Research

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The research project Mashup Music, Copyright, and Platform Regulation (MASHED) examines the tensions and feedback mechanisms that have emerged between mashup music, copyright, and the algorithmic regulatory systems of internet platforms.

Objective

This project aims to unpack the important consequences of divergent understandings of how to protect the larger political principle of freedom of expression and to provide insight into the ways in which the concepts of authorship and ownership are understood and actualized in contemporary society.

Research goals

  • To examine mashup music and mashup culture, including mashup producers’ perspectives on music creativity, mashups, copyright, and online platforms.
  • To examine the extent to which mashup music corresponds to copyright law’s exceptions.
  • To analyze the regulatory systems of online platforms and position these systems in relation to the law.
  • To examine the extent to which platform regulation impacts the practices of mashup producers, including the aesthetics and distribution patterns of mashups.

Frequently asked questions

What are "mashups"?

The term “mashup” (or “mash-up”) implies that pre-existing material has been mashed together into a new composite. Yet the term is usually used more narrowly. For the purpose of this research project, we define mashups as musical productions which are primarily based on samples of already existing musical recordings, and in which the samples are generally recognizable.

What is so interesting about them?

What makes the mashup a particularly interesting case for this project, more than any other kind of participatory remix or any historical version of musical borrowing, is that:

  • It almost exclusively relies on pre-existing music, which speaks to a particular form of creative expression and places it in the contested area of copyright law.
  • Copyright practices in the field of music have been particularly conservative in relation to other artistic forms of appropriation.
  • The mashup represents a political sharing economy that distinguishes it from more c