Dictators and authoritarian leaders including Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini, Pinochet and Jean-Marie Le Pen lip sync to the 1966 hit song Born Free sung by Matt Monro. Remixed by Swedish filmmaker and musician Johan Söderberg as part of the Read My Lips video series created for ATMO Films between 2001 and 2004.
Category: music video
Remixer TV Sheriff has teamed up with drum and bass duo ColdCut to create a new multi-layered mash-up video just in time for the US election. In this blog I have tried to include election remix videos that are critical of the election process or the presidency in general rather than showcasing all the numerous remixes that simply support a particular candidate.
This intense remix style is less than subtle in its content and is described as an “all-out AV assault on an American media machine.” In the past I have refrained from posting some of the Sheriff’s other remix work because of his promotion of various conspiracy theories, though I personally find this video to be more on-point. A quick search of youtube for TV Sheriff will find more of his other work if you want to see.
Category: music video
A political remix video critique of themes in the blockbuster 300 using the gratuitous footage from the movie, short clips from other older Hollywood and government films, text title cards and comic book speech bubbles all set to the song “Killing in the Name Of” from the popular political band Rage Against the Machine. The work questions and illustrates the overtly racist, sexist, homophobic and warmongering themes in Zack Snyder and Frank Miller’s movie (as well as it’s historical inaccuracy) creating an education music video style commentary. This remix is posted in the youtube channel of user lewistonvideomaker.
Category: music video
A very disturbing remix from the video artist trio Wreck and Salvage. While not all of the collective’s work is political, this one definitely is. Titled “Club Iraq” because it combines rapper 50 Cent’s famous song “In Da Club” with audio of Bush’s invasion speech coupled with home videos taken by US soldiers in Iraq and posted on YouTube. The juxtaposition of the audio tracks and the armature footage US solders goofing off in a war zone, acting like immature boys and saying horrifically insensitive things to and about the Iraq population makes for a sickening, depressing yet poignant Political Remix Video. These troubling unflattering home videos and the thousands like them posted online are likely part of the reason the Military banned myspace and YouTube from its servers in 2007
I offer this warning before viewing, the clips of military personal use explicit language, imitate sexual acts with each other and will most likely make you feel at least slightly ill.
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Category: music video
The recent outtake footage posted on YouTube called Bill O’Reilly Flips Out has spawned a torrent of remixes including this one by Torrey Meeks using music by RevoLucian. The remix takes the disturbing raw footage of O’Reilly’s angry rant on Inside Edition and re-cuts it to creates a dance mix. Interestingly the remixes have become so pervasive that it makes finding the original footage harder on YouTube. So in this case do the remixes, while really funny, distract and take away from the original clip, which is very poignant on its own? An interesting question. I do have to say this one is hilarious and any remix that can make us laugh out loud at the mess our country and media is in at the moment is a positive thing.
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Category: music video
A remix from 1992 called Read My Lips attacking George H. W. Bush on a range of issues. It was shown on MTV during the American presidential election campaign of that year. Following the video is a discussion about the mash-up on the Bill Moyers PBS program also in 1992.
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Category: music video
FEB/13/09 – Another on the remixes we posted has been hit by this ominous message from YouTube “This video has been removed due to terms of use violation.” No other info was provided.
An older remix from EBN from the early 90s which combines footage from the mass media and government leaders to create an “Electronic Behavior Control System“.
Category: music video