My son sent me what I think will be the latest You Tube phenomenon. The artist is ‘Kutiman’ musician and, in this instance, VJ. It’s the first in a series of 7 extraordinary ‘compositions’ made up entirely of music videos posted on You Tube. Setting aside the labour of love that this process must have entailed, what really impresses is the sheer musicality of the finished product. Each track on the Thru-You project is a completely ‘new’ piece, created from the unlikeliest of constituent parts.It’s fairly obvious, but you can see how he did it here.
Even though the tracks have obvious commercial potential, (as evidenced by the unusually positive comments left) it’s hard to see how Kutiman could work out an equitable distribution of reward for the many people who are featured. I gather, though, that the participants are just delighted to be included. Many of them are part of the legion of music tutors who freely give of their time to encourage others to be musically active, via You Tube. This project gives some recognition to their work.
Do you remember, in the days before web 2.0, when we were told that the internet would make passive consumers of us all?
