Back to Black: Re-mixing or just re-hashing?

Loulla-Mae - checking her bad self.

Why is it that anything made more than ten years ago was “Like, totally so much better, you know?” and why is it considered that “There’s like nothing new these days, it’s all just a re-hash of great music, yah.” Why do things have to be ancient in order to be good? And why can’t music take influences or samples from musical greats to try and create something fresh and new without getting continually slated by the golden oldies of this world?

Imitation is the greatest form of flattery. There’s nothing wrong with doing covers of Dylan, or taking a past genre like Indie or R&B and pushing it further, giving it a completely new definition. Well, actually the modern day version of R&B should never have been allowed. That was most definitely a mistake - Christina can shove her cascading voice where the sun don’t shine, but that’s another matter entirely.

But casting Miss Aguilera aside, there is nothing wrong with progression - because the only thing that looking at the past through a large pair rose-tinted glasses does is create the time old wanky-muso expression of “Oh this so just sounds exactly like…” and “Yah, I totally remember this the first time round and it just doesn’t compare.” Excuse me whilst I vomit over my shoes.

In an age where re-makes are two a penny, there is bound to be a growing scale of intensely good to horrific. The past year has seen a huge revival and re-vamp of soul music; Amy Winehouse, whatever you may think of her, has an incredible voice. She sounds like she just walked out of a black and white film and grabbed James Dean by the balls whilst stubbing her cigarette out on his arm. Ditto Adele, whatever you may think of her too. Yes, they both sound like soul-sister throwbacks, but you have to admit they do it with a razor sharp edge.

However, there will always be re-makes that suck balls, and actually were done better the first time around. Glow stick waving, neon spraying, happy-clappy New Rave kids…I’m looking at you. Don’t paint yourself in UV and think you’re the first person to have worn a pair of white-rimmed sunglasses in a club, because the people formerly known as ravers were doing it back in the ’90s. Some of them still are, and though they appreciate that Klaxons have made some great numbers, they still listen out for the timeless tunes of Rat Pack, Candie Staton singing ‘You’ve got the love’ and Grace’s ‘Not Over Yet’ (which Klaxons covered, for the record). Unfortunately, New Rave is a perfect example of old music being re-hashed for kids that had never heard it before, and not offering any kind of new take on it.

Re-mixes appear to be the way forward - people mixing samples of tracks to create something recognisable but at the same time completely new, has always been a staple of the dance age with the actions of DJ Shadow, RJD2, and even Kanye West featuring Daft Punk in his latest single. Nas had a huge hit with ‘Bridging the gap’, a track recorded with his father Olu Dara, where he sampled his dad’s classic jazz/blues phrase on the trumpet and they both performed together, and ‘bridged the gap from jazz to rap.’ The White Stripes covered a Dusty Springfield song, ‘I just don’t know what to do with myself’, and there is no denying that they smacked it. They went about it the right way; they used the same basic sequence of notes, the same basic time frame and Jack White hit the same highs as Dusty’s voice did. Yet the re-make sounded completely different from the original because they bashed the whole thing out with intense White Stripes signature guitars. And it sounds like you just found a piece of pure gold in your pocket. Take note Joss Stone.

So yes, some re-makes should never have come into fruition and should most definitely be left up to the masters: Kelly Osborne singing Madonna’s ‘Papa Don’t Preach’ almost perforated my ear drum it was so bad, but equally some people should never have created music in the first place (Bee Gees I’m looking at you). Whereas The Clash’s version of ‘Rock the Casbah’ and The Buzzcock’s ‘Ever Fallen in Love?’ are so good that most people actually don’t know they’re covers. These are the perfect sorts of examples to use when trying to shove the re-make/re-hash debate up the snobby, snotty nose of a muso who’s got his head so far up his arse that he can smell last week. Nostalgia is good, but it’s not the be-all-and-end-all of good music.

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