[rumori] Writing credit for the remixers?

Nicola Battista [rumori] Writing credit for the remixers?
Wed, 26 Aug 1998 20:25:07 +0200 (00904184707, 3.0.32.19980826202504.008f47c0ATbox1.tin.it)


In a previous messages I mentioned dj remixes of existing material.
In the 70's and 80's a remix or better a 12" mix was just an extended version of a disco/dance track for club play. An example of thise could be
remixes of Pet Shop Boys tracks dating to mid 80's, like "West End Girls" or "Suburbia". With the advent of sampling and djs making their own records, remixes
evolved becoming more and more complicated and different from the original
tracks.
Now, if the remixer was a studio guy just stretching or enlarging the
length of a song by adding or cutting a few drum bars at the beginning and
at the end or during the so-called breakdown section (hence the name
"breakbeat") of a track, that didn't entitle (?) him to get writing credits on the song. In a further phase a remix was sometimes when a dj was a sked
to put a dance beat over a song without much creativity - and this still
happens today (see dance mixes for stuff like that crappy "Titanic" theme song).
But now in most cases you can easily hear remixes that often change
completely the original track. I recently re-read an old issue of The Wire
when Philis Glass (ahem - not the usual remix dj type ;)) said he was once
asked to make a remix of S-Express' "Hey music lover". He was given the original material but he was told: you can do anything, just leave the
hoolkine in its place, as it is the song title. And he made a completely
new track leaving only that sample.
Now, isn't it scandalous that - even if sometimes highly paid for they
work-for-hire jobs - remix djs who modify 90% or so of a track don't have
their name in the credits as a co-writer?
Just a silly thought maybe. I can think only of a few examples when the
remixer was given this kind of credit for his work (a mix of a Fluke track
from 1997 done by Derrick May, if I'm not wrong, and a Moody Boys remix of
KLF's "3am eternal"). In particular, not only the name of Tony Thorpe (the man behind Moody Boys)
appears near those of Cauty and Drummond in that remix, but one of the
versions, completely different from the ortiginal, is credited ONLY to Thorpe.
What do ya think?

bye,
Nicola (Dj Batman) Battista
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