Hack #5

By splicing, reforming, transposing, and transforming musical elements of my previous project, Hack #4, I remixed my remix to offer a new, critical message. This old work used three musical pieces from three distinct time periods to exhibit music’s quality and tendency to be used for advocacy against systems of oppression, inequality, and injustice. “This is America” (2018) advocates against gun violence and speaks upon the Black Experience in America, “What’s Going On” (1971) offers heartwrenching melodies and lyrics to tackle police brutality in wake of the Vietnam war, and “Water No Get Enemy” (1975) critiques dictatorship and governmental water pollution through innovative soloing and percussion. Thus, these three pieces share a common factor of using music to unveil the overwhelming negativity and corrupt undertones of society. As a response, my Hack #5: Beta Release recontextualizes these pieces by suggesting that music, in addition to being used as a form of advocacy, can also be used as a coping mechanism to forget and distract from these times of negativity. By keeping and splicing certain lyrics of “This is America” and adding new elements from songs like “Funny Thing” (2020) by Thundercat, “Boogie Wonderland” (1979) by Earth, Wind & Fire, “The Bottle” (1974), and “Comment #1” (1970) by Gil Scott-Heron, the meaning of Hack #4 becomes reshaped to exhibit how music offers an outlet during dark times. My Hack #5: Beta Release achieves this reimagination by relying on rhetorical devices of remixes and mashups as described by Virginia Kuhn in “The Rhetoric of Remix” from The Journal of Transformative Works and Cultures 9 (2012). First, I use Ironic Recontextualization to subvert the original meaning of Hack #4 by placing the lyrics of “This is America” in a new context. I used lyrics like “this is America, look how I’m livin’ now,” and “look what I’m whippin’ now” in tandem with the upbeat, energetic instrumentals from “Funny Thing” and “Boogie Wonderland” to shift the original meaning entirely. Previously, these lyrics spoke on inequality and gun violence towards Black lives portraying that this is a corrupt America that we live in and that guns (whippin’) are being abused. Now, however, these lyrics offer more uplifting meanings, suggesting that we can live lavishly by whippin’ fancy cars and go dancing in clubs to forget about the horrors of society. Other lyrics, like “And America is now blood and tears instead of milk and honey” from Gil Scott-Heron’s “Comment #1” also become recontextualized by these new instrumentals. By only keeping the words “milk and honey,” and placing them among the infectious groove of “Boogie Wonderland,” the iconic spoken word that criticizes white supremacy becomes a rhythmic ad lib that contributes to this idea of escaping and forgetting corruption in society. Finally, I used layering to stack the multiple pieces of music together to create a deeper texture of meaning. For instance, I used Logic Pro’s stem splitting audio feature to combine an aspect of each piece of music. I combined the drums of “Funny Thing” with the instrumental of “Boogie Wonderland,” and later mixed in the vocals and percussion of “The Bottle.” By doing so, the larger meaning of each track became more visible. For instance, these three pieces of music all exhibit coping mechanisms during times of distress. “Boogie Wonderland” represents how dancing, music, and disco clubs can be used to escape everyday troubles, “The Bottle” depicts alcohol and substance abuse in times of racial prejudice and inequality, and “Funny Thing” combines these two themes of music and substances by using the two to escape depression. Thus, the layering of the various elements of these music pieces continues to support and strengthen the idea of using music as a coping mechanism. Through these rhetorical devices, my Hack #5 significantly alters, transforms, and reimagines its alpha version, Hack #4.