Mashups

Mashups are a new wave of music, bringing a refreshing spin to the regular pop music you hear today. It consists of 2 or more songs mashed up into one. I’ve probably made 30-40 of them just this year and I don’t like the strictness of copyright. I do understand it though. Aside from making these top notch songs in such a cut throat industry, the DJs and producers making them also have so much more going on. Seeing how long just a mashup takes, even when the instrumental is already done, I can’t imagine how long the actual song takes to produce. I’ve heard DJs say that they produced their best song but didn't spend a lot of time on it. But their form of not a lot of time was them spending “only” 50 hours on it.

Sitting in my room making a mashup, it’s overall a fun thing. I hear the beat and put in all the things I need before I start the track. Then I start thinking of vocals and may place up to 6 songs on it and then start narrowing down on which one or few to pick. Then after I pick one and it starts to sync up I layer and place it so it sounds smooth and see where it will end and if I should cut the song to have the drop happen sooner or later. Then over time it starts to come together and if it isn't going to go crazy at a show I play, I tend to not even finish it. I sort of know if it will work or if it won’t, it’s a sense you get. If I’m making it in my room at 2 A.M. and may wake up my parents because I’m playing it so loud over and over, it’s probably gonna be a successful mashup.

I think the copyright of the whole mashup scene is a big mistake. I think their should be lines you can’t cross but for the most part mashups are just a healthy new release of songs. When I have trouble releasing one on Soundcloud it irritates me. Like why should a big name DJ like Tiësto or Zedd care what a 19 year old who gets a few hundred plays does? They aren't gonna care if I make a mashup with their songs. No DJ really does. If they hear it they may like it. A lot of the DJs will even play it in their set if they hear something they like. It’s mostly the complete opposite of copyright infringement. They're always doing research on new songs to play in sets because they play tens to hundreds of festivals a year and always have to keep it fresh, so me releasing a mashup is really almost doing them a favor and saving them time from making more.

Copyright is more of a big thing for the businessmen in the industry than the artist’s themselves. Artists just care about the music. Yes they care about money but at the end of the day they loved making music before the money even came into the picture. I think the copyright in mashups and all of music takes away from the essence. Everyone only cares about making money and not about the music itself. The worst thing you can do in a business is forget the business itself. I think I speak for everyone when I say music impacts you in some ways that no amount of money can. When money is a factor in anything it takes away from the true meaning of it. 

In conclusion, the strict copyright laws on a fun new style of music just ruin it, or atleast attempt to. I remember back in May I was getting ready to release a five track mashup project in June that I worked on since December that previous year. If copyright wasn't so strict on Soundcloud I could have had it released in late May when I wanted but I had to wait because of countless attempts to upload to get around the copyright sensor or whatever was preventing me. What was irritating was that other DJs and producers of my size regarding followers were getting around all the copyright laws like it was nothing and I just couldn’t. In the end I just think the copyright laws need to be loosened up for mashups to allow the people making them to focus on the craft itself and not as much the laws behind it and let them just make the music.