Listening Report: John Oswald

 

As much as I despise the Plexure album because it is truly exhausting to listen to, John Oswald created the epitome of multitasking. I think this piece harbors a certain amount of arrogance toward society. Oswald just took everything and put it together. I don't think it was his intention to provoke anyone with it. He is probably well aware that not everyone can be reached with every type of music – especially when it is all mixed together. He claims it is a musical quote – a reminder that the world is full of plagiarizing, but I think it’s not an homage to anything. It just exists in its own little entity. I obviously don’t know if Oswald thought that he had created the greatest piece of music to ever exist – I certainly don’t think so. And as I have already mentioned, I physically cannot listen to it. But it shows how messy something can be.

 

I personally think it sounds like someone is skipping through their playlist – I don’t know – maybe the passenger in a car (aka “the DJ”) and I am the poor driver that has to endure someone not letting a song finish. It truly agitates me. But that is just my opinion.

 

It has something special though. When I think about people that use music as journaling – giving a song the feelings of a whole generation (this is mostly the case when a song defines a certain era), reminding people of situations they have heard it in the most – these plunderphonics albums serve as exactly that. John Oswald put the greatest pop songs over years into one album – one continuous track that combines them all. It is almost like a time capsule that people probably won’t know how to read in the future (which is a pretty funny thing to imagine).

 

People will probably argue that he butchers the songs, that they are not the original "great hits", but as he has mentioned, that was not his intention. You just need to reasonably be able to recognize the source. He's having fun with it while keeping the connection to the original. It's almost as if he's testing the limits. And I imagine that could be a reason for people to feel attacked by this.

 

For me, personally, it is not a problem. I just don’t like the way its sounds. But that doesn’t them from the fact that he is “destroying” a great original.