Known throughout the world under the synonym “Girl Talk” Gregg Gillis has created an interesting career for himself. Gillis started out going to school to focus on tissue engineering while making music on the side for recreation. Based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Gillis has changed the face of a relatively new form of music called mash ups. In doing so he has caused waves of controversy and laid the groundwork for quite a few legislation battles to come.
(Photo taken by Michael Ray)
Though the definition has changed over the years mash ups are defined as a song or a composition created from a combination of the music from one song with the accapella from another. Mash up’s is also known as a song created out of pieces of two or more songs, usually by overlaying the vocal track of one song seamlessly over the music track of another .[1] Mash ups generally only hold about 30 seconds of one specific song, just enough to get your attention and then it is onto the next song. Mash ups are generally upbeat to keep the flow of the mix moving. For the most part there are about twenty to thirty songs into a single track. Most Mash ups are very complex and technically are quite time consuming to put together.
Gillis has had a long career organizing and adapting songs with his special mix treatment.
Gillis contends that his music is merely a homage to the artists songs he uses. It seems in strange irony that the record label and the Recording Industry Association of America would be the ones to question Gillis’s music and his special treatment. Gillis has stated “Most of my audience is aged 18 to 25 and I know they haven’t heard many of the songs that I sample,” he says. “They might not go out and buy a James Taylor album just because I use a bit of one of his songs, but at least a new generation now know who he is.”[2] He goes on to say “I never sample anyone ironically, and I never want to be tongue-in-cheek. I understand that some of these songs are cheesy or corny or tacky to people, but I try not to think about music in those terms any more. I feel like everything has its place. It’s entertainment. And, for me, it has always been about one thing , celebrating the world of pop.”[3] With that being said Gillis has been at the forefront of the mash up movement and has been celebrated and awarded throughout that community for his efforts. Because of his mash up style to some Gillis is viewed as “the music industry’s worst nightmare: a well revered artist on a populist and decidedly anti-capitalist bent.”[4] While this may be true to some extent, Gillis views it differently, “I spend a lot of time reading about ‘Fair Use’ on the internet,” he replies with a grin. Under this aspect of American copyright law, designed principally for teaching (and to allow journalists to quote lyrics), Gillis argues that his appropriation of existing pop songs does not deprive their owners of money, but, if anything, brings their music to a new audience.” [5]
A bit of background on this controversy known a copyright laws, copyright laws date back to 1710 but were modernized (with intellectual property) in 1994. Regarding this case the issue of criminalization of copyright infringement is brought into question. Gillis prides himself on being very up to date with what’s called the fair use act of 1976 which permits copy and distribution without permission from the copyright holder if the following factors come into play; the purpose and character of the use, the nature of the copyrighted work, the amount and substantiality of the portion of work used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole and the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work. [6] Because he only uses samples of the original work and it has proven to help the sales of the original artist. Gillis believes he falls into the later two categories of the fair use act. Recently there have been some legislation hearings over the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) over-stepping their boundaries with their tactics to enforce copyright infringement (Including but not limited to outrageous monetary lawsuits). Gillis’s congressman Mike Doyle spoke out in his favor against the malicious attacks of the RIAA on Gillis and other artist similar to him. Mr. Doyle spoke positively of the adjustments that could be made in the copyright policies to further open up this newly formed genre. [7]
Even throughout all this controversy Gillis has won several awards for his mash up work including time magazine’s top ten albums of the year, Rolling stone’s top fifty albums of the year, blender magazine’s second best recording/album of 2008 and the coveted wired magazine’s rave award for 2007.
(Photo’s by Matthew Hickley at the Wired Rave Awards)
One might wonder with all this controversy what makes Gillis so popular. I believe one of the main reasons behind it is that his “off the cuff” performances have become the thing of legends and with a fairly young adult fan base it’s not unlikely that Gillis adheres to a more digital age. Meaning that quite a bit of the Girl Talk’s fame has arisen via word of mouth on message boards, blogs and chat rooms. It’s interesting how an individual so involved in the digital age, has had it turn against him so quickly, currently there are still quite a few companies who will not sell Gillis’s albums including itunes and CD distributor. In a recent interview Gillis mentioned, “I’m in a unique position now where I feel like I’ve gone beyond anything that I originally set out to do. Doing laptop collages as a solo performer is kind of a lonely experience. There’s no Led Zeppelin of laptop collages, you know? There’s nobody to really look up to in the medium. But I’ve been really fortunate, and I’m really happy with how the past couple years have been. I kind of have no goals from here. But that’s not to say I’ve got a lack of motivation. I’m working on new material every day, and I’m excited to branch out a little bit more every day. Maybe even get back to my roots a little bit and get into some more experimental stuff, see how that translates when I work it into my live set. “[8]
Right now Gillis is offering his new album “Feed the Animals” at a pay what you want price. So if you would like to pay nothing for it, you can still pick up the album. It’s a new way to activated creative common licenses. At present no lawsuits are or have ever come against Gillis, we shall have to look forward to see what happens in this developing story.
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