I’m dancing, completely losing myself to the beat, and it’s probably the best damn time I’ve had in a while. It’s been a long day, and after a bottle of wine, I’m blaring my favorite remixed music in my room — Girl Talk. Yes, I am that pathetic, but people need to realize Girl Talk is more than a combination of different songs. It is art. Who is Girl Talk? Greg Gillis is a biomedical engineer by day, but at night he becomes Girl Talk, an electronic musician. He has an ear for compiling the best dance music I’ve ever heard, and it seems as though he does it effortlessly. There is controversy whether Greg Gillis should have the merit of musician or the shame of a thief. This debatable concept is completely absurd. When somebody pirates, he or she replicates something already created. Gillis does nothing of the sort. He recreates what is already there into something completely different that can lead to a different conclusion and interpretation. When Gillis is working, he uses a computer as his instrument to carefully compile different songs. Each song is like an individual note, preciously placed for the sake of a good beat. This is art. He has an ear for what sounds right together, a key talent of a real musician. Not just anyone can do what he does. He manipulates each individual song, tediously searching for the best-suited song to fit in next. A plethora of music knowledge and technical computer skills are necessary to do what he does.If Gillis’ work is pirating, then every other art should be looked at the same way. A painter takes what he has experienced in life and replicates it onto the canvas, an orator takes real situations and injects them into his or her speeches and an actress takes someone else’s life and plays it out. There is an ongoing cycle of copying original works or ideas, which do not have to face the pointing fingers of blame. The way these works are understood and seen is what separates these works from the disdainful title of plagiarizer. As long as there is a different interpretation, anything can be original and have artistic value. Girl Talk is something original, and to see it as anything less is a misunderstanding of what Gillis has done. He is a pioneer in the remixing business and has made such music even more popular. He is a revolutionist in this aspect — and more importantly a true artist as well. Lawrence Lessig, a Harvard University law professor and advocate for reduced legal restrictions on copyright, said remixing has become a part of our culture. It is the unstoppable art our generation has helped to push forward. Girl Talk is an excellent example of this movement and its pursuit to be seen as something with artistic value. Remixing is a form of self expression, and it is a response to life. We are living in the age of touch-screen computers, ascetic arms that can grab coke cans and designer babies. If everything else is moving toward the future, what could you expect with music? Girl Talk was bound to happen as a response to this technological age. Remixed art will flourish and continue to grow no matter how hard our government tries to mistakenly criminalize this movement. Girl Talk is art and will always be art. Greg Gillis is part of a movement that has swept across the modern world.
Kali Babineaux is a 21-year-old English junior from Baton Rouge. Follow her on Twitter @TDR_kbabineaux. —-Contact Kali Babineaux at [email protected]