Copy, paste, save as ‘music’: Database consumption in contemporary digital remix cultures more

Copy, paste, save as ‘music’: Database consumption in contemporary digital remix cultures Titel: Copy, paste, save as ‗music‘: Database consumption in contemporary digital remix cultures Datum: Door: 27 januari 2012 (blok 2, 2011/2012) Guan van Zoggel (3782611) guanvanzoggel@gmail.com Student MA Nieuwe Media en Digitale Cultuur Docent: Cursus: Words: dr. Isabelle van Elferen Digital Music Cultures (Universiteit Utrecht) 3.738 Table of contents Introduction ............................................................................................................................................... 3 Azuma‘s postmodern theory of database consumption ...................................................................... 5 The omnipresence of audio simulacra ................................................................................................. 10 The dysfunctionality of the ideology of authenticity.......................................................................... 14 Conclusion................................................................................................................................................ 17 Referenced academic works................................................................................................................... 19 Referenced articles .................................................................................................................................. 21 Referenced discography ......................................................................................................................... 22 2 Introduction Despite the plurality and acceptance of music remixes and mash-ups on Youtube, often enriched with similarly mashed video clips, some critics remain sceptical regarding these recent developments in popular music. Information and communication technology (ICT) scholar David J. Gunkel describes mash-ups as ―exceedingly and unapologetically redundant‖ (2008: 499), the ―monstrous outcome of illegitimate fusions and promiscuous reconfigurations of recorded music that deliberately exceed the comprehension, control, and proper authority of the ―original artists‖‖ (Ibid., 2008: 501). Moreover, Gunkel cites the July 2005 Wired magazine, which coined these practices in the context of a larger social movement the ―Cut and Paste Culture,‖ (Gunkel, 2008: 497) implying little creativity or originality is required in the creation process of remixes and mash-ups. In the conclusion to his book Mashed Up: Music, Technology, and the Rise of Configurable Culture, music scholar Aram Sinnreich challenges the linear logic of musical production processes in the field of remixes. Based on interviews with artists he conducted, he summarises that ―[f]or many configurable musicians, creation begins with consumption, just as artistry begins with audition.‖ (Sinnreich, 2010: 201). Sinnreich also notes that ―[t]he blurring of the original/copy distinction undermines the premise that copies are defined by their subsequence to originals.‖ (2010: 201) Furthermore, he states that ―(…) linearity is replaced by recursion – in which any stage of the process may constitute beginning, middle or end, depending on the context and the vantage point of the observer‖ (Ibid., 2010: 201). In this paper, I would like to put these statements of Gunkel and Sinnreich to use as a point of departure towards cultural critic Hiroki Azuma‘s theory of database consumption in Japanese 3 otaku culture1 and how digital remix cultures can be understood from this theory. 2 The foremost reason why I decided on this theory is that I noticed obvious similarities between the otaku culture and digital remix cultures, especially in terms of deconstruction and reconstruction of existing works. As I am interested in exploring to which degree a theory based on the remixing of visuals in the otaku culture can be applied to the remixing of audio, the research question of this paper is as follows: How can we understand and rethink cultural products produced by contemporary digital remix cultures through Hiroki Azuma’s theory of database consumption? In order to find answers to this question, I will begin by introducing Azuma‘s theory through the brief contextualisation of his academic works and the comparison of his theory to earlier works which greatly inspired him. Considerable attention will be devoted to the analysis of how a modern worldview deteriorated and eventually became replaced with a postmodern worldview, which Azuma named the ‗database model‘. Subsequently the paper will advance towards the question of how Azuma‘s theory relates to contemporary digital remix cultures and how we can rethink the cultural products that these produce. In conclusion, the paper will briefly review Gunkel‘s and Sinnreich‘s remarks as cited in this introduction in light of Azuma‘s theory. 1 The Japanese term otaku is often associated with fans who are obsessively interested in animanga and video games. In present paper, I will use the term ‗digital remix cultures‘ to indicate cultures associated with remixes, mash-ups and other forms of deconstruction and reconstruction of audio. 2 4 Azuma’s postmodern theory of database consumption The Japanese cultural critic Hiroki Azuma has not only been influenced by European thinkers, primarily French philosophers, but also by his contemporary Eiji Ōtsuka, another leading scholar in the field of animanga (a portmanteau for Japanese animation and comics) and fan cultures. Unlike Ōtsuka, whose approach is derived from traditional thought, such as concepts found in the kabuki theatre (Azuma, 2009: 8), Azuma is said to belong to a critical movement dubbed as ―New Academism,‖ a group of interdisciplinary scholars, influenced by postmodern and poststructuralist Western thinkers (Abel and Kono, 2009: xx). As Azuma‘s postmodern theory can be considered as an answer to an essay by Ōtsuka, it is relevant to briefly discuss the essay in question of the latter (Steinberg in Ōtsuka, 2010). In 1989, Ōtsuka published his urban ethnographic work Monogatari Shōhiron (‗A Theory of Narrative Consumption‘). One of the essays published in this book, Sekai to Shukō: Monogatari no Fukusei to Shōhi (‗World and Variation: The Reproduction and Consumption of Narrative‘) was subsequently translated and published in the annual journal Mechademia (2010). In this essay, Ōtsuka theorises the Japanese mass consumption, basing his argument on Baudrillard‘s assertion that people in modern societies do not consume physical objects with a ―use-value‖, but rather objects as signs that only have value (―sign-value‖) as a segment within a system (Ōtsuka, 2010; Baudrillard, 1998: 89). 3 Ōtsuka elaborates his theory by providing the example of Bikkuriman Chocolates, a popular commodity among children at the end of the 1980s in Japan, which consisted of chocolate and a sticker with a Bikkuriman character printed on it. Although the actual food product was of no Ōtsuka here distinguishes the physical thing from the ‗thing‘ as sign by using respectively the characters 物 and モノ, which both translate as ‗thing‘ and pronounced as mono, but, as Ōtsuka demonstrates, feature each a different connotation (Ōtsuka, 2010: 115, n20). 3 5 particular value to the children, they obsessively collected the stickers which collectively created a predetermined ―small narrative‖ of, for example, rivalry between two characters. Upon collecting more stickers and thus small narratives, eventually an epic ―grand narrative‖ would emerge (Ōtsuka, 2010: 106). Dysfunctionality of grand narratives Azuma answers to Ōtsuka‘s work with his book Dōbutsuka suru Posutomodan: Otaku kara mita Nihon Shakai (‗Animalising Postmodernity: The Japanese Society seen from an Otaku perspective‘) in 2001, which was later translated to English as Otaku: Japan’s Database Animals (2009). In this book, Azuma considers the otaku 4 as a phenomenon that is ―a part of worldwide postmodernization‖ (Azuma, 2009: 10). Through Russian-French philosopher Alexandre Kojève‘s notions of posthistorical existences, namely the American‘s ―return to Animality‖ and Japanese ―Snobbery‖ (Kojève, 1969: 162; his italics), Azuma argues that the Japanese otaku culture consists of both these posthistorical existences. According to Kojève, the difference between animal and human is that the former only knows needs, such the need for food or sleep, while the human also knows desires, such as the endless sexual desire of the male for the female (Ibid., 1969: 159-160). Snobs, then, according to Kojève, ―presume to deny, to manufacture formal opposition, and to love the thrill of opposing nature‖ and subsequently ascribes seppuku (‗ritual self-sacrifice‘) as the ―ultimate snobbery‖ (Azuma, 2009: 68). The term otaku was first coined during the 1980‘s, but became soon associated with negative connotations throughout the 1990s to the extent of moral panic. One cause for the negative sentiment was an incident in the 1989 when a young man was accused of molesting four girls. Upon investigating his apartment, the police discovered that the man was an avid collector of violent pornographic anime. This negative sentiment was further fuelled in 1995 when cult group Aum Shinrikyo, fans of apocalyptic anime and manga, attacked the Japanese subway with sarin gas. (Napier, 2005: 8) 4 6 In reference to Jean-François Lyotard‘s concept of la fin des métarécits (‗the end of grand narratives‘), Azuma argues that the otaku‘s desire for ―grand narratives,‖ as described by Ōtsuka, gave birth to Japanese snobbery, but has been gradually fading since the advent of the 1990s (2009: 88). Instead, the otaku started to deconstruct existing ―grand narratives‖ into so-called moe-elements (moeyōsō), which can be either visual aspects of characters or more abstract aspects such as ―a particular way of speaking, settings, stereotypical narrative development, and the specific curves of a figurine‖ (Azuma, 2009: 42).5 The omnipresence of simulacra In order to establish a bridge between the otaku culture and digital remix cultures, I will now move towards the roles of Baudrillard‘s simulacra theory and Walter Benjamin‘s concept of aura within Azuma‘s theory of database consumption. Along with the dysfunctionality of the grand narrative as described above, Azuma perceives the omnipresence of simulacra as a reflection of the social structure of postmodernity (Ibid., 2009: 29). In his short but influential essay Das Kunstwerk im Zeitalter seiner technischen Reproduzierbarkeit (‗The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,‘ 1936), Benjamin argues ―that the technique of reproduction detaches the reproduced object from the domain of tradition,‖ rephrasing ―that which withers in the age of mechanical reproduction is the aura of the work of art‖ (Benjamin, 2005; my italics). Following Benjamin‘s logic, the originality and thus aura of a work is established by the singularity of the ritual that produced the work. In accordance with the ‗modern worldview,‘ Azuma argues, an original work and a copy are distinguished by the presence of the connection with 5 Examples Azuma provides include moe-elements of ―cat ear‖ and ―hair sticking up like antennae‖ (Azuma, 2009: 47). 7 the ritual to create the work, as depicted in the ‗tree model‘ of the modern worldview in Figure 1 (Azuma, 2009: 59). In Azuma‘s depiction of the ‗postmodern worldview‘ in Figure 2, however, we can observe Azuma‘s perception of a social structure of postmodernity with the collapse, or rather replacement, of the ‗tree model‘ with a ‗database model‘ with a database, or a ‗grand non-narrative,‘ as a source on the left and the omnipresence of simulacra on the right (Ibid., 2009: 59). In relation to Benjamin‘s concept of aura, Azuma states that the ―magical attraction of the original as an original‖ is merely a myth of authorship that has been rapidly declining since the advent of the 1990s (Ibid., 2009: 61). Whereas the authors of original works – in contrast to the abstract moe-elements – no longer enjoy a divine status among fans, the otaku‘s unceasing merciless and limitless remixing of the originals, by adding and subtracting moe-elements, are immediately stopped when an author asks them to do so (Ibid., 2009: 62). 8 Figure 1: The original and the copy (Azuma, 2009: 60). Figure 2: The database and the simulacra (Azuma, 2009: 62). 9 The omnipresence of audio simulacra Thus far, I have outlined Azuma‘s core idea regarding the dysfunctionality of grand narratives and the omnipresence of simulacra in the Japanese otaku culture. In present chapter, I will argue that, and demonstrate how, contemporary digital remix cultures and scholarly understandings thereof relate to Azuma‘s theory of database consumption by using the outline provided in the previous chapter as a theoretical framework. In order to do so, I will first analyse the role and possibilities of simulacra in digital remix cultures before discussing the dysfunctionality of grand narratives. If we can consider the initial accumulation of a database of audio segments in digital music cultures as a linear process, it would be safe to argue that the deconstruction of an original work is the first step towards a database. Modern audio editing software allows computer users to ‗cut‘ or ‗copy‘ audio segments from digital audio sources, 6 such as the popular MP3 format, and extract (‗save‘) these to the computer‘s harddisk or to an online server, which can be either private or public. The proportions of these extracted audio segments are limitless: length, pitch, tempo, sound quality, frequency response – virtually any musical proportion can be further modified by the user. Therefore, rather than using ‗copies,‘ which insinuates a (rather accurate) reproduction, I will borrow Baudrillard‘s term ‗simulacra‘ to refer to audio segments that have been extracted from original recordings. 7 When using this term, I make no further distinction between simulacra taken from commercial music and pre-recorded samples of instruments in audio editing software. It remains debatable to what extent recordings of original works, either analog or digital, are able to have an aura. As David J. Gunkel argues, ―‖Live‖ performance is commonly distinguished from and given preference over recorded reproductions, which are, on this account, assumed to be secondary, derivative, and lifeless‖ (2008: 493). 6 Although I am aware that Baudrillard‘s definition of ‗simulacra‘ does not perfectly correspond with my usage of the term in this paper, I find it the term that is most analogous in this particular context. 7 10 After the deconstruction of the original and accumulation of a database, users can draw simulacra from a database and reconstruct new music by rearranging these via the aforementioned audio editing software. Upon completion, the user is able to extract his music, or rather ‗arrangement of simulacra,‘ and share it with the public by, for example, storing it on an online server. Subsequently, other computer users can download these remixes to their own computer and further modify it themselves, which sometimes leads to the process of remixing a remix. This vicious cycle of deconstruction and reconstruction in digital remix cultures, aptly summarised by David J. Gunkel as ―derivative to the core‖ (2009: 498), bears strong resemblance with Azuma‘s Derrida-inspired perception of the otaku culture and its deconstruction of the visual. Up till now, digital remix cultures have not yet been exposed to centralised databases to the extent that the otaku culture has collected its deconstructed visuals, such as the numerous non-hierarchical structured imageboards of Danbooru. 8 However, by purchasing or downloading audio editing software, such as the commercial music editor Magix Music Maker by MAGIX, the user obtains a database of pre-recorded audio segments that can be used and arranged in this software to create new music. Since the user is merely arranging simulacra that can also be accessed by other users who purchased the software, I would once again argue that ‗a remix of simulacra‘ is a more appropriate term for the actual processed product than ‗music‘. While one may argue that users can opt to record themselves by playing an instrument or singing in the vicinity of a microphone and thereby create an authentic audio segment that can be used among the simulacra in the software, the recording and also its role in the ultimate production lack authentic value, or an aura, due to being technical reproductions. 8 Online available on: http://danbooru.donmai.us/ 11 If we take a step back from closely observing the process of arranging simulacra and approach the concept of the database from a more theoretical perspective, it is difficult to deny the works of Theodor Adorno, a leading member of the Frankfurt School of critical theory. In Dialektik der Aufklärung (‗Dialectic of Enlightment,‘ 1944), co-authored by fellow Frankfurt School thinker Max Horkheimer, they coined the term ‗culture industry,‘ the ease at which consumers passively consume standardised cultural goods, such as film and radio, en thereby endangering the existence of the more intellectually challenging high arts. Throughout the chapter ‗The Culture Industry: Enlightment as Mass Deception,‘ the authors stress that the fundamental essence of culture industry is repetition and standardisation (Horkheimer & Adorno, 2002: 94-136), an argument common among Adorno‘s works on popular music as dichotomised with classical music. While I am not so much concerned with Adorno‘s dichotomisation of music, I do find his notion of repetition and standardisation of the music culture, albeit in a more postmodern reading, highly applicable to the theory of database consumption I have provided thus far, on which I will now further elaborate. In line with Baudrillard‘s notion of simulacra and Benjamin‘s thoughts on authenticity, Adorno‘s argument that the essence of popular music is repetition, is a third relevant theoretical approach to Azuma‘s database consumption theory. What Adorno meant with repetition is the interchangeability of cultural products, for each a decline in significance and loss of aura (Welty, 1984). By reading Adorno in a postmodern fashion and considering ‗cultural products‘ as ‗simulacra,‘ it becomes clear that the essential nature of database consumption is also repetition. In this context, what is being repeated is the process of using pre-recorded audio segments rather than self-recorded audio. Indeed, with contemporary audio editing software, such as Finale Music‘s composing and 12 notation software9 and Garritan Personal Orchestra‘s sound library,10 it becomes possible to readily conduct a symphony orchestra by selecting instruments from a drop-down list and by inserting notes in a staff, all by simply using a computer‘s mouse. When the user clicks on the ‗Play‘ button, the software loads pre-recorded audio fragments of the corresponding instruments from a local database on the user‘s computer, arranges these in accordance with the user-made sheet music and processes an audio fragment – all in real-time. The resemblances between the otaku culture and digital remix cultures framed by his database consumption theory should be evident by now: both cultures‘ artists produce arrangements of simulacra drawn from a database, directed by the user‘s input. 9 For more information, see: http://www.finalemusic.com/ For more information, see: http://www.garritan.com/ 10 13 The dysfunctionality of the ideology of authenticity In the previous chapter I have determined the similarities in omnipresence of simulacra in both cultures, therefore the dysfunctionality of grand narratives in digital remix cultures remain to be discussed. Before it is possible to make any statements regarding the grand narratives of digital remix cultures, it is necessary to contextualise my understanding of the grand narrative. Rather than drawing exclusively from Ōtsuka and Azuma, who interpreted grand narrative as ‗grand story,‘ bordering on ‗franchise‘ or ‗intellectual property,‘ I will also draw inspiration from the influential work of Jean-François Lyotard. With the theory of métarécits (‗grand narratives‘), Lyotard theorised the attempt to provide an interconnection between overarching accounts to not only explain, but also legitimise historical, cultural and social phenomena, such as the creation narratives as institutionalised by religions. However, as Lyotard argues in his famous work La Condition postmoderne: rapport sur le savoir (‗The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge,‘ 1979), incredulity of the individual toward these ideologies of aspiring universal truth is a significant aspect for the world‘s ‗postmodern condition‘ (Lyotard, 1984: 37-38). In light of Lyotard‘s account to the postmodern condition, I will now discuss my understanding of the dysfunctionality of grand narratives in digital remix cultures. While there are innumerable differences between Azuma‘s and Lyotard‘s understanding of dysfunctionality of grand narratives, I will advance my argument at the point where these understandings cross paths: the collapse of ideologies. The otaku‘s ideology consists of the fictional grand narrative as substitution for the real grand narrative political ideology (Azuma, 2009: 34), while Lyotard argues that individuals no longer believe in an ideology of universal truth (Lyotard, 1984: 37- 14 38). Baudrillard further summarised Benjamin‘s argument and Lyotard‘s dysfunctionality of grand narratives as ―no more ideology, only simulacra‖ (cited in Azuma, 2009: 59). The ideology that has thus collapsed in digital remix cultures, or perhaps in the majority of the popular music industry, is a striving for authenticity. Rather than striving for ―its presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be,‖ Benjamin‘s descriptor for aura (2005), contemporary music artists seem to be readily satisfied with drawing simulacra from a database of sample audio fragments from other artists. In addition, in reference to Adorno‘s culture industry, consumers passively consume these arrangements of simulacra without being concerned about the authenticity of a particular production. One such example, which I recently stumbled upon, is the song ―Check It Out‖ by the American rappers will.i.am (William James Adams, Jr.) and Nicki Minaj (Onika Tanya Maraj), which consists of repetitive sampling of the piano and vocal hook from the 1980s hit ―Video Killed the Radio Star‖ by the British synthpop group The Buggles. Neither the original artists nor the remix artists nor the fans seem concerned with authenticity, despite being well aware of its derivative nature: ―We almost want to cry foul for taking an extremely beloved 80s song (okay, the song was released in 1979 but the video debuted in 1981) and appropriating it for a modern-day hip-hop song, just because that‘s become so commonplace it‘s an uncreative, predictable way to get attention for your song. But… but… but… we can‘t hate. We love this. It‘s just too much fun—we can easily see this getting massive radio play like her other let‘ssample-another-popular-song-from-another-decade hit, ―Your Love‖. What say you?‖ (Bain, 2010). This excerpt, taken from the online website Idolator, represents a common opinion among music fans associated with the popular music industry. Although it is not my intent to engage in further popular 15 discourse analyses, I do want to point out that this example of ―Check It Out‖ and subsequent response in the excerpt clearly demonstrates the collapse of the grand narrative of a striving for authenticity that Benjamin was so concerned with in his 1936 essay. Thus far, I have outlined Azuma‘s theory of database consumption and used it as a backdrop to theoretically frame digital remix cultures. Through the works of Adorno, Baudrillard, Benjamin and Lyotard, the omnipresence of simulacra and dysfunctionality of grand narratives in digital remix cultures have been elaborated and become evident. In the remaining section of this paper, the focus will briefly shift back to the works of David J. Gunkel and Aram Sinnreich, as cited in the introduction of this paper. By basing his argument on Adorno‘s concept of culture industry, Gunkel argues that ―(…) the mash-up does nothing more than substitute and reconfigure prefabricated materials‖ (2008: 500), a notion which I have further explored for both remixes and mash-ups in this paper through the means of Azuma‘s database consumption. Consumption can also be considered as the initial state of the creative process for many digital remix artists, Sinnreich argues, who replace a linear production process with a recursive one, ―in which any stage of the process may constitute beginning, middle or end‖ (Sinnreich, 2009: 201). Both authors discuss another characteristic of the database consumption theory I have discussed at length: the collapse of grand narratives – music is no longer structured with (exclusively) authentic recordings, nor created in a linear process. 16 Conclusion To conclude this paper, I will attempt to answer the research question posed at the introduction to this paper: How can we understand and rethink cultural products produced by contemporary digital remix cultures through Hiroki Azuma’s theory of database consumption? In order to answer this question, I have contextualised Azuma‘s theory and discussed it in relation to the original subject of research, the otaku culture, at length. Upon having determined two significant characteristics of Azuma‘s perception of postmodernity, the omnipresence of simulacra and dysfunctionality of grand narratives, Azuma‘s theory functioned as a theoretical framework to further explore the role of simulacra and grand narratives in digital remix cultures. During the analysis, I have argued that segments of pre-recorded music can be considered as simulacra that are made available through databases as part of software‘s libraries or an actual online database, and that remixes are not much more than an arrangement of simulacra. Furthermore, I have attempted to develop an understanding of what grand narrative, a term common among the works of Lyotard, Ōtsuka and Azuma, might comprise in the context of digital remix cultures. The definition I ultimately decided on, the ideology of a striving for authenticity, indicated there is indeed a collapse of grand narratives in digital remix cultures – a concern already addressed by Walter Benjamin in 1936. In the end, the paper‘s focus returned to Gunkel and Sinnreich, whose opinions functioned as 17 this paper‘s point of departure, to demonstrate the correlation between their approaches to digital remix cultures and the understanding I have developed throughout this paper. In conclusion, I would recommend a profound comparative research between the creative nature of the remixes produced by the otaku and digital remix artists. As I have indicated, there is an overlap between both cultures in the manners in which simulacra are approached and the ease at which consumers passively consume arrangements of these simulacra, regardless of being created professionally or home-made. Another domain I have not been able to explore in this paper, is how Kojève‘s posthistorical existences and dichotomisation of human and animal, a prominent aspect of Azuma‘s research, compare to the nature of digital remix culture‘s artists and consumers. 18 Referenced academic works  Abel, Jonathan E. and Shion, Kono (2009). ―Translators‘ Introduction,‖ in Otaku: Japan’s Database Animals, trans. Abel, Jonathan E., and Shion, Kono. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, pp. xv-xxix.  Azuma, Hiroki (2009). Otaku. Japan’s Database Animals, trans. E. Abel, Jonathan, and Shion, Kono. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.  Baudrillard, Jean (1998). The Consumer Society: Myths and Structures, trans. Turner, Chris. London: Sage.  Benjamin, Walter (2005 [1936]). The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, trans. Blunden, Andy, URL: http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/ ge/benjamin.htm, accessed on 5 January 2012.  Gunkel, David J. (2008). ―Rethinking the digital remix: Mash-ups and the metaphysics of sound recording,‖ in Popular Music and Society, Vol. 31, Issue 4, pp. 489-510.  Kojève, Alexandre (1969). Introduction to the Reading of Hegel, trans. Raymond Queneau, New York: Basic Books.  Lyotard, Jean-François (1984 [1979]). The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge, trans. Bennington, Geoff, and Massumi, Brian. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. 19  Napier, Susan J. (2005). Anime from Akira to Howl's Moving Castle, Updated Edition: Experiencing Contemporary Japanese Animation. Palgrave: Macmillan.  Ōtsuka, Eiji (2010). ―World and Variation: The Reproduction and Consumption of Narrative,‖ in Mechademia, Vol. 5, pp. 99-116.  Sinnreich, Aram (2010). ―‗Plus ça change‘ or Paradigm shift?,‖ chapter 10 in Mashed Up: Music, Technology, and the Rise of Configurable Culture. University of Massachusetts Press, pp. 193-208.  Welty, Gordon (1984). ―Theodor Adorno and the Culture Industry,‖ at Annual Meeting of the Popular Culture Association. Toronto (March 30, 1984). 20 Referenced articles  Bain, Becky (2010). ―Nicki Minaj And Will.i.am ―Check It Out‖ In New 80s-Sampling Track,‖ on Idolator, URL: http://idolator.com/5608141/nicki-minaj-will-i-am-check-it-out, accessed on 21 January 2012. 21 Referenced discography  Buggles, The (1979). Video Killed The Radio Star. Island Records.  will.i.am and Nicki Minaj (2010). Check It Out. will.i.am music. 22