Postmodern music investigation.

2. ARTIST INTRODUCTION
JUSTICE are a duo from France consisting of Gaspard Michel Andre
Augé and Xavier de Rosnay. Their music is predominantly electronic,
however it also branches out into electronic dance, alternative rock and
nu-disco (dance music associated with a renewed interest in 1970s and 1980s disco, Italo disco
and French House).
They first produced tracks for Musclorvision’s “Hits Up to You”, a
concept compilation intended to sound like Eurovision song contest
entries. However, their break came with their remix of Simian’s track
“Never Be Alone” in 2003 (more commonly known as “We Are Your
Friends”)
They have since worked on remixes for mainstream artists such as
Britney Spears, Fatboy Slim and Daft Punk.

4. INTERTEXTUAL REFERENCES
JUSTICE earned the genre label of nu-disco due to their sampling of
70s and 80s disco/funk such as “Sunny” by Boney M, “I Wanna Be Your
Lover” by Prince, “You Make Me Wanna Wiggle” by The Brothers
Johnson and a song by David Shire from the film soundtrack to
“Saturday Night Fever”.
However, they have also sampled from a wide selection of genres –
some seemingly unexpected. Their track “Newjack” from their first
album includes a direct sample of an Apple sound effect named
“Computer Data 03.aif”. Other samples include hooks and lyric
interpolations from “Me Against The Music” by Britney Spears, a
sample from 50 Cent’s “In Da Club”, and riffs from “Baba O’Riley” by
the Who and “Ice In The Sun” by Status Quo.

6. HOMAGE / PARODY
Their second album, “Audio, Video, Disco”, is electronic but has clearly
been heavily influenced by 70s rock. JUSTICE sample The Who,
Status Quo and Iggy Pop in this album – and even their album cover
resembles The Who’s cover for their 1971 album “Who’s Next”.
JUSTICE’s tour documentary, A Cross The Universe, shows snippets of
the duo behaving like a true 70s rock’n’roll band which admittedly (as
they say themselves in an interview with The Guardian in 2011) “cannot
be taken seriously”, however their purpose of creating it was to pay
homage to great rock artists of the 70s such as those named above.
In 2004 the band remixed Simian’s track “Never Be Alone” and
released it under the title “We Are Your Friends”. However, James Ford
of Simian was not impressed by the remix and described it as “midi
jazz”. The track is named JUSTICE vs Simian, which could represent
the opposing ideas of the collaboration of the two artists. Although it
appears that the sampling of Simian’s chorus was purely homage to the
band, the title implies a conflict between them and therefore appears to
parody the original artist/track.

7. HOMAGE / PARODY
Audio, Video, Disco
JUSTICE
Who’s Next
The Who

9. BRICOLAGE
Genres sampled by JUSTICE include:
- Pop
- Electronic
- Hip hop/rap
- Soul/funk
- Disco
- Classical
- Film music
- Sound effects
- R&B
- Rock
The genres sampled vary greatly from each other, however when modified
they mash together to create predominantly electronic music with obvious
influences from dance, disco and rock.

11. PERFORMANCE
JUSTICE have a DJ set-up when performing live. Although they do not
themselves “perform”, they are renowned for dressing their stage with
stacks of amps and using strong lighting to set the mood for their ‘hardcore
electronic’ set. The lighting always represents the symbol of a cross , which
is the emblem of their band and occurs throughout their merchandise,
videos, album artwork and band logo (it is also the title of their first album).
Though JUSTICE have few videos to accompany their music, those they
do have all include their iconic cross. In their 2008 video for track “Stress”,
youths wearing the cross logo on their backs are filmed harassing and
assaulting the public. The video received many negative comments, one
being “maybe this is post-modern media criticism, but I just don't get it —
what's the point of showing pointless violence?“ and others more recently
emphasizing its eerie resemblance to the London riots in 2011. The band’s
record label Because Music released a statement claiming the video was
"a parody of the way the major television channels treat the news.“ and
JUSTICE themselves said they wished to create a video which was
“unairable on television” just as the song was “unairable on radio”.

13. INFLUENCE
JUSTICE are at the forefront of French electronic/dance music,
however they have had plenty of influence from others on the French
electronic scene. These artists include: Daft Punk, Air and Cassius.
Other influential artists are The Chemical Brothers, Fatboy Slim and
Basement Jaxx.
However, it is not only electronic artists that they have taken inspiration
from/paid homage to. Particularly in their second studio album, clear
rock influences can be heard and artists they have admired include
New Order, The Who, Status Quo and Iggy Pop.