Artist Statement
Music has always
played a huge role in my life, and I enjoy all different kinds of music. My textual poaching assignment plays with two
very different kinds of music and remixes them together to create a somewhat
unorganized, somewhat in sync song, which is representative of myself. In this track that I created, I used Robert
Shaw’s “O Tannenbaum” and mixed it with Lady Gaga’s songs “Scheiße” and “Christmas Tree.”
My grandmother is German and moved to the United States during World War
II. Lady Gaga is my favorite artist and
she inspires most of my artistic decisions, so the incorporation of her music
with Shaw’s “O Tannenbaum” makes this audio representative of two things that
really make up the person that I am. I
chose to go with a Christmas theme because it’s my grandmother’s favorite
holiday and one of the only times of the year that we participate in any German
traditions.
In the reading “How Texts Become Real,”
by Jenkins, it is quoted at the very beginning that a work must be loved to the
point that it is quotable and memorable.
“O Tannenbaum” is such a memorable song, at least for me. There aren’t many people who don’t recognize
the melody. Lady Gaga is quotable. Who doesn’t know the lyric “p-p-p-poker
face?” Combine these two different music
forms together, and you get a nice dosage of culture that is familiar but
strange at the same time.
Many others have mixed and remixed
songs together, old and new, to create a specific effect. For example, the television show “Glee” is
known for its mash-ups. In one
particular episode the girls sang a mash-up of Katrina and the Waves’ “Walking
on Sunshine” and Beyoncé’s “Halo.”
Combining these two songs gave the finished product an upbeat and bright
effect. My remix presents a difference
in culture and style as the musical styles of Shaw and Gaga differ greatly.
In conclusion, the combination of music
from these two artists really represents different aspects of myself that form
a whole. Sometimes I’m proper and
collected like a German choir singing a classical song, and other times I’m a
little crazy and controversial like Lady Gaga.
You can’t really have all of me without one or the other. Even though being German is a huge part of
who I am, there are also a lot of other things mixed in that complete me.
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