Negativland, Culture Jamming, and the Art of Making Something New

In 1980, Negativland released its first self-titled album with handmade covers and distributed it through a few record stores in the California Bay Area.

“We thought we might sell 100 in the next five years, and we sold all 500 in three months. So we kept going,” said band co-founder Mark Hosler of the experimental sound collage record, which eventually sold 15,000 copies. “We were shocked that people were interested in something so strange.”

Hosler started the group with David Wills and Richard Lyons, but the Negativland lineup has changed, and the range of its work expanded over 46 years.

The multimedia collective has produced more than 30 albums and EPs, as well as fine art, books, radio and live performances that mix found and original material. The band came up with the phrase “culture jamming” to describe its approach to layering art from various sources..