The Grey Album

33⅓ Main Series #98

by Charles Fairchild

This book marks the tenth anniversary of The Grey Album. The online release and circulation of what Danger Mouse called his 'art project' was an unexpected watershed in the turn-of-the-century brawls over digital creative practice. The album's suppression inspired widespread digital civil disobedience and brought a series of contests and conflicts over creative autonomy in the online world to mainstream awareness. The Grey Album highlighted, by its very form, the profound changes wrought by the new technology and represented the struggle over the tectonic shifts in the production, distribution and consumption of music. But this is not why it matters.

The Grey Album matters because it is more than just a clever, if legally ambiguous, amalgam. It is an important and compelling case study about the status of the album as a cultural form in an era when the album appears to be losing its coherence and power. Perhaps most importantly, The Grey Album matters because it changes how we think about the traditions of musical practice of which it is a part.

Danger Mouse created a broad, inventive commentary on forms of musical creativity that have defined all kinds of music for centuries: borrowing, appropriation, homage, derivation, allusion and quotation. The struggle over this album wasn't just about who gets to use new technology and how. The battle over The Grey Album struck at the heart of the very legitimacy of a long recognised and valued form of musical expression: the interpretation of the work of one artist by another.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction

160 pages, Paperback

First published September 25, 2014

Reviews

[Ross Bonaime · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've only read a handful of 33 1/3 books, but they're easily my favorite book collection. Every 33 1/3 book I've read in the past succeeds because it tells a story by putting the eponymous album at the center of that story. Whether it's simply placing the importance on a singular album in the scope of an artist's larger discography - like Radiohead's "OK Computer" or Kanye West's "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" - or discussing an album for the purposes of a larger idea, like discussing why we dislike certain albums blindly through Celine Dion's "Let's Talk About Love," the album is always the focus on the story at hand.

Charles Fairchild's discussion of Danger Mouse's "The Grey Album" is my least favorite book in this collection so far because of how it makes the book more about the idea of "The Grey Album" instead of the actual "Grey Album." Fairchild wants to place this album in the context of music sampling and rights issues in a way where he points out how Danger Mouse's work is both part of the natural progression of music, yet spectacular in its melding of two albums and the care taken in doing such. By placing "The Grey Album" into the history of music sampling, it becomes a footnote more than the focus.

This is most obvious when you consider that this book is 117 pages, but doesn't get into "The Grey Album" until page 90. The rest is setting the table for the breaking down of the album. But so much of the setup and so little of actual album discussion means this two ideas rarely coalesce. When the book does set its sights on explaining the greatness of "The Grey Album," Fairchild is at his best. Fairchild goes to great lengths to break apart exactly what samples are used from The Beatles' "White Album" and how they are used and how their usage with the songs of Jay-Z tells a comprehensive story. Most 33 1/3 books have this track-by-track breakdown of the album's focus, but unfortunately, this book makes this idea again an afterthought. Considering this is an album that takes two classic albums commenting on the history and importance of one of the greatest bands of all time and one of the greatest rappers of all time AND that the album melds these two in a way where they play off the themes of each other, it's borderline insane that this section isn't a more substantial aspect of the book.

But one thing I always love about 33 1/3 books is the passion coming from the authors that clearly love these albums. Some of my favorite moments with reading have been listening to one of my favorite albums, while reading an author explain in detail perfectly how I've always felt about the music. Fairchild handles "The Grey Album" with such a clinical perspective that it almost takes the joy out of Danger Mouse's work. Again, when Fairchild focuses on the songs, he still takes a clinical approach, but you can read the admiration in Danger Mouse's work. Far too often in "The Grey Album" though, that love is noticeably absent.

A great album like "The Grey Album" deserved better than what this 33 1/3 book gave it. Danger Mouse took care and love for the music he was sampling and gave it a refreshing take. Fairchild should've given "The Grey Album" the same approach, rather than making it a comment on a larger idea.

[Carolyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have already waxed rhapsodic about this series many times recently.
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I had completely forgotten about this album and it was SUCH a joy to listen to it again. The book was good but less joyful. The author takes almost a scientific journal tone—in this chapter, I will do X, X, and X… Now that I have explained X, I will now do X—and what I love most in this series (hearing the joy and love the authors get from the album) wasn’t very present in this one. I liked chapters 3-4, but had suffered through 1-2 and skimmed a lot of the business yadda yadda. The author took it as a personal mission to prove how much this album fits into a long tradition of art borrowing, but I wanted to hear more of how much he loves these songs. So his mission and my mission never really aligned, heh.
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But if you’re interested in the business side of music, that first chapter goes way beyond his goals and gives a great picture of that whole dichotomy (of all entertainment companies) that claim to be barely surviving and yet have $$$.

[Rich · Rating 5 out of 5]

Monumental retelling of the subversive artistry of The Grey Album, and the most infamous cease-and-desist letter of all time, which united an online community and sparked the current beauty that is The Mashup. Great addition to the 33 1/3 series.

[Sheehan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit of a departure from the others in the series I have read, this book is much more about the industry and the academic technicalities of the albums production more than it is about it's historical or personal implications to the world of music.

It was well written, but boring and technical in chapters about the songs composition, the author's graphs and charts show he really tried to note the patterns, but in the end it made for slow reading.
I did find the early explorations of how the music industry is really just a cartel of businesses protecting intellectual property very astute, but it still distracted from what I had hoped would be more about the album's context in the world.

It was educational, but not what I was hoping for, not a lens I would like to see applied to other related works either; and a bit of a diversion from other volumes in this 33 1/3 series.

[Brad · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book digs deeper than anyone would expect--or want--into the history of online music consumption (p. 16-56). It also contains a long, meandering musical lineage from Jamaican dub to Danger Mouse (p. 57-81). For me, the book I hoped to read--the book that deals with The Grey Album itself--doesn't actually start until page 82, amounting to just over 35 pages of this 118 page book, which does not allow enough time to delve deeper into the tracks themselves.

This book may prove more valuable years later when it is read by people who do not already remember the bulk of the events that happened in online music consumption in the late-90's through the early-00's...even though the rise of Spotify has rendered parts of the book outdated a mere five years after it was published.

[Chris Leroux · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb music criticism. Almost feels like a disservice to label it an essay about The Grey Album seeing as Fairchild walks you through the history of late twentieth century recorded music, associated copyright law, and brief backgrounds on a variety of related musical genres including hip hop. All of which serves a purpose of arguing why The Grey Album is such a significant album. My favorite part was the actual song analysis in which he broke down the sampling in ways I had not previously understood. Recommended for pretty much anyone who has even a passing interest in music and critical analysis. If you’re unfamiliar with The Grey Album, even better.

[Jitte Van · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mostly a dissection of the music industry and it's quest for control and maximising money set around the Grey Album than a real dissection of the grey album, the latter being kind of tagged on at the end in the final chapter. Good read though.

[Nat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid. Not sure why I waited to finish reading this. A bit slow, but interesting.

[Sidik Fofana · Rating 4 out of 5]

SIX WORD REVIEW: More about fickle laws of pirating.

[Seamus Fahey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Blimey PM Blair, he’s rapping over Helter Skelter. Crazy innit!

[Vio Sintion · Rating 2 out of 5]

To much about the music industry, and so little about Danger Mouse and The Grey Album

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

From fans to users
our music isn't ours now
islands in the stream

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ever since the 33 1/3's shift in editorship the series has been faultless. In this essay about the grey album, Charles Fairchild explores 00's downloading culture, mash up and goes into a lot of technical detail about the making of the grey album. It's fascinating - especially for those who are interested in hip hop production techniques.

[Thomas Gregersen · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I liked the book and thought it was incredibly interesting, I also felt that it might have been a bit overtly academic. I felt more like I was reading a thesis than reading an essay about the album (which is how most books in the series feel).
I'm sure Danger Mouse is a busy man, but the book could have benefitted from also having some of his thoughts and ideas about the album

[Simon Sweetman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A smart assessment of an important album - looks at the music, its timing within the crumbling/changing of an industry and the context around it as an album built from the parts of other albums; as a legitimate - authentic - work.