SIMPSONWAVE Is Metamodern Art Pretending To Be A Joke

olyup (55)in #music • 7 years ago (edited)

Do you listen to vaporwave while watching old re-runs of The Simpsons on well-worn VHS tapes? Do you wish that someone would remix those Simpsons videos to provide a better visual accompaniment to your tunes?

What you need is some Simpsonwave.

How Copyright Protection Stifles Artistic Expression

One of the unfortunate side effects of copyright law is that it is dangerous (from a legal standpoint) for other artists to use copyrighted works when making new art for more than 100 years - not without permission and payment, anyway. Making the payment is an obstacle, but many artists never even get to that problem because they never get past the permission stage.

One great example of that problem is The Grey Album by Danger Mouse.

The Grey Album mixes lyrics from Jay-Z's Black Album with music from The Beatles' White Album. The Grey Album is awesome, but unfortunately Danger Mouse never got clearance to use the Beatles music. Jay-Z's Black Album is available in an acapella version to simplify mashups like this; The Beatles album is not. When Apple Records (The Beatles' label, not related to Apple computers) refused permission for Danger Mouse to use the music samples, it meant that his creation might never see the light of day.

Somehow (TM) the mashup album was leaked and became an underground hit. The album has never been sold, but it did circulate widely on filesharing sites. Now it's available on archive.org for free download. I wonder what sales would have been like if the label had not refused permission?

Another great example is the art that is Simpsonwave.

The Simpsons As Cultural Language

The Simpsons has been on the air for more than 30 years now. The cartoon is both modern and retro, and a lot of people have grown up relating to the Simpson family. The show is a real part of popular culture – worldwide, but especially in the US. It is relevant and familiar to a whole lot of people.

Some YouTubers out there are remixing old Simpsons video and pairing their edited videos with vaporwave tracks from Soundcloud. These things would never get permission for publication (if anyone bothered to ask). No one is asking. And frankly, the finished work is better for not asking. Third-party input would only stifle artistic expression by guiding how (or IF) the footage gets used.

Personally, I’ve loved The Simpsons for a long time. I’ve been a fan since the show was only shorts between the sketches on the Tracy Ullman Show. I’m new to vaporwave music. I like it, but I’m not sure I would be listening to it on its own. The videos move me. They dredge up memories of childhood and give a necessary context to the emotional pull of the music.

Here’s another, just for fun: