In the year 2525, people will look back at the music of the 2010’s and know that it all started here. I know that is a bold statement, but I haven’t seen anything so revolutionary in technology since iPhone launched almost two years ago. Nobody would argue that the iPhone hasn’t changed mobile computing forever. Likewise, I believe there will be little arguing that Kutiman hasn’t changed music for at least the next ten years.

The Mother of all Mash-ups

Kutiman took seemingly unrelated Youtube videos of people playing musical instruments and mixed them together to form songs. He didn’t just use the audio, though. That would have been kewl on its own, but not necessarily revolutionary. He also used the video.

If you are familiar with audio sampling techniques, you can apply to same logic to the process. But Kutiman added the synchronized video to the sample. In some cases the samples are very short, like a single note or tap. He used these samples to develop melodies and rhythms that weren’t in the original videos. In other cases, he used long clips of singing, rapping, talking, etc as primary vocal tracks.

The result is a menagerie of sensory disbelief, where amazing songs flow with skips of video from normal people doing normal things together making extraordinary music.

Legal Eagle

I hope he has a good lawyer, though. Like many before him, he is pushing the limits of copyright “fair use”. That might be why his album is free and there isn’t even one ad on his web site. Big media is desperately trying to force consumers into the traditional models of media consumption in order to preserve their dwindling revenue streams. This strong-arm tactic is necessary because they have yet to figure out a business model for this generation of content distribution.

Enjoy it While it Lasts

So, before the cease and desist notices start flying, Go out and enjoy the best example of art and technology that we’ve seen so far this century. Even better, fire up your favorite video editor and do something amazing yourself.

“Remember, the only person who can sit on your ass, is you.” –merlin mann