Girl Talk: DJ? Artist? Musical Thief?

I am seeing Girl Talk, whose real name is Gregg Gillis, next Saturday at Terminal 5 (whose shows, November 15th, 16th and 18th, are all sold out, but you can try to buy scalped tickets at the venue, located at 610 W 56th St, or from such sites as StubHub.com). As of now, I have three tickets and am still seeking the two lucky winners to go with me ... I am seeing Girl Talk with Prefuse 73, another experimental band with catchy hooks, on Saturday, Nov 15th.

So what exactly is Girl Talk's music? Gregg Gillis, in an interview with Aural States, says he first became interested in experimental music and, although he samples music much like a DJ would, considers his music much more of a "sound collage." He uses an audio program called Audio Mulch and his shows are simply him and his laptop, both of which apparently rock out pretty hard during a show. He is more interested in de-constructing and re-combining music than sampling the music as such, and especially leans towards mixes of hip-hop with rock and pop loops. Gillis describes his musical project as purely aesthetic rather than political and says he also simply wants to support pop music. This is exactly what he sees himself as doing: distilling the catchiest hooks and riffs of the tunes that he hears and then layering and sampling them to create his own songs, or "sound collages."

New York Times has an article, Steal This Hook? Girl Talk Flouts Copyright Law, which discusses the controversial, possibly illegal aspect of Gillis's work. His music, available at illegalart.net at a pay-what-you-want fee, has been pulled off of iTunes and other CD distributors' stocks because of its potential liability. Gillis, stating that his use of the clips falls under fair use license, has not yet been sued for his use of such short samples of songs. As the article explores, on the one hand, companies may not want to sue him in order to not look bad as well as not to set a precedent in Gillis's favor. He may or may not be technically legally able to use such samples, but that he so far has gotten away with doing so with relatively few repercussions is itself setting a precedent that tells copyright law that it is too restrictive on creativity and can, in effect, be loosely interpreted.

Gillis's music, through his Girl Talk project, is paving the way for creative license with the music of others, for better or for worse. His musical mash-ups are truly the conglomeration of diverse music samples, from bhangra to classic rock to contemporary hip-hop, creating a sound that is at once uniquely his and an appropriation of various musical genres and decades.

It should definitely be an interesting performance.