Beach Boys/Geto Boys

2004, 4:13 min, color, sound

Continuing his investigation into the intersection of culture and technology in the context of the hand-made, here Arcangel explores the "mash-up," in which music fans digitally merge two songs to create unexpected hybrids. Arcangel's experiment pushes this practice into the realm of absurdity, pairing wildly different tracks based on the similarity of their bands' names. Juxtaposing original live performance footage of the Beach Boys with a contemporary music video by the rap group Geto Boys, Arcangel calls attention not only to divergent readings and identifications, but also to the qualities shared by this American pop cultural material.