Week Fix a forum and mash it up some

This week’s forum saw us spend a large chunk of time listening to mashups in conjunction with completely unrelated visual material (which of course, our minds spent the entire time trying to relate to the audio). The end of forum featured the obligatory debate between 2nd/3rd years and lecturers again with the theme of value. So, our bringer of mashupdom, a woman called Vicki Bennet says herself that she takes music of little note and mixes it with more music of little note. (of course, this is assuming that everyone hates a catchy tune just because it is simple). It was suggested that because the end product possibly required little energy to create, it has little value.. Well, to me, it seems like Vicki is using the songs like Pierre uses sampled sound, like a DJ uses vinyl, like a pianist uses the piano or dare I say, like a composer uses an orchestra. Does the end result have worth? It is certainly listenable. How much energy goes into making it? Does it matter? The composer is still striving for a preconceived musical aesthetic. Does that not put the mash up artist in the same category as a traditional composer? Could it be that the concept of instrumentation is evolving, ever more things coming under this scope (I mean, if John Cage can stand there is all seriousness and play a bowl of water…). Whatever conclusions people draw, I think Vicki could conceivably be put in the same box as our friend Pierre.