The world is an everlasting remix being played over and over again. Old ideas are built to form new ideas, and this process of copying is repeated, repeated and well, repeated. The world could be seen as a record player. A new record is placed on the record player and the same tune is played again, and eventually combined to transform into a newer ‘original’ record. The video on YouTube, “Everything is a Remix” left me thinking, can a remix still be creative even though the idea was not yours?
“Everything is a Remix Part 2,” brought many unexpected twists to anything from music to movies. This may be a surprise, however, one of the most influential blockbusters that has reshaped pop culture, Star Wars created by George Lucas, has many aspects that have been based on older movies. This is one of Hollywood’s greatest talents, transforming the old into the new. Many of the most iconic moments in the Star Wars Movies where based on other movies, such as when in Episode IV, “Han Solo shots Greedo, which resembles a scene in the movie, The Good, The Bad and the Ugly (1966),” (Everything is a Remix Part 2). As I thought at first, “Maybe all of this is a coincidence? There is a lot of movies out in the world, and this scene could have just been a odd coincidence.” I noticed then, that my mind does not accept the fact that Star Wars is unoriginal even though clearly, George Lucas has pulled ideas from older movies. Even though Star Wars has been a box office hit and a classic movie franchise, even Star Wars can admit to being a copy cat.
Star Wars has lead me to a question, do you feel that ideas should be “free”? Honestly, ideas should be free if the person who thought of the idea allows it to be. For example, if I invented a new type of phone that can charge to full battery in under thirty seconds, the concept of ideas being free to everyone would cause mix controversy. My idea would be free, and other people would have the ability to improve my invention, however, at the same time, someone could steal my idea, and credit it to themselves. This also can be related to, is there a problem with copying as long as [you’re] the one doing it? One may argue that they are improving an idea by copying others work, however, copying someones idea is more one- sided than some may think. Many would see no problem when copying another idea. This many be seen in many of the most influential people in the world such as Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple. “Steve Jobs was sometimes boastful of apples history of copying. We have all always you know, been shameless of stealing great ideas. But he harbored deep grudges against those who dared to copy Apple. I going to destroy android, because it is a stolen product. I ‘m willing to go thermonuclear war on this,” (Steve Jobs). When we copy, we justify it and when others copy us, we vilify it.
During Quarter two in Humanities, we worked in groups to create a travel magazine, to encourage people to visit the many different minorities in China. Before starting the very stressful project which many spent long nights working on, we were brought to the library, were we took a look at many different types of magazines. Thinking back to that experience, the idea of copying, transforming, and combining was what we ultimately had in mind. We look at many different types of travel magazines, however, I remember specifically looking at a magazine called, Travel and Leisure. Our group used the idea of copying, transform and combining to make a remix of a Travel and Leisure Magazine, which turned out to be much different. However, this connects to the question, can a remix still be creative?
Watching the different parts of “Everything is a Remix,” I can without a doubt change my view of creativity. However, the video has left me to the question, can you make a creative remix? In the end, I believe that a remix can be creative even though you use someones idea, however, copying an entire idea can leave you with a reputation for being a copy cat.
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