Girl Talk 11/22 contract

[manny at garfieldartworks.com]

Wrong.

First of all, Girl Talk doesn't get paid that much. I mean the conductor
of the Pittsburgh Symphony gets paid probably around the amount that Girl
Talk does, per concert. And why is the conductor there? Just as much for
celebrity, because they could pay a local guy to conduct the symphony
instead, but they cannot pay a local guy in each city to create what Girl
Talk does because what Girl Talk does is still fairly unique (or at least
still unequalled).

Real celebrity is worth millions. Like when you find out how much  Tom
Cruise commands per movie, when someone else could fill his role for 1/10
of that, that's what celebrity is worth. Girl Talk can't be compared to
that when he gets $2000 or so per gig. You could say that's what a D-list
celeb might get paid, but then I think even Kathy Griffin gets more :)

The real cultural comment is how much DJs get paid for their celebrity,
when they do not even play their own music. DJs in the goth scene, as
well, get paid for playing other people's music, am I right? it is true
that the obsession with 'celebrity culture' is to some extent what is
fueling the interest in Girl Talk, which is an interesting postmodern
commentary considering that he uses
the samples of musical celebrities in his music, and he does not deny the
value of celebrity appearances like getting a photo taken with Paris
Hilton, but Girl Talk himself is not a DJ, so just because people think he
is a DJ and treat him as one - i.e. they make him into a celebrity -
doesn't mean his live performance is invalid.

The music that Girl Talk plays (and in fact uses buttons at the show to
change, so it is not just pressing play) is his own creation. albeit
created out of thousands of samples of others. Gregg does not get paid an
'appearance fee', he gets paid a performance fee because he performs.

You would not deny Skinny Puppy the right to sample from Bladerunner so
how is this any different, other than the fact that the invention of the
laptop makes it easy for a single person to go out and perform electronic
music? (you longer have to go out with racks of synths and banks of
keyboards like back in 1987)

> FWIW, the behavior surrounding Girl Talk is kind of interesting in
> that it's sort of a one-off experiment in the value of celebrity. I
> mean, when someone hires Girl Talk to show up, they're hiring him to
> arrive with his laptop and press play on one of his albums, which is
> something anyone could do for themselves. But the thing is, they don't
> want to do it themselves, they want Girl Talk to do it. They're paying
> for celebrity in isolation.
>
> So, if you ever wonder how much celebrity is worth, find out how much
> Girl Talk gets paid, and that's your answer.
>
>
> On Wed, Oct 22, 2008 at 5:54 PM, Christopher tm <xopher.tm at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>> On Wed, Oct 22, 2008 at 5:43 PM, Jeremy <epistemology at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> Girl Talk is fun. I have a Girl Talk album. But, I don't know if you
>>> can call what he does "performing music." Here's a video of Girl Talk
>>> live http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QZWYHj7fZQ
>>
>> The last five minutes of my life. Give them back to me.
>>
>> --
>> Christopher™
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