Frank Kogan

The relevance of the producers doesn't really apply to "what results," since what results from whatever the process is doesn't change when we know more or less about the production. In terms of process (not social category), the "what is this inside" strikes me as something like what Frank Zappa did in the studio with xenochrony, "a recording technique that takes guitar solos from older live recordings and overdubs them onto new studio recordings." What I meant to say in the bit you quoted above is that there is a procedural difference between Farrah playing with beats and consciously putting vocals over them in a certain way and a producer taking the vocals and letting spontaneous things happen by cutting and pasting. But the effect is (obviously) the same; you get the same music. I'm just curious as to what it was.

I think that we have to go back to social expectations, though. If I knew going in that this album was done by an up-and-coming experimental artist who wanted to make a "statement" about reality TV by taking recordings of Farrah Abraham and sticking them on top of their amateurish electronic productions, I would probably be galled enough at the implications not to listen very carefully. I would probably miss the magic in the music, which is still there whether it was done in earnest good faith or not. Because I was able not to engage those expectations of electronic art -- built up through ad hoc experiences with smug appropriation projects -- I was listening to it "with Farrah," from the perspective of the reality TV star now trying her hand at art therapy pop. That put it in conversation with youth media, a really fascinating and frustrating amateur mode of production usually not widely circulated outside of enrichment programs that can often sound pretty strange. It's not too far removed (in that sense) from "Bootlegged," the weird song my students made (with some of my amateur production help) in 2009.