John Oswald – “Dab” as a Prototype for Modern Remixes

 

John Oswald coined the term “Plunderphonics”, which can be considered as a form of sound collage. In plunderphonic works, samples of popular tracks may be comprised, and its original rhythm, melody, or sounds are manipulated. It is the practice of making new music out of previously existing recordings, by rerecording it backwards or slower, as long as one can reasonably recognize the original source. Therefore, the plundering has to be blatant. The sampled material often is the only sound used, which sometimes results in legal action being taken due to copyright issues. However, Oswald’s approach was not to evade copyright issues, but to indicate a piece that was created from samples of a single artist and no other material. This technique has later developed, and its ingredients are nowadays commonly used for hip-hop music. Often times, the new track has little resemblance to the original, because the original track is overlayed with new sounds and beats, which frees it from copyright issues.

Maybe somebody can relate, because when I listened to “Dab”, I found myself clubbing and waiting for the DJ to pull the trigger and hype the crowd. John Oswald’s “Dab” reminded me of a DJ-performance of Michael Jackson’s original version. The first few seconds, I could not identify what song I was listening to, until I recognized the familiar rhythm of the original song. When I listened to the first few seconds again, I was reminded of a club night where a DJ triggered the beginning of a song in order to hype the crowd. At this point, I was waiting for the song to continue the way I know and like it. I was ready to feel the beat, to sing along, and perform some mediocre Michael Jackson dance moves on the dancefloor. Due to these expectations, I got quite impatient, and perceived the “triggering” as dissatisfying, because there was no discernible release of the hype I built up.

Except for the first few seconds when Michael Jackson’s voice was actually audible, the overall singing does not match the beat of the music in my opinion. There were a few short samples that resembled the original version quite a bit, and just when I thought I finally recognized the original melody, I got deceived by the song. I realized that my trains of thoughts got interrupted the moment the song’s rhythm changed rapidly and unpredictably. I felt like I lacked concentration, and could not grasp another clear thought. Some parts were even modified so much that the original version of the song was unrecognizable at times, and I imagined the disc of the DJ in the club was damaged or broken. I believe there is a reason the rhythms of popular songs enjoy positive feedback, and why the lyrics of songs match the corresponding melody. Because I personally do not like it if songs are modified excessively, I perceived “Dab” as random at times.

Approaching as close as possible to the original version was never John Oswald’s aim. However, one should always be able to reasonably recognize the source, probably in order not to discredit the artist’s work. One could maybe compare Oswald’s approach with today’s understanding of remixes. Modern DJs also modify songs in different ways, but in contrast to Oswald, they stick to the original version closer than Oswald does. Personally, I did not like Oswald’s “Dab”, because once I know the original version of a song, I usually do not like modified versions.