s put out their album a year or so ago and have been following the evolution avidly ever since. Being a hybrid-maker off and on over the years, I’m very comfortable with the idea and have been the subject of quite a few pretty good mash-ups myself.
Visconti and I had an unintentionally Luddite fantasy in the seventies revolving around a plan to write songs in the style of several different artists, The Doors or Mark Bolan etc., and then record some backing tracks in the style of, say Hendrix or the Stones and then I would record the vocal tracks imitating Cliff, Lennon or the Supremes even (with slightly speeded up tape). Shame we never got on with it but you know how those rainy Tuesday afternoon brainstorms go. Nowhere, generally.
Well, it’s never too late, David.
If you’ve not mashed-up a bit of Bowie yet, you can reach the Audi competition