Remixing

The primary thesis of this series is that people do not just come up with outstanding ideas from thin air and become a mass hit. Writers, artists, inventors, and pretty much everyone comes up with “unique” ideas based off of something they’ve seen, heard, or done. Like it was said in the series, everything is a remix. It is transforming something old into something new, and requires three elements, copy, transform, and combine. No one starts out original, because “creation requires influence”. Even when we learn in school, we copy and write down and learn the ideas of others before us, emulate them, and this is how people like Quentin Tarantino, to Thomas Edison, to J.J. Abrams created their work. It is done with books, movies, songs, inventions, and pretty much anything you can think of, because we all get our ideas from somewhere. I find this very interesting because it’s not something I’ve ever thought about. Remixing happens everywhere, even with our favorite music. When I think of Led Zeppelin, I think of a classic heavy metal band that was known for their great original songs, but in reality many of their works are copied from others and many don’t know this or could ever give credit. Remixing can be compared to “Strong Writing and Writers Don’t Need Revision”, by Giovanelli. In Giovanelli’s piece, she talks about how even the best writers need to revise and edit their work, maybe even several times. At the same time, remixing is taking other people’s work, and editing, transforming, and revising it to make it their own. Just like remixing, revising is done all the time, by even the best, well known writers there are. Remixing requires careful work and thinking for legal reasons also, just like when revising, writers have to be careful not to copy other people’s work and if they do, they must give credit.