"Gregg Gillis, who under the nom de laptop Girl Talk creates digital hip-hop tunes that mash up hundreds of songs... has been gaining fame for his feverishly inventive creations. But while his last CD made the best-of-year list in Rolling Stone and Pitchfork, he can't sell it on iTunes and lives in fear of a ruinous copyright lawsuit by a label representing one of the dozens of performers he's sampled without permission." -- Girl Talk's last CD, "Night Ripper," presents a very interesting IP conundrum. The album features over 100 different samples of mostly Top 40 hits (none of which are officially cleared) and virtually no original material from Gillis himself. Yet, the way in which the samples are altered and combined could be considered completely original. Most samples only play for a few seconds and they are often layered over 2 or 3 other samples.

This presentation is unique, yet, part of the appeal of the music is listening to a track and catching bits of songs you recognize. Despite not properly clearing any of his samples, Gillis and his label have prepared a fair use defense in case legal action is taken against them. Do you think Girl Talk's music qualifies as fair use? For me, the most interesting fair use question is how these new creations affect the market for the original songs. Often times, hearing a snippet of a song in a Girl Talk track will encourage listeners to go out and find the complete song, thus financially benefiting the source. On the other hand, the fact that some of the appeal of Girl Talk's music is so closely tied to the recognition of another artist's work makes me wonder just how fair it is for him to be sampling that artist's music free-of-charge. Then again, the fact that no record label has taken legal action makes me wonder if they welcome the attention their artists are getting through Girl Talk (at least until Girl Talk "blows up" and becomes a direct competitor with some of their artists).

By the way, here are a couple of links to Girl Talk's sets from Coachella and Bonnaroo. This should give you a taste of what his music sounds like, though, it's worth noting that the samples fly by much faster on the album than they do at live shows.