Turn it up to 11: tech's contributions to rock and roll

Many of rock's greatest moments hinge on shifts in music technology. Here is a chronology of some of the highlights.

Mashups: The Grey Album (2004)



Making music is one thing. Making music from other music is something else — especially when it the sources are as varied as the Beatles and rap king Jay-Z. Yet that's exactly what Brian "Danger Mouse" Burton did with "The Grey Album," his seamless mashup of The Beatles' White Album with a cappella tracks from Jay-Z's Black Album. (The image above is a promotional poster, not the actual album cover, which consisted of an understated gray square).

The result was music to the ears of rock and rap fans alike, but one party was less enthusiastic: EMI, the Beatles' copyright holder, immediately ordered all retailers to stop selling the album. Music heads across the Internet rose up in response, and on Grey Tuesday a number of Web sites posted copies of "The Grey Album" for 24 hours, arguing that Danger Mouse's sampling was covered under fair use regulations.

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