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A remix (or reorchestration) is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, poem, or photograph can all be remixes. The only characteristic of a remix is that it appropriates and changes other materials to create something new.

Most commonly, remixes are a subset of audio mixing in music and song recordings. Songs may be remixed for a large variety of reasons:

• to adapt or revise a song for radio or nightclub play
• to create a stereo or surround sound version of a song where none was previously available
• to improve the fidelity of an older song for which the original master has been lost or degraded
• to alter a song to suit a specific music genre or radio format
• to use some of the original song's materials in a new context, allowing the original song to reach a different audience
• to alter a song for artistic purposes
• to provide additional versions of a song for use as bonus tracks or for a B-side, for example, in times when a CD single might carry a total of 4 tracks
• to create a connection between a smaller artist and a more successful one, as was the case with Fatboy Slim's remix of "Brimful of Asha" by Cornershop
• to improve the first or demo mix of the song, generally to ensure a professional product.
• to improve a song from its original state

Remixes should not be confused with edits, which usually involve shortening a final stereo master for marketing or broadcasting purposes. Another distinction should be made between a remix, which recombines audio pieces from a recording to create an altered version of a song, and a cover: a re-recording of someone else's song.

While audio mixing is one of the most popular and recognized forms of remixing, this is not the only media form which is remixed in numerous examples. Literature, film, technology, and social systems can all be argued as a form of remix.^[1]

Origins[edit]

Since the beginnings of recorded sound in the late 19th century, technology has enabled people to rearrange the normal listening experience. With the advent of easily editable magnetic tape in the 1940s and 1950s and the subsequent development of multitrack recording, such alterations became more common. In those decades the experimental genre of musique concrète used tape manipulation to create sound compositions. Less artistically lofty edits produced medleys or novelty recordings of various types.

Modern remixing had its roots in the dance hall culture of late-1960s and early-1970s Jamaica. The fluid evolution of music that encompassed ska, rocksteady, reggae and dub was embraced by local music mixers who deconstructed and rebuilt tracks to suit the tastes of their audience. Producers and engineers like Ruddy Redwood, King Tubby and Lee "Scratch" Perry popularized stripped-down instrumental mixes (which they called "versions") of reggae tunes. At first, they simply dropped the vocal tracks, but soon more sophisticated effects were created, dropping separate instrumental tracks in and out of the mix, isolating and repeating hooks, and adding various effects like echo, reverberation and delay. The German krautrock band Neu! also used other effects on side two of their album Neu! 2 by manipulating their previously released single Super/Neuschnee multiple ways, utilizing playback at different turntable speeds or mangling by using a cassette recorder.

From the mid-1970s, DJs in early discothèques were performing similar tricks with disco songs (using loops and tape edits) to get dancers on the floor and keep them there. One noteworthy figure was Tom Moulton who invented the dance remix as we now know it. Though not a DJ (a popular misconception), Moulton had begun his career by making a homemade mix tape for a Fire Island dance club in the late 1960s. His tapes eventually became popular and he came to the attention of the music industry in New York City. At first, Moulton was simply called upon to improve the aesthetics of dance-oriented recordings before release ("I didn't do the remix, I did the mix"—Tom Moulton). Eventually, he moved from being a "fix it" man on pop records to specializing in remixes for the dance floor. Along the way, he invented the breakdown section and the 12-inch single vinyl format. Walter Gibbons provided the dance version of the first commercial 12-inch single ("Ten Percent", by Double Exposure). Contrary to popular belief, Gibbons did not mix the record. In fact his version was a re-edit of the original mix. Moulton, Gibbons and their contemporaries (Jim Burgess, Tee Scott, and later Larry Levan and Shep Pettibone) at Salsoul Records proved to be the most influential group of remixers for the disco era. The Salsoul catalog is seen (especially in the UK and Europe) as being the "canon" for the disco mixer's art form. Pettibone is among a very small number of remixers whose work successfully transitioned from the disco to the House era. (He is certainly the most high-profile remixer to do so.) His contemporaries included Arthur Baker and François Kevorkian.

Contemporaneously to disco in the mid-1970s, the dub and disco remix cultures met through Jamaican immigrants to the Bronx, energizing both and helping to create hip-hop music. Key figures included, DJ Kool Herc and Grandmaster Flash. Cutting (alternating between duplicate copies of the same record) and scratching (manually moving the vinyl record beneath the turntable needle) became part of the culture, creating what Slate magazine called "real-time, live-action collage." One of the first mainstream successes of this style of remix was the 1983 track Rockit by Herbie Hancock, as remixed by Grand Mixer D.ST. Malcolm McLaren and the creative team behind ZTT Records would feature the "cut up" style of hip hop on such records as "Duck Rock". English duo Coldcut's remix of Eric B. & Rakim's "Paid in Full" Released in October 1987 is said to have "laid the groundwork for hip hop's entry into the UK mainstream".^[2] Dorian Lynskey of The Guardian named it a "benchmark remix" and placed it in his top ten list of remixes.^[3] The Coldcut remix "Seven Minutes of Madness" became one of the first commercially successful remixes, becoming a top fifteen hit in countries such as Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.^[4][5][6][7]

History[edit]

Scott Brown - "Elysium" (1999)

29 second sample from Scott Brown's "Elysium" - original.

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Early pop remixes were fairly simple; in the 1980s, "extended mixes" of songs were released to clubs and commercial outlets on vinyl 12-inch singles. These typically had a duration of six to seven minutes, and often consisted of the original song with 8 or 16 bars of instruments inserted, often after the second chorus; some were as simplistic as two copies of the song stitched end to end. As the cost and availability of new technologies allowed, many of the bands who were involved in their own production (such as Yellow Magic Orchestra, Depeche Mode, New Order, Erasure, and Duran Duran) experimented with more intricate versions of the extended mix. Madonna began her career writing music for dance clubs and used remixes extensively to propel her career; one of her early boyfriends was noted DJ John "Jellybean" Benitez, who created several mixes of her work.

Art of Noise took the remix styles to an extreme—creating music entirely of samples. They were among the first popular groups to truly harness the potential that had been unleashed by the synthesizer-based compositions of electronic musicians such as Kraftwerk, Yellow Magic Orchestra, Giorgio Moroder, and Jean-Michel Jarre. Contemporaneous to Art of Noise was the seminal body of work by Yello (composed, arranged and mixed by Boris Blank). Primarily because they featured sampled and synthesized sounds, Yello and Art of Noise would produce a great deal of influential work for the next phase. Others such as Cabaret Voltaire and the aforementioned Jarre (whose Zoolook was an epic usage of sampling and sequencing) were equally influential in this era.

After the rise of dance music in the late 1980s, a new form of remix was popularised, where the vocals would be kept and the instruments would be replaced, often with matching backing in the house music idiom. Jesse Saunders, known as The Originator of House Music, was the first producer to change the art of remixing by creating his own original music, entirely replacing the earlier track, then mixing back in the artist's original lyrics to make his remix. He introduced this technique for the first time with the Club Nouveau song "It's a Cold, Cold World", in May 1988. Another clear example of this approach is Roberta Flack's 1989 ballad "Uh-Uh Ooh-Ooh Look Out (Here It Comes)", which Chicago House great Steve "Silk" Hurley dramatically reworked into a boisterous floor-filler by stripping away all the instrumental tracks and substituting a minimalist, sequenced "track" to underpin her vocal delivery, remixed for the UK release which reached No1 pop by Simon Harris. The art of the remix gradually evolved, and soon more avant-garde artists such as Aphex Twin were creating more experimental remixes of songs (relying on the groundwork of Cabaret Voltaire and the others), which varied radically from their original sound and were not guided by pragmatic considerations such as sales or "danceability", but were created for "art's sake".

In the 1990s, with the rise of powerful home computers with audio capabilities came the mash-up, an unsolicited, unofficial (and often legally dubious) remix created by "underground remixers" who edit two or more recordings (often of wildly different songs) together. Girl Talk is perhaps the most famous of this movement, creating albums using sounds entirely from other music and cutting it into his own. Underground mixing is more difficult than the typical official remix because clean copies of separated tracks such as vocals or individual instruments are usually not available to the public. Some artists (such as Björk, Nine Inch Nails, and Public Enemy) embraced this trend and outspokenly sanctioned fan remixing of their work; there was once a web site which hosted hundreds of unofficial remixes of Björk's songs, all made using only various officially sanctioned mixes. Other artists, such as Erasure, have included remix software in their officially released singles, enabling almost infinite permutations of remixes by users. The band has also presided over remix competitions for their releases, selecting their favourite fan-created remix to appear on later official releases.

Remixing has become prevalent in heavily synthesized electronic and experimental music circles. Many of the people who create cutting-edge music in such genres as synthpop and aggrotech are solo artists or pairs. They will often use remixers to help them with skills or equipment that they do not have. Artists such as Chicago-based Delobbo, Dallas-based LehtMoJoe, and Russian DJ Ram, who has worked with t.A.T.u., are sought out for their remixing skill and have impressive lists of contributions. It is not uncommon for industrial bands to release albums that have remixes as half of the songs. Indeed, there have been popular singles that have been expanded to an entire album of remixes by other well-known artists.

Some industrial groups allow, and often encourage, their fans to remix their music, notably Nine Inch Nails, whose website contains a list of downloadable songs that can be remixed using Apple's GarageBand software. Some artists have started releasing their songs in the U-MYX format, which allows buyers to mix songs and share them on the U-MYX website.

Some radio stations, such as the UK's "Frisk Radio". {{cite magazine}}: Cite magazine requires |magazine= (help) make extensive use of Remixes in their formats to create a hotter, more up-beat sound than their market rivals.

In popular music[edit]

Recent technology allows for easier remixing, leading to a rise in its use in the music industry.^[10] It can be done legally, but there have been numerous disputes over rights to samples used in remixed songs. Many famous artists have been involved in remix disputes. In 2015, Jay-Z went to trial over a dispute about his use of a sample from "Khosara Khosara", a composition by Egyptian composer Baligh Hamdy in his song "Big Pimpin'". Osama Fahmy, a nephew of Hamdy, argued that while Jay-Z had the "economic rights" to use the song, he did not have the "moral rights".^[11]

In 1988, Sinéad O'Connor's art-rock song "I Want Your (Hands on Me)" was remixed to emphasize the urban appeal of the composition (the original contains a tight, grinding bassline and a rhythm guitar not entirely unlike Chic's work). In 1989, the Cure's "Pictures of You" was remixed turning "the music on its head, twisted the beat completely, but at the same time left the essential heart of the song intact."^[12]

Remixes have become the norm in contemporary dance music, giving one song the ability to appeal across many different musical genres or dance venues. Such remixes often include "featured" artists, adding new vocalists or musicians to the original mix. The remix is also widely used in hip hop and rap music. An R&B remix usually has the same music as the original song but has added or altered verses that are rapped or sung by the featured artists. It usually contains some if not all of the original verses of the song however they may be arranged in a different order than they originally were.

In the early 1990s, Mariah Carey became one of the first mainstream artists who re-recorded vocals for a dancefloor version, and by 1993 most of her major dance and urban-targeted versions had been re-sung, e.g. "Dreamlover". Some artists would contribute new or additional vocals for the different versions of their songs. These versions were not technically remixes, as entirely new productions of the material were undertaken (the songs were "re-cut", usually from the ground up). Carey worked with producer Puff Daddy to create the official Bad Boy remix of "Fantasy".^[13] The Bad Boy remix features background vocals by Puff Daddy and rapping by Ol' Dirty Bastard, the latter being of concern to Columbia who feared the sudden change in style would affect sales negatively.^[14] Some of the song's R&B elements were removed for the remix, while the bassline and "Genius of Love" sample were emphasized and the bridge from the original version was used as the chorus.^[13] There is a version omitting Ol' Dirty Bastard's verses.^[13] The "Bad Boy Fantasy Remix", combines the chorus from the original version and the chorus of the Bad Boy Remix together, removing Ol' Dirty Bastard's vocals from his second verse.^[13] Carey re-recorded vocals for club remixes of the song by David Morales, titled "Daydream Interlude (Fantasy Sweet Dub Mix)".^[15]

The Bad Boy remix garnered positive reviews from music critics. "Fantasy" exemplified how a music sample could be transformed "into a fully realized pop masterpiece".^[16] The song and its remix arguably remains as one of Carey's most important singles to date. Due to the song's commercial success, Carey helped popularize rapper as a featured act through her post-1995 songs.^[17] Sasha Frere-Jones, editor of The New Yorker commented in referencing to the song's remix: "It became standard for R&B/hip-hop stars like Missy Elliott and Beyoncé, to combine melodies with rapped verses. And young white pop stars—including Britney Spears, 'N Sync, and Christina Aguilera—have spent much of the past ten years making pop music that is unmistakably R&B."^[17] Moreover, Jones concludes that "Her idea of pairing a female songbird with the leading male MCs of hip-hop changed R&B and, eventually, all of pop. Although now anyone is free to use this idea, the success of "Mimi" [ref. to The Emancipation of Mimi, her tenth studio album released almost a decade after "Fantasy"] suggests that it still belongs to Carey."^[17] John Norris of MTV News has stated that the remix was "responsible for, I would argue, an entire wave of music that we've seen since and that is the R&B-hip-hop collaboration. You could argue that the 'Fantasy' remix was the single most important recording that she's ever made." Norris echoed the sentiments of TLC's Lisa Lopes, who told MTV that it's because of Mariah that we have "hip-pop."^[18] Judnick Mayard, writer of TheFader, wrote that in regarding of R&B and hip hop collaboration, "The champion of this movement is Mariah Carey."^[19] Mayard also expressed that "To this day ODB and Mariah may still be the best and most random hip hop collaboration of all time", citing that due to the record "Fantasy", "R&B and Hip Hop were the best of step siblings."^[19] In the 1998 film Rush Hour, Soo Yong is singing the song while it plays on the car radio, shortly before her kidnapping. In 2011, the experimental metal band Iwrestledabearonce used the song at the beginning and end of the video "You Know That Ain't Them Dogs' Real Voices". Indie artist Grimes has called "Fantasy" one of her favorite songs of all-time and has said Mariah is the reason there is a Grimes.^[20]

M.C. Lyte was asked to provide a "guest rap", and a new tradition was born in pop music. George Michael would feature three artistically differentiated arrangements of "I Want Your Sex" in 1987, highlighting the potential of "serial productions" of a piece to find markets and expand the tastes of listeners. In 1995, after doing "California Love", which proved to be his best selling single ever, Tupac Shakur would do its remix with Dr. Dre again featured, who originally wanted it for his next album, but relented to let it be on the album All Eyez on Me instead. This also included the reappearance of Roger Troutman, also from the original, but he ended the remix with an ad-lib on the outro. Mariah Carey's song "Heartbreaker" was remixed, containing lyrical interpolations and an instrumental sample from "Ain't No Fun (If the Homies Can't Have None)" by Snoop Dogg.^[21] A separate music video was filmed for the remix, shot in black and white and featuring a cameo appearance by Snoop. In 2001, Jessica Simpson released an urban remix of her song "Irresistible",^[22] featuring rappers Lil' Bow Wow and Jermaine Dupri, who also produced the track.^[23] It samples the Kool & the Gang's song "Jungle Boogie" (1973) and "Why You Treat Me So Bad" by Club Nouveau (1987).^[24]

Released on July 12, 1999, "Always You" remix by Jennifer Paige, reached number six on the Billboard Dance/Club Play chart.^[25]

The main single of "I Turn to You" by Melanie C was released as the "Hex Hector Radio Mix", for which Hex Hector won the 2001 Grammy as Remixer of the Year.^[26]

Another well-known example is R. Kelly, who recorded two different versions of "Ignition" for his 2003 album Chocolate Factory. The song is unique in that it segues from the end of the original to the beginning of the remixed version (accompanied by the line "Now usually I don't do this, but uh, go ahead on, break em' off with a little preview of the remix."). In addition, the original version's beginning line "You remind me of something/I just can't think of what it is" is actually sampled from an older Kelly song, "You Remind Me of Something". Kelly later revealed that he actually wrote "Ignition (remix)" before the purported original version of "Ignition", and created the purported original so that the chorus lyric in his alleged remix would make sense.^[27] Madonna's I'm Breathless featured a remix of "Now I'm Following You" that was used to segue from the original to "Vogue" so that the latter could be added to the set without jarring the listener.

In 2015, EDM artist Deadmau5, who worked with Jay-Z's Roc Nation, tried to sue his former manager for remixing his songs without permission, claiming that he gave his manager the go-ahead to use his work for some remixes, but not others. Deadmau5 wanted reimbursement for the remixes his manager made after they had severed ties, because he claimed it was his "moral right" to turn these future remixing opportunities away if he had wanted to. The two parties reached an agreement in 2016 that kept Play Records from making any new remixes.^[28][29]

50 Cent tried to sue rapper Rick Ross in October 2018 for remixing his "In da Club" beat, due to their publicized feud. However, a judge threw out the lawsuit claiming that 50 Cent did not have copyright on the beat, but rather it belonged to Shady/Aftermath Records.^[30]

Many hip-hop remixes arose either from the need for a pop/R&B singer to add more of an urban, rap edge to one of their slower songs, or from a rapper's desire to gain more pop appeal by collaborating with an R&B singer. Remixes can boost popularity of the original versions of songs.

Thanks to a combination of guest raps, re-sung or altered lyrics and alternative backing tracks, some hip-hop remixes can end up being almost entirely different songs from the originals. An example is the remix of "Ain't It Funny" by Jennifer Lopez, which has little in common with the original recording apart from the title.

Slow ballads and R&B songs can be remixed by techno producers and DJs in order to give the song appeal to the club scene and to urban radio. Conversely, a more uptempo number can be mellowed to give it "quiet storm" appeal. Frankie Knuckles saddled both markets with his Def Classic Mixes, often slowing the tempo slightly as he removed ornamental elements to soften the "attack" of a dancefloor filler. These remixes proved hugely influential, notably Lisa Stansfield's classic single "Change" would be aired by urban radio in the Knuckles version, which had been provided as an alternative to the original mix by Ian Devaney and Andy Morris, the record's producers. In the age of social media, anybody can make and upload a remix. The most popular apps for doing this are Instagram and YouTube.

Broader context[edit]

A remix may also refer to a non-linear re-interpretation of a given work or media other than audio such as a hybridizing process combining fragments of various works. The process of combining and re-contextualizing will often produce unique results independent of the intentions and vision of the original designer/artist. Thus the concept of a remix can be applied to visual or video arts, and even things farther afield. Mark Z. Danielewski's disjointed novel House of Leaves has been compared by some to the remix concept.

In literature[edit]

A remix in literature is an alternative version of a text. William Burroughs used the cut-up technique developed by Brion Gysin to remix language in the 1960s.^[31] Various textual sources (including his own) would be cut literally into pieces with scissors, rearranged on a page, and pasted to form new sentences, new ideas, new stories, and new ways of thinking about words.

"The Soft Machine" (1961) is a famous example of an early novel by Burroughs based on the cut-up technique. Remixing of literature and language is also apparent in Pixel Juice (2000) by Jeff Noon who later explained using different methods for this process with Cobralingus (2001).

In art[edit]

Babylon 5
Season 4 poster
Genre	Space opera Drama
Created by	J. Michael Straczynski
Starring	Bruce Boxleitner Michael O'Hare Claudia Christian Jerry Doyle Mira Furlan Richard Biggs Andrea Thompson Bill Mumy Jason Carter Tracy Scoggins Stephen Furst Patricia Tallman Peter Jurasik Andreas Katsulas Jeff Conaway Robert Rusler Caitlin Brown Mary Kay Adams
Composers	Christopher Franke Stewart Copeland (pilot)
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	5
No. of episodes	110 (+ 6 TV films) (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Douglas Netter J. Michael Straczynski
Cinematography	John C. Flinn III (102 episodes, 1994–1998) Fred V. Murphy (8 episodes, 1995–1998)
Running time	43-44 minutes [1]
Production companies	Babylonian Productions, Inc. Synthetic Worlds, Ltd. (pilot) Warner Bros. Television
Original release
Network	PTEN (1993–1997) TNT (1998)
Release	February 22, 1993 (1993-02-22) – November 25, 1998 (1998-11-25)
Related
Babylon 5: The Gathering The Legend of the Rangers The Lost Tales Crusade

Babylon 5 is an American space opera television series created by writer and producer J. Michael Straczynski, under the Babylonian Productions label, in association with Straczynski's Synthetic Worlds Ltd. and Warner Bros. Domestic Television. After the successful airing of a test pilot movie on February 22, 1993, Babylon 5: The Gathering, Warner Bros. commissioned the series for production in May 1993 as part of its Prime Time Entertainment Network (PTEN).^[2] The show premiered in the US on January 26, 1994, and ran for five 22-episode seasons.

The series follows the human military staff and alien diplomats stationed on a space station, Babylon 5, built in the aftermath of several major inter-species wars as a neutral ground for galactic diplomacy and trade. Major plotlines included intra-race intrigue and upheaval, inter-race wars and their aftermaths, and embroilment in a millennial cyclic conflict between ancient races. The human characters, in particular, become pivotal to the resistance against Earth's descent into totalitarianism.

Many episodes focused on the effect of wider events on individual characters, with episodes containing themes such as personal change, loss, oppression, corruption and redemption.

Unusual for American broadcast television at the time of its airing, Babylon 5 was conceived as a "novel for television" with a pre-planned five-year story arc, each episode envisioned as a "chapter".^[3] Whereas contemporaneous television shows tended to maintain the overall status quo, confining conflicts to individual episodes, Babylon 5 featured story arcs which spanned multiple episodes and even seasons, effecting permanent changes to the series universe.^[4][5] Tie-in novels, comic books, and short stories were also developed to play a significant canonical part in the overall story.^[6]

Straczynski announced plans for a reboot of the series in September 2021 in conjunction with Warner Bros. Television. An animated feature-length, direct-to-video film, Babylon 5: The Road Home, was released in August 2023.

Setting[edit]

The main Babylon 5 story arc occurs between the years 2257 and 2262. The show depicts a future where Earth has a unified Earth government and has gained the technology for faster-than-light travel using "jump gates", a kind of wormhole technology allowing transport through the alternate dimension of hyperspace. The Colonies within the Solar System and beyond make up the Earth Alliance, which has established contact with other spacefaring species. Ten years before the series is set, Earth barely escaped destruction by the technologically superior Minbari, who sought revenge after an Earth starship unwittingly killed their leader during first contact, only for them to unexpectedly surrender on the brink of victory. Earth has since established peaceful relationships with them and the Earth Alliance has become a significant and generally respected power within the galactic community.

Among the other species are the imperialist Centauri; the Narn, who only recently gained independence from the Centauri empire; and the mysterious, powerful Vorlons. Several dozen less powerful species from the League of Non-Aligned Worlds also have diplomatic contact with the major races, including the Drazi, Brakiri, Vree, Markab, and pak'ma'ra. An ancient and secretive race, the Shadows, unknown to humans but documented in many other races' religious texts, malevolently influence events to bring chaos and war among the known species. Among the chaos the Shadows cause is a Centauri descent into irredentism and Earth sliding into totalitarianism under President Morgan Clark.

The Babylon 5 space station is located in the Epsilon Eridani system, at the fifth Lagrangian point of the fictional planet Epsilon III and its moon.^[7] It is an O'Neill cylinder 5 miles (8.0 km) long and 0.5–1.0 mile (0.80–1.61 km) in diameter. The station is the last of its line; the first three stations were all destroyed during construction, while Babylon 4 was completed but mysteriously vanished shortly after being made operational.^[8] It contains living areas which accommodate various alien species, providing differing atmospheres and gravities. Human visitors to the alien sectors are shown using breathing equipment and other measures to tolerate the conditions.^[9]

Cast[edit]

Regular cast[edit]

Babylon 5 featured an ensemble cast which changed over the course of the show's run:

• Michael O'Hare as Commander (later Ambassador) Jeffrey Sinclair (season 1; guest seasons 2–3): The first commander of Babylon 5, later appointed Earth's ambassador to Minbar.
• Bruce Boxleitner as Captain (later President) John Sheridan (seasons 2–5): Sinclair's replacement on Babylon 5 after his reassignment and a central figure of several prophecies within the Shadow war. Becomes president of the newly formed Interstellar Alliance in season 5.
• Claudia Christian as Lt. Commander (later promoted to Commander) Susan Ivanova (seasons 1–4, guest season 5): Second in command of Babylon 5.
• Jerry Doyle as Michael Garibaldi: Babylon 5's Chief of Security for seasons 1-4; leads the covert intelligence arm of the Interstellar Alliance in season 5.
• Mira Furlan as Delenn: The Minbari ambassador to Babylon 5. Born Minbari, she uses a special artifact at the start of the second season to become a Minbari-human hybrid, and later marries Captain Sheridan.
• Richard Biggs as Doctor Stephen Franklin: Babylon 5's chief medical officer.
• Andrea Thompson as Talia Winters (season 1–2): A commercial Psi-Corps telepath who works aboard the station.
• Stephen Furst as Vir Cotto: Diplomatic aide to Centauri Ambassador Londo Mollari.
• Bill Mumy as Lennier: Diplomatic aide to Minbari Ambassador Delenn.
• Tracy Scoggins as Captain Elizabeth Lochley (season 5): Babylon 5's station commander following Ivanova's departure and Sheridan's resignation.
• Jason Carter as Marcus Cole (seasons 3–4): A Ranger, one of a group of covert agents who fight against the Shadows.
• Caitlin Brown (season 1, guest season 5) and Mary Kay Adams (season 2) as Na'Toth: Diplomatic aide to Narn Ambassador G'Kar.
• Robert Rusler as Warren Keffer (season 2): Commander of the Zeta Wing, one of Babylon 5's small fighter wings.
• Jeff Conaway as Zack Allan (guest season 2, main seasons 3–5): A sergeant in the Babylon 5 security force, replaces Garibaldi as Chief of Security by season 5.
• Patricia Tallman as Lyta Alexander (original TV movie, guest seasons 2–3, main seasons 4–5): A commercial Psi-Corps telepath who takes over for Talia when she leaves the station.
• Andreas Katsulas as G'Kar: The Narn ambassador to Babylon 5.
• Peter Jurasik as Londo Mollari: The Centauri ambassador to Babylon 5.

Recurring guests[edit]

• Wayne Alexander as Lorien: An alien of unknown origin that comes to Sheridan's aid after a critical moment in the Shadow War
• Ardwight Chamberlain (voice) /Jeffery Willerth (in the encounter-suit) as Kosh Naranek, the Vorlon ambassador to Babylon 5
• Tim Choate as Zathras, an alien of unknown origins that is central to the disappearance of Babylon 4
• Joshua Cox as Lt. David Corwin, a technician in Babylon 5's Command and Control center
• David L. Crowley as Ofc. Lou Welch, a member of the Babylon 5 security staff
• Robin Atkin Downes as Byron, a rogue telepath
• William Forward^[10] as Lord Antono Refa, a colleague of Ambassador Mollari who has his own designs on the Centauri throne.
• Robert Foxworth as General William Hague, the officer overseeing military operations related to Babylon 5
• Denise Gentile as Lise Hampton, a former romantic interest for Michael Garibaldi during his time on the Mars colony
• Melissa Gilbert as Anna Sheridan, Captain Sheridan's wife. The first appearance of Anna Sheridan was portrayed by Beth Toussaint in a recorded message.
• Lenore Kasdorf as a reporter for the Interstellar News (ISN) network
• Walter Koenig as Alfred Bester, a senior officer of Psi-Corps who considers non-telepaths to be inferior
• Wortham Krimmer as Centauri Emperor Cartagia
• Damian London as Regent Virini, a member of the Centauri court under Emperor Cartagia
• Leigh McCloskey as Thomas
• Marjorie Monaghan as Number One / Tessa Holloran, the leader of the Mars resistance
• Julia Nickson-Soul as Catherine Sakai, a commercial explorer and Commander Sinclair's love interest
• Jim Norton as Ombuds Wellington, a judge aboard Babylon 5
• John Schuck as Draal (younger), Delenn's teacher and friend from Minbar that becomes part of the Great Machine buried within Epsilon III
• Louis Turenne as Brother Theo, the leader of a group of Roman Catholic monks living aboard Babylon 5.
• John Vickery as Neroon, a member of the Minbari warrior caste that replaced Delenn on the Grey Council following her transformation
• Ed Wasser as Morden, a human agent working for the Shadows
• Efrem Zimbalist Jr. as William Edgars, a wealthy businessman who controls much of the economy in the Mars colony

In addition, several other actors filled more than one minor role on the series. Kim Strauss played the Drazi Ambassador in four episodes, as well as nine other characters in ten more episodes.^[11] Some actors had difficulty dealing with the application of prosthetics required to play some of the alien characters. The producers therefore used the same group of people (as many as 12) in various mid-level speaking roles, taking full head and body casts from each. The group came to be unofficially known by the production as the "Babylon 5 Alien Rep Group."^[12]

Synopsis[edit]

The five seasons of the series each correspond to one fictional sequential year in the period 2258–2262. Each season shares its title with an episode that is central to that season's plot.

Pilot film (1993)[edit]

In the pilot film, Babylon 5: The Gathering, the Vorlon ambassador Kosh is nearly killed by an assassin shortly after arriving at the station. Jeffrey Sinclair, the commander of Babylon 5, is named as the prime suspect, but is proven to have been framed.

Season 1: Signs and Portents (1994)[edit]

Commander Sinclair, a hero of the Minbari war, is troubled by his inability to remember events of the war's last day. Though supported by Minbari ambassador Delenn, who is secretly a member of the Minbari ruling Grey Council, other Minbari remain distrustful of him. The Narn ambassador G'Kar continually presses for concessions from their former overlords the Centauri Republic. Centauri ambassador Londo Mollari finds a new ally in the enigmatic Mr. Morden to strike back at the Narn. Meanwhile, xenophobic groups on Earth challenge humanity's tolerance of aliens. This tension culminates in the assassination of Earth's President Santiago, who favored such contact.

Season 2: The Coming of Shadows (1994–1995)[edit]

Sinclair is transferred to be ambassador to Minbar, and General Hague assigns captain John Sheridan command of the station. Hague and Sheridan believe now-president Clark conspired in Santiago's death but have no proof. Clark gradually moves Earth in an isolationist direction and takes steps to install a totalitarian government. When the aging Centauri Emperor Turhan dies, Mollari and his ally Lord Refa install Turhan's unstable nephew Cartagia as emperor and force a war against the Narn. Aided by Mr. Morden's "associates" the Shadows, the Centauri decimate the Narn. The war ends with a planetary bombardment of the Narn homeworld, followed by the enslavement of the surviving Narns. Delenn and Vorlon ambassador Kosh request Sheridan's help to fight against their ancient foe, the Shadows.

Season 3: Point of No Return (1995–1996)[edit]

Sheridan and Delenn establish a "conspiracy of light" to fight the influence of the Shadows. When Clark declares martial law, Sheridan declares Babylon 5's independence from the Earth government. Mollari realizes his deal with Mr. Morden has become dangerous but is unable to end it. As the Shadows cause conflict and chaos throughout the galaxy, Sheridan confronts Kosh and successfully convinces the Vorlons to provide military assistance. In retaliation for Vorlon intervention, the Shadows assassinate Kosh. Sinclair travels back in time a thousand years to aid the Minbari in the previous Shadow War, becoming the legendary Minbari religious leader Valen. Sheridan discovers vulnerabilities in the Shadow vessels and learns to predict their objectives, leading to the first major military defeat of the Shadows. Despite Kosh's warnings, Sheridan confronts the Shadows on their homeworld Z'ha'dum. He crashes a spacecraft packed with nuclear weapons into the planet, seemingly dying in the explosion.

Season 4: No Surrender, No Retreat (1996–1997)[edit]

Sheridan is rescued from Z'ha'dum by the mysterious Lorien. With the Shadows in retreat, the Vorlons begin destroying any planet allied with or influenced by the Shadows. Mollari overthrows the mad emperor Cartagia with the aid of G'Kar in exchange for the liberation of the Narn from Centauri rule. Mollari betrays the Shadows in order to save the Centauri homeworld from the Vorlons. Sheridan realizes the Vorlons and Shadows have used the younger races in a proxy war, and convinces both sides to permanently end their conflict and to leave the younger races alone in peace. Sheridan next refocuses on returning democracy to Earth. He forges a new Interstellar Alliance along with the Minbari, Centauri, and Narn governments. With their help, Sheridan is able to win the Earth civil war and forces President Clark out of office. Sheridan is forced to resign from the Earth military, but is named president of the Interstellar Alliance.

Season 5: The Wheel of Fire (1998)[edit]

An ex-lover of Sheridan's, Elizabeth Lochley, is assigned to command the station. A group of rogue human telepaths take sanctuary on the station, seeking Sheridan's aid to escape the control of Psi Corps, the autocratic Earth agency that oversees telepaths. The Interstellar Alliance refuses to grant them a planet of their own, and they are eventually expelled from the station. Meanwhile, the Drakh, former supporters of the Shadows, seek revenge for the Shadows' defeat. They infiltrate the Centauri government and orchestrate attacks against other Alliance members. Mollari attempts to purge the alien manipulation of his government but is too late. After a devastating attack by Alliance forces on Centauri Prime, Mollari is installed as emperor, but under Drakh control. He then withdraws the Centauri from the Interstellar Alliance. Twenty years later, Sheridan has a last reunion with his friends before leaving to join Lorien and the older races "beyond the rim".

Spin-offs and television movies[edit]

Main article:

Posted on February 29, 2008

Green Day #3

Green Day theme by R2_Joe

Download: GreenDay_3.p3t

(7 backgrounds)

American rock band

"Sweet Children" redirects here. For their EP, see Sweet Children (EP).

Not to be confused with Greenery Day.

Green Day
(L–R): Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt, and Tré Cool performing in June 2022
Background information
Also known as	Blood Rage (1987)[1] Sweet Children (1987–1989, 2015) Blair Hess (1993)[2]
Origin	Rodeo, California[3]
Genres	Punk rock pop-punk alternative rock skate punk power pop
Discography	Discography songs
Years active	1987–present
Labels	Lookout Reprise Epitaph[4] Warner
Spinoffs	Pinhead Gunpowder The Network Foxboro Hot Tubs The Coverups The Longshot
Members	Billie Joe Armstrong Mike Dirnt Tré Cool
Past members	Raj Punjabi Sean Hughes John Kiffmeyer
Website	greenday.com

Green Day is an American rock band formed in Rodeo, California in 1987 by lead vocalist and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong and bassist and backing vocalist Mike Dirnt, with drummer Tré Cool joining in 1990. In 1994, their major-label debut Dookie, released through Reprise Records, became a breakout success and eventually shipped over 10 million copies in the U.S. Alongside fellow California punk bands Bad Religion, the Offspring, Rancid, NOFX, Pennywise and Social Distortion, Green Day is credited with popularizing mainstream interest in punk rock in the U.S.

Before taking its current name in 1989, the band was named Blood Rage, then Sweet Children. They were part of the late 1980s/early 1990s Bay Area punk scene that emerged from the 924 Gilman Street club in Berkeley, California. The band's early releases were with the independent record label Lookout! Records including their first album, 39/Smooth (1990). For most of the band's career, they have been a power trio^[5] with Cool, who replaced John Kiffmeyer in 1990 before the recording of the band's second studio album, Kerplunk (1991). Though the albums Insomniac (1995), Nimrod (1997) and Warning (2000) did not match the success of Dookie, they were still successful, with Insomniac and Nimrod reaching double platinum status, while Warning achieved gold. Green Day's seventh album, a rock opera called American Idiot (2004), found popularity with a younger generation, selling six million copies in the U.S. Their next album, 21st Century Breakdown, was released in 2009 and achieved the band's best chart performance. It was followed by a trilogy of albums, ¡Uno!, ¡Dos!, and ¡Tré!, released in September, November, and December 2012, respectively. The trilogy did not perform as well as expected commercially, in comparison to their previous albums, largely due to a lack of promotion and Armstrong entering rehab. They were followed by Revolution Radio (2016), which became their third to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, Father of All Motherfuckers (2020) and Saviors (2024).

In 2010, a stage adaptation of American Idiot debuted on Broadway. The musical was nominated for three Tony Awards: Best Musical, Best Scenic Design and Best Lighting Design, winning the latter two. The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2015, their first year of eligibility. Members of the band have collaborated on the side projects Pinhead Gunpowder, The Network, Foxboro Hot Tubs, The Longshot and The Coverups. They have also worked on solo careers.

Green Day has sold roughly 75 million records worldwide as of 2024,^[6] making them one of the best-selling music artists. The group has been nominated for 20 Grammy Awards and won five of them, with Best Alternative Album for Dookie, Best Rock Album for American Idiot and 21st Century Breakdown, Record of the Year for "Boulevard of Broken Dreams", and Best Musical Show Album for American Idiot: The Original Broadway Cast Recording.

History[edit]

Formation and Lookout! years (1987–1993)[edit]

Main articles: 39/Smooth and Kerplunk (album)

In 1987, friends and guitarists Billie Joe Armstrong and Mike Dirnt, 15 years old at the time, along with bassist Sean Hughes and drummer Raj Punjabi, a fellow student from Pinole Valley High School, formed band "Blood Rage", the name taken from the eponymous film, and played together in Raj's father's house garage at Rodeo, California; a few months later, the band renamed to Sweet Children.^[7][8][9] One of their first songs written together was "Best Thing in Town".^[10] The group's first live performance under the name Sweet Children took place on October 17, 1987, at Rod's Hickory Pit in Vallejo, California.^[11] In 1988, Armstrong and Dirnt began working with former Isocracy drummer John Kiffmeyer, also known as "Al Sobrante", who replaced original drummer Raj Punjabi.^[12] It was around this time that bassist Sean Hughes also left the band, causing Dirnt to switch from guitar to bass. Armstrong cites the band Operation Ivy (which featured Tim Armstrong and Matt Freeman, who would later contact Armstrong to fill in as a possible second guitarist for their band Rancid) as a major influence and a group that inspired him to form a band.^[13][14]

In 1988, Larry Livermore, owner of Lookout! Records, saw the band play an early show and signed them to his label.^[15] In April 1989, the band released its debut extended play, 1,000 Hours.^[16] Shortly before the EP's release, the group dropped the name Sweet Children; according to Livermore, this was done to avoid confusion with another local band, Sweet Baby.^[17] Sweet Children adopted the name Green Day, instead, due to the members' fondness for cannabis.^[18][19][20] The phrase "green day" was slang in the Bay Area, where the band originated, for spending a day doing nothing but smoking marijuana.^[21] Armstrong once admitted in 2001 that he considered it to be "the worst band name in the world".^[22]

Lookout! released Green Day's debut studio album, 39/Smooth in early 1990.^[23] Green Day recorded two extended plays later that year, Slappy and Sweet Children, the latter of which included older songs the band had recorded for the Minneapolis independent record label Skene! Records.^[24] In 1991, Lookout! Records re-released 39/Smooth as 1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours and added the songs from the band's first two EPs, Slappy and 1,000 Hours. In late 1990, shortly after the band's first nationwide tour, Kiffmeyer left the East Bay area to attend Humboldt State University in Arcata, California.^[11][25] The Lookouts' drummer Tré Cool began filling in temporarily and later permanently, an offer which Kiffmeyer "graciously accepted".^[26] The band went on tour for most of 1992 and 1993 and played a number of shows overseas in Europe.^[27] By then, the band's second studio album Kerplunk had sold 50,000 copies in the U.S.^[27] Green Day supported another California punk band, Bad Religion, as an opening act for their Recipe for Hate Tour for most of 1993.^[28]

Signing with Reprise Records and breakthrough success (1993–1995)[edit]

Main article: Dookie

"Basket Case"

Sample of "Basket Case", the seventh track and third single from Dookie, which was about Armstrong's panic attacks.

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"Longview"

"Longview", the fourth track on Dookie, was the band's debut single, and its music video was played frequently on MTV in late 1994.

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Kerplunk's underground success led to interest from major record labels and a bidding war to sign Green Day.^[29] The band eventually left Lookout! and signed with Reprise Records after attracting the attention of producer Rob Cavallo.^[30] The group was impressed by his work with fellow Californian band The Muffs and later remarked that Cavallo "was the only person we could talk to and connect with".^[30] Reflecting on this period, Armstrong told Spin magazine in 1999, "I couldn't go back to the punk scene, whether we were the biggest success in the world or the biggest failure … The only thing I could do was get on my bike and go forward."^[31] After signing with Reprise, the band began recording its major-label debut, Dookie. On September 3, 1993, Green Day played their last show at 924 Gilman under the pseudonym Blair Hess before being banned permanently because of their major label signing.^[2]

Recorded in three weeks and released in February 1994,^[32] Dookie became a commercial success, helped by extensive MTV airplay for the videos of the songs "Longview", "Basket Case", and "When I Come Around", all of which reached the number one position on the Modern Rock Tracks charts. The album went on to sell over 10 million copies in the US.^[33] At a performance on September 9, 1994, at Hatch Memorial Shell in Boston, mayhem broke out during the band's set (cut short to seven songs), and by the end of the rampage, 100 people were injured and 45 arrested.^[34] The band also joined the lineups of both the Lollapalooza festival and Woodstock '94, where at the latter the group started an infamous mud fight. During the concert, a security guard mistook bassist Mike Dirnt for a stage-invading fan and punched out some of his teeth.^[35] Viewed by millions by pay-per-view television, the Woodstock 1994 performance further aided Green Day's growing publicity and recognition.^[30] In 1995, Dookie won the Grammy Award for Best Alternative Album, and the band was nominated for nine MTV Video Music Awards, including Video of the Year.^[36][37] In the band's homestead of the East Bay following Dookie's success, the band felt a sense of hostility. Billie Joe Armstrong recalled aggressive glares and furtive whispers. The band's success would trickle onto other East Bay bands such as Jawbreaker, a local favorite of Armstrong's, which garnered accusations of selling out during a concert attended by Armstrong.^[38]

Middle years and decline in popularity (1995–2002)[edit]

Main articles: Insomniac (Green Day album), Nimrod (album), and Warning (Green Day album)

In 1995, a single entitled "J.A.R." for the Angus soundtrack was released and debuted at number one on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart.^{[39] [40]} The band's fourth studio album, Insomniac, was released in Fall 1995.^[41] Compared to the more melodic Dookie, Insomniac was a much darker and heavier response to the band's newfound popularity.^[30] The album opened to warm critical reception, earning 4 of 5 stars from Rolling Stone, which said "In punk, the good stuff unfolds and gains meaning as you listen without sacrificing any of its electric, haywire immediacy. And Green Day are as good as this stuff gets."^[42] The singles released from Insomniac were "Geek Stink Breath", "Stuck with Me", "Brain Stew/Jaded", and "Walking Contradiction".

Though the album did not approach the success of Dookie, it sold three million copies in the United States.^[43] The album earned the band award nominations for Favorite Artist, Favorite Hard Rock Artist, and Favorite Alternative Artist at the 1996 American Music Awards, and the video for "Walking Contradiction" earned the band nominations for Best Video, Short Form, at the Grammy's, in addition to Best Special Effects at the MTV Video Music Awards. After that, the band abruptly canceled a European tour, citing exhaustion.^[44]

Following a brief hiatus in 1996, Green Day began work on its next album in 1997. From the outset, Cavallo and the band agreed the album had to be different from Green Day's previous albums.^[45] The result was Nimrod, an experimental deviation from the band's standard melodic punk rock.^[46] The album was released in October 1997 and provided a variety of music, from punk, pop, hardcore, folk, surf rock, ska, to the acoustic ballad "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)".^[47][48][46] Nimrod entered the charts at Number 10. The mainstream success of "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" won the band an MTV Video Award for Best Alternative Video.^[49] The song was used in the second clip show episode of Seinfeld and two episodes of ER.^[48] The other singles released from Nimrod were "Nice Guys Finish Last", "Hitchin' a Ride", and "Redundant".^[50][51] The band made a guest appearance in an episode of King of the Hill in 1997.^[52] In late 1997 and most of 1998, Green Day embarked on a tour in support of Nimrod.^[53][54] In 1999, Jason White began supporting the band during concerts as guitarist.^[55]

In 2000, Green Day released their folk-punk-inspired sixth studio album Warning and, in support, participated in that year's Warped Tour.^[56] In November 2000, in a show produced by Ian Brennan, the band performed for free on the steps on San Francisco's City Hall to protest the eviction of artists from the city.^[57] The band also launched an independent tour to support the album Warning in 2001. Critics' reviews of the album were varied.^[58] AllMusic gave it 4.5/5, saying, "Warning may not be an innovative record per se, but it's tremendously satisfying."^[59] Rolling Stone was more critical, giving it 3/5 and saying, "Warning … invites the question: Who wants to listen to songs of faith, hope and social commentary from what used to be snot core's biggest-selling band?"^[60] Though it produced the hit "Minority" and smaller hit "Warning", some observers were coming to the conclusion that the band was losing relevance,^[58] and a decline in popularity followed. While all of Green Day's previous albums had reached at least triple platinum sales, Warning was only certified gold.^[61]

At the 2001 California Music Awards, Green Day won all eight of the awards for which it was nominated.^[62] The group won awards for Outstanding Album (Warning), Outstanding Punk Rock/Ska Album (Warning), Outstanding Group, Outstanding Male Vocalist, Outstanding Bassist, Outstanding Drummer, Outstanding Songwriter, and Outstanding Artist.^[63]

The release of two compilation albums, International Superhits! and Shenanigans, followed Warning.^[64][65] International Superhits! had a companion collection of music videos entitled International Supervideos!^[66] Shenanigans contained collected B-sides including "Espionage", which was featured in the film Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me and nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance.^[62]

In Spring 2002, Green Day co-headlined the Pop Disaster Tour with Blink-182, documented on the DVD Riding in Vans with Boys.^[67]

American Idiot and renewed success (2003–2006)[edit]

Main article: American Idiot

"American Idiot"

"American Idiot" from American Idiot. The song was nominated for four Grammy awards in 2005.

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In Summer 2003, the band wrote and recorded material for an album tentatively titled Cigarettes and Valentines.^[68] After completing 20 tracks, the master recordings were stolen from the studio. Instead of re-recording the stolen tracks, the band decided to abandon the entire project and start over, considering the taken material to be unrepresentative of the band's best work.^[69] It was then revealed that a band called The Network was signed to Armstrong's record label Adeline Records with little fanfare and information.^[70][71] After the band, who concealed their identities with masks and costumes,^[72] released an album called Money Money 2020, it was rumored that The Network was a Green Day side project, due to similarities in the bands' sounds.^[73] However, these rumors were never addressed by the band or Adeline Records, except for a statement on the Adeline website discussing an ongoing dispute between the two bands.^[73] The bands "feuded" via press releases and statements from Armstrong.^[72][74] Several journalists openly referred to the group as a Green Day side project,^{[75][76][77][78]} although it was not confirmed