Official Blog
Music Tuesday: The art of the remix and an African guitar hero
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
This week on
youtube.com/music
, we delve into remixes of all shapes and sizes -- from music videos that pilfer vintage footage to create something new and unusual to the now-dominant art form of the music remix. Both take existing material and tweak it -- sometimes until it’s unrecognizable. And, as independent musicians and the people who love them head to New York City this week for CMJ, check back to youtube.com/music every day this week to see a video from the artists participating in our Indie Artists Summit. With the launch of our
YouTube Merch Store
, there's never been a better time to be a musician on YouTube.
Found Footage = Music Video?
Experimental filmmakers have used found footage for many years. But increasingly music video directors are adopting the practice, culling source material from decades of forgotten recordings and making short films for musicians that are by turns amusing, creepy and beautiful. Case in point: Mayer Hawthorne’s recent video for “A Long Time,” which nabs
tape from a ‘70s-era Detroit dance television show
. Or check out Ratatat’s video for
“Drugs,”
which repurposes stock Getty footage to unsettling effect. Ambient heroes Boards of Canada even turn to NASA to create their hypnotic video for
“Dayvan.”
The 50 Best Remixes
eMusic’s
staff take us through some of the greatest remixes of all time this week, sharing everything from dub classics to contemporary hip-hop bangers. The remix is now one of the dominant facts of modern music, and the mixing board and its add-ons are arguably the most important instruments in pop music today. But don’t just take it from us. As eMusic says, “Who invented the remix? Lots of people — and people are still reinventing it all the time. That's the point of remixing: proof that a piece of music is never finished as long as someone can tweak the parts till they shine brighter, move differently, or resemble something else altogether.”
Meet An African Guitar Hero
At 15 minutes long, today’s featured video is more of a mini-documentary than a music video. Filmmaker Michal Shapiro interviews Banning Eyre, the internationally-renowned co-founder of Afropop and champion of African music. The video begins with personal history, as Eyre talks about his early days studying with Malian guitar masters -- but it quickly moves into stunning footage of one master guitarist: Aboubacar “Badian” Diabate. Diabate’s technique is unparallelled -- he’s able to transmit the delicacy of other African stringed instruments like the kora to his instrument. Prepare to be ravished.
Sarah Bardeen, Music Community Manager, recently watched
“Plastic Flowers - Upperground Stories.”
Labels
3D
4k
accessibility
account info
activism
ads
africa
annotations
arts
awards
benefit
betas
bizblog
blogs
bulletins
buzz
captions
celebrity playlists
channels
chrome
citizen journalism
citizen reporting
citizentube
comedy
comments
community
community guidelines
contests
creator's corner
creators
curators
customization
dance
design
discovery
doodle
editor
education
embeds
entertainment
events
facebook
film
flagging
gaming
gmail
google
google tv
government
grants
groups
guidelines
hd
help center
holidays
homepage
howto
inspiration
investment
jobs
journalism
life in a day
live stream
marketing
meetups
mobile
moderator
movies
music
musicians wanted
news
nonprofits
open-source
partners
playlists
policy
politics
privacy
product update
quicklist
ratings
rentals
research
safety
science and technology
screening room
search
sharing
shows
social networks
sports
staff
stats and data
store
subscriptions
tags
test tube
travel
trends
tv
twitter
upload
vevo
video editing
video production
video volunteers
viral video
youtube api
youtube direct
Archive
2020
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2019
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2018
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2017
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2016
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2015
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2014
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2013
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2012
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2011
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2010
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2009
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2008
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2007
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2006
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2005
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Feed
Follow @youtube
Follow
Learn more in the
YouTube Help Center
.
Follow