Remix as a discourse (capitalized to distinguish it from remix as a creative technique or genre) affects a wide range of contemporary art and music, and is a pervasive force in modern culture. While there are no set forms of Remix, it is always unoriginal and dependent on existing cultural products. Jacques Attali argues that music precedes political changes and the rise of Remix in the twentieth century confirms this idea. The birth of Remix in 1960s Jamaican dub music led to Remix in all aspects of culture, a facet of Late Capitalism. The history of Remix is broken into four stages—Jamaican dub, New York hip hop, mainstream hip hop, and remix culture—that are related to the history of mechanical reproduction broken into three stages: photography, photomontage, and digital image editing.

Remixes of two techno tracks, Underworld’s Born Slippy (remixed as Born Sleepy) and Kraftwerk’s Tour de France, are examples of a crucial stage in Remix history were Remix becomes cultural discourse rather than just a compositional technique. Underworld’s Born Sleepy .NUXX and Dark + Long (Dark Train) are conceptual remixes of Born Slippy, musically distinct from the original, with the title serving as the main signifier of their connection. Kraftwerk’s Tour de France remixes do something similar by only keeping the lyrics from the original and producing a musically distinct arrangement of the source material. This kind of advanced remix differs from older methods by changing the source so that it is unrecognizable as a remix without extramusical confirmation.

Works: Underworld: Born Sleepy .NUXX (Deep Pan) (68-70), Born Sleepy .NUXX (Darren Price Mix) (68-70), Dark + Long (Dark Train) (68-70); Kraftwerk: Tour de France Étape 1 (71-73), Tour de France Étape 2 (71-73), Tour de France Étape 3 (71-73).

Sources: Underworld: Born Slippy (67-70); Kraftwerk: Tour de France (67-73).

Index Classifications: 2000s, Popular

Contributed by: Matthew Van Vleet