the madonna manifesto: or 'What the Fuck do we think we're doing?'

by John von Seggern and iriXx


A short statement by us on the reasons behind our remixes of Madonna's 'What the Fuck' sample.

A press release is also available here.

<johnvon>* My concern is more with her implication that major copyright holders are in the right when they attempt to place onerous restrictions on the flow of culture and information, which I see as necessary for the maintenance of a healthy culture and society, and that fans downloading music ought to be ashamed of themselves.

By remixing her warning and putting it to a headache-inducing techno beat, I am both ridiculing its content as well as attempting to demonstrate that any creation or utterance put forward into the public sphere necessarily becomes grist for the mill of future creators, no matter what the original intention of the author [and that is as it should be]. Make it illegal if you want but these critiques will still circulate in the underground and on the Net. Using her own words to make this point is 'signifyin' in the [Henry Louis] Gatesian sense, and should be seen as a way to level the playing field and make oppositional voices heard.

We could write a reasoned verbal critique of the viewpoint Madonna is expressing instead -- and such critiques are posted frequently here on ... But how can we put forth an alternative viewpoint in a way that makes it as powerful as Madonna's original expression?

Rosemary Coombe wrote about something similiar in /The Cultural Life Of Intellectual Properties/ [1998], which is to be highly recommended to all...

/Messages conveyed by quickly circulating evanescent signifiers on a multitude of shifting surfaces cannot be effectively countered with written treatises that lie on library and bookstore shelves. As Koenig's Joe Camel examples showed, criticism that deploys the protected symbol is inevitably stronger and more effective than written references to it... Writing or lecturing about the obnoxious use of cartoon imagery to entice children into a health-destroying habit simply does not have the same punch as a parody of the trademarked cartoon character itself.../

*<iriXx>*

i very much agree with john's statement and my reasons for creating and hosting remixes of the 'WTF' clip are similiar.

i am a regular p2p user and proud of it - in fact i would suggest that, as my music is heavily sample-based, it would not exist without the beauty of the file-sharing world. peer to
peer networking is a massive leap forward in human communication, unprecedented since the development of the internet, and should be put to positive and creative use.

i do not believe that file sharing damages the music industry one iota - if anything,i believe it enhances CD sales, and the publicity created by this incident
just serves to prove it. however, it has been suggested by cynical or even realistic parties that our 'guerilla' remixes have served only to promote madonna's record.

so what the fuck do i think i'm doing? is the madonna remix project just another by-product of the corporate music machine and its spin-doctors?

firstly, my intention was to satirise madonna's rather vain attempts to stall file-sharing by doing exactly what she wished to prevent - taking her files and sharing them. when i heard the self-righteous attempts of our lady of pop to inspire repentance in the hearts of guilt-ridden file sharers, i could not help but laugh. the crystal clear sample was a gift horse that i could not look in the mouth.

in making a parody of madonna's feeble words i wish to draw attention to the fact that any attempts to lock down music sharing by technological or other means are a) doomed to failure
and b) impossible to achieve without placing unnecessary restrictions on the user.

i object to any form of Digital Rights Management (DRM) , which often has grave implications on privacy, and i am active with the UK Campaign for DigitalRights in lobbying for the continuance of fair use rights and against oppressive legislation such as the DMCA and the EUCD which threatens our civil liberties.

i believe that p2p is an expression of fair use rights in the digital age. it has never stopped CD sales - that would be quite ridiculous in such a label-oriented consumer society, where people
enjoy the feel-good experience of shopping and its nice off-the shelf packages.

finally, my parody of madonna's words is my only means as an ordinary citizen of giving the finger to the system which force feeds us the sugary pop of top 10 artists. i object to the dominance and personal exploitation practised by the major labels in the same way that i object to globalisation in its many forms. so many people - including myself -
turn to p2p filesharing to escape the banal and repetetive tripe that an increasingly desperate music industry has resorted to promoting in an effort to sell records to teenagers. through peer to peer systems i have found - and often purchased - the music which i enjoy, and which inspires me as an artist to create.

oh, and i'm also just having a bit of fun....

.:. back to the remixes .:.