Happy Illegal Christmas

David Weigel | December 7, 2007

Office party season is gearing up and it's time again for Santastic: the annual anthology of Christmas-themed mash-up MP3s. I've been grooving steadily off Divide and Kreate's "Velvet Santa," which meshes the grinding rhythm of "Waiting for the Man" with a young Michael Jackson singing "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" and what sounds like the breakdown from "Dance to the Music" (before the Family Stone starts scatting).

Last year's mix is here, and Jesse Walker's appreciation of the copyright-shreddin' genre is here.

Critics have long debated who "creates" a pop record: the artist listed on the sleeve, the producer behind the scenes, the composer in the wings, or the sometimes anonymous studio employees who actually play the music. In certain contexts -- experimental tape loops, freeform radio collages, Dickie Goodman novelty singles -- authorship seemed to splinter even further, as composers, DJs, and comedians inserted samples from older recordings into new and very different contexts. When rap exploded in the '80s, so did sampling; and so did sampling-related litigation.

Now cheap, easy-to-use remixing software and quick distribution via the Net have set off another explosion. What once was avant-garde, and then was monopolized by the entertainment combines, is now a populist art form that virtually anyone can practice.

Comments

highnumber|12.7.07 @ 11:38AM|#

Excellent.
I thought about including Santastic II in my "How to Troll at Christmas" piece.

Episiarch|12.7.07 @ 11:41AM|#

When I first saw that image, I thought it said Satanstic. Santastic is much less cool.

PantsFan|12.7.07 @ 11:42AM|#

Anyone have the links to previous years?

jimmydageek|12.7.07 @ 11:54AM|#

That was a great piece, by the way, highnumber! I thought about it again last night when my wife hijacked the XM remote in the car. Two hours straight of Christmas music! (xm 104 i think)

|12.7.07 @ 12:28PM|#

How come we haven't heard much about the "war" on Christmas this year?

highnumber|12.7.07 @ 12:35PM|#

Thanks, Jimmy!
and
I'm sorry, Jimmy.


Your revolution is over, Cesar. Condolences. The Christians lost.

GILMORE|12.7.07 @ 12:39PM|#

please, no more "mash up" references.

Remix. It's called remixing. people have been slapping different records together (some ironically, some less so) for decades. it aint new.

|12.7.07 @ 12:49PM|#

Christmas music on radio http://www.eeradio.com

ed|12.7.07 @ 1:11PM|#

Critics have long debated who "creates" a pop record: the artist listed on the sleeve, the producer behind the scenes, the composer in the wings...

Increasingly, David, all those people are one single person.

|12.7.07 @ 1:14PM|#

Your revolution is over, Cesar. Condolences. The Christians lost.

Condolences? I really wouldn't give a shit if it was still called the Winter Solstice.

Episiarch|12.7.07 @ 1:25PM|#

Saturnalia!

highnumber|12.7.07 @ 1:47PM|#

I was just paraphrasing the Big Lebowski, Cesar. I didn't mean to imply anything.

|12.7.07 @ 1:55PM|#

"Increasingly, David, all those people are one single person."

Such as ?? Double points if it isn't a "rapper."

VM|12.7.07 @ 2:14PM|#

You can say what you want about the tenants of Highnumber, but at least it's an ethos...

shecky|12.7.07 @ 2:53PM|#

GILMORE:

There seems to be a difference between a mashup and a remix. Subtle, perhaps, but still a difference.

jimmydageek|12.7.07 @ 3:10PM|#

Such as ?? Double points if it isn't a "rapper."

Radiohead?

|12.7.07 @ 3:16PM|#

"Radiohead?"

I'm not familiar with that orchestra.

|12.7.07 @ 3:58PM|#

I'm still working my way through the samples, but Weigel was right last year: Rudolph the Paranoid Reindeer is teh awesome.

|12.7.07 @ 4:15PM|#

Episiarch,

Indeed. Io, Saturnalia!

The Wine Commonsewer|12.7.07 @ 6:23PM|#

....with a young Michael Jackson singing "Santa Claus is Coming to Town"

arguably theee WORST version of that song ever made.

The Wine Commonsewer|12.7.07 @ 6:25PM|#

Stevo, that's really not bad. Not bad at all.

The Wine Commonsewer|12.7.07 @ 6:26PM|#

Was it ever called the Winter Solstice?

The Wine Commonsewer|12.7.07 @ 6:28PM|#

Oh, Dave Weigel, to be clear, I don't mean your mash up, I mean the actual Jackson's version of Santa Claus is Coming to Town.

highnumber|12.7.07 @ 9:25PM|#

I'm listening to it now. joe has to hear "A Wicked Hardcore Christmas." "You Shook Me All Noel" is disappointing. "Brave Bells of Scotland" and "Velvet Santa" are really good.

highnumber|12.7.07 @ 10:08PM|#

"Santa's Silent Bum" and "Yuletide Zeppelin" are also ace.

Derrick Miller|12.9.07 @ 11:59PM|#

As in previous years, Soma FM has a couple Christmas channels. The "Xmas in Frisco" channel is particularly amusing.