I'm pretty sure you all know what I'm talking about. You switch on the radio at home or in your car, and you hear what sounds like a classic from Led Zeppelin or The Police, but then all of a sudden Puff Daddy jumps in, steals the lyrics (and most of the song, for that matter), and you're left wondering why Puffy's getting paid $20 million for something he bootlegged out of his grandaddy's record collection. Now, the purpose in this discussion is not to totally bash artists for remixing their favorite oldies, but I think what needs to be stressed indefinitely is that we hear a lot more of someone else's work remixed than original songs on the radio these days. This is most prevalent in dance, techno and hip-hop where the artist merely has to sample an old tune, add a nifty beat and sing or rap to this new creation. Granted, some remixes are quite catchy (i.e. the Techno Tetris remix; great raving tune!), but others just seem to hang around and cause more of an annoyance than anything else. Rock and roll, thankfully, does not seem to suffer nearly as much from "remix syndrome" as some of the more modern types of music out there. And when you do hear a rock and roll remix, such as Pearl Jam's rendition of Last Kiss, they do a splendid job of it. I don't want to hear Stayin' Alive by the Bee Gees at the same time on five different stations with five different remixes! People, I implore you... Leave the oldies alone! Especially all that retro shit, which was fuct to begin with. It's hard to say whether the lack of originality is a direct result of lack of talent or not. Maybe artists are just getting bored of what they do. I mean, you can sympathise to a certain extent. Who would want to spend hours upon hours writing out lyrics that rhyme perfectly, and then trying to integrate them into a tune? Not Puffy. The thing with rap is, it doesn't matter if the lyrics don't rhyme, or don't follow a beat, 'cause they're not supposed to! What does it take to form a techno band these days? One person and Acid 2.0. Did you download my songs in the Music section? They sound pretty damn professional, don't they? And I'm not even talented! Techno/dance/rave can be broken down into three major parts: The bassy beat, the funkadelic tune, and the super-hot chick singing all the lyrics. How many techno clones do you think there are out there? How easy is it to sample an old record and make a new techno song out of it? Too easy... And these people get paid so much to do this. Unbelievable! Zeppelin must be thinking to himself, "Sheeot... why didn't I remix my own songs five different times, that way ravers, technoers, dancers, rappers and hip-hoppers alike can all enjoy my music, and I get paid millions for it?" It makes you wonder. Did Puffy have to walk up to Led and say, "Uh yeah, I got this motherfuckin' beat that I'm werkin' on with some deep-ass lyrics, but I need a tune to go with it yo. Can I borrow some shit off ya?" Zeppelin's like, "Whatever Puffy, go for it." Next thing you know Puffy's not only got a top ten hit, but he's made the title track for Godzilla. Zeppelin's probably eating his own guitar by now. I feel extremely sorry for all the dead artists that can't do shit about people stealing their songs and making money off them. Must be rollin' over in their graves. I remember one day I was listening to a rock station on the radio, and Spaceman by Bif Naked comes on. Now I like the song the way it is, and I'm sure Bif does to, but lo and behold, I switch over to my local dance music station, and the same fucking song is playing, translated into techno! WTF!!! It's like techno buffs can't understand rock music, and need a translation to actually enjoy it. And that's not the half of it! Ever listen to that crazy Muslim shit on the really low frequency stations? Wait till about 11:00pm at night, and Mohammed goes retro with all the techno-Muslim you could ever want. It's all too apparent that people are finding ways to jump in the money pit without even working for it. At the very least, I think the original artists should be entitled to a share of the funds that are generated by the remixes. I mean sure Puffy, it's nice to have that sixty-thousand dollar BMW, but what about Led driving his beat-up old Civic? Buy the man a new car, Puffy, he deserves it more than you do. ~Brandon