Music +Technology = Great Big Smile

I've recently come across a couple of websites that affected me in two ways: they were both absolutely inspiring and also gave me a medium sized amount of reassurance that the internet is not completely full of rot.

The first is Thru-YOU
This is a project by a guy named Kutiman who decided to remix YouTube videos. The idea is simple enough. People have been remixing music for decades, using bits and pieces of other songs, riffs, even live recorded "noise" to create new songs. Kutiman took the next step (which I find simultaneously brilliant and obvious) and looked to the internet for musical ingredients. The outcome is mind blowing in two ways- the first is that the end result of his cutting and pasting is so good. The level of quality that Kutiman achieved through endless assemblage of home videos is unbelievable, in sound quality and listenability. This isn't just a gimmick or some sort of cute, "look what I did with the internet" kind of thing, these are songs that I would actually listen to.
And that leads me to the second way that Thru-YOU blows my mind- even though I would listen to the music in my car or while making dinner, I can't because this is music that must be watched. Each song stands alone as a piece of music, but the beauty of the project is that the music is only half of the fun. The real Thru-YOU experience is seeing exactly where every element that you hear is coming from, and the resulting shock after you realize that the bass is just some guy in his garage, the horn blast is coming from a jr. high band recital and vocals are coming from a young mom on her webcam... with her baby on her lap. Gives me goosebumps every time.

The second discovery is Playing For Change
This project is similar to Thru-YOU in that it unites musicians around the world by involving them all in the same song. The difference is that the musicians know what they're getting themselves into. Playing For Change creators Mark Johnson and Whitney Burditt and their team traveled around the globe to record street musicians performing a set of songs. They then edited the performances together to create a group of songs being sung simultaneously in Israel, Africa, Ireland and many other countries around the world. The resulting sounds and images are as beautiful as the idea behind Playing For Change, that music is the best way to unite the human race. It sounds cheesy, I know. But check it out. Cheese done this well is worth looking into.