Negativland Overview

This Bay Area-based group embodies the "sampledelic" appropriationist ethos of experimental music at the close of the twentieth century: Negativland exists by purloining and retooling the work of others for use in their own songs. Their music comprises hundreds of samples... [more]

This Bay Area-based group embodies the "sampledelic" appropriationist ethos of experimental music at the close of the twentieth century: Negativland exists by purloining and retooling the work of others for use in their own songs. Their music comprises hundreds of samples derived from music made ubiquitous via all-pervasive media; it is this very quality -- the subtextual omnipresence of media -- that the group critiques in their own work. Familiar rock licks, advertising jingles, sound bites from television talk shows: all are grist for the Negativland mill, which has been grinding away since 1979. Several years ago the group U2 sued Negativland when the former released an album satirizing the latter; the band's label, SST, subsequently sued them as well. In the wake of the legal actions, Negativland authored a book entitled "Fair Use: The Story of the Letter U and the Numeral 2," which explored the gray areas between art and legality. Negativland then unveiled a record called "DISPEPSI," which took on the beverage giant. Since 1981 Negativland has authored a three-hour weekly radio program ("Over The Edge") on Pacifica radio outlet KPFA in Berkeley, California. Recently, the group ran afoul of the Record Industry Association of America in its attempts to release CDs of their radio programs. No pressing plant would accept the job, owing to the inclusion of an unauthorized sound sample from the album "The Wall" by Pink Floyd. Negativland's use of collage and media commentary exists in a tradition of avant-garde practice that has extended throughout the century. Their approach to appropriation involves a preference for the textures and fortuitous accidents yielded by low-fidelity technology. They have always stressed the transformative aspect of their "culture jamming," stating that their appropriations create new, distinct work, not piracy -- the charge frequently leveled at the group by those who seek to define the laws that "safeguard" intellectual property. Negativland's created a collaborative CD with British anarchist pop collective Chumbawumba, entitled "The ABCs of Anarchism." They also received an offer from maverick ad agency Wieden & Kennedy to score Miller beer ads, putting them on the cusp of a surprising reversal of their media renegade status. [show less]