Steve Porter (producer)

Steve Porter (born c. 1978) is an American music video producer, remixer and DJ originally from Amherst, Massachusetts. He is best known for his pop-culture mashup remixes and studio work as a progressive house producer.

Steve Porter
Steve Porter DJing at the University Of Illinois
Background information
Birth nameStephen Porter
OriginAmherst, Massachusetts
GenresMashup, progressive house, EDM
Occupation(s)Disc jockey
Years active1999–present
LabelsPorterhouse Media
PH Recordings
Associated actsChris Fortier, Eli Wilkie
Websitehttp://djsteveporter.com

Porter began producing music while attending Williston Northampton School, and was discovered by Chris Fortier in 1999, when he was signed to Fortier's Fade Records. Since that time, he has toured as a DJ and has released remixes and original music. In 2009, Porter placed second in the DJ Times "America's Best DJ" poll. In the same year, Porter founded Porterhouse Media, an audio/visual marketing company that creates viral videos. Porter has won several awards for his videos, including two Webby Awards and one Daytime Emmy Award nomination.

Early life

Steve Porter was born in Amherst, Massachusetts, around 1978, the son of Catharine and Roger S. Porter. Catherine was an ombudsman at the University of Massachusetts Amherst,[1] and Roger founded the school's polymer science and engineering department.[2][3]

Porter was interested in sports from a young age, in part because of the NHLPA Hockey '93 video game for the Sega Genesis.[4] He attended Williston Northampton School, where he was part of a club for "budding DJs". He graduated from the school in the 1990s.[5]

Career

As a DJ, Porter was discovered by Chris Fortier and signed to his label, Fade Records.[6] Throughout the early 2000s, Porter toured North America, Asia, and Europe as a DJ.[5] His touring included festivals such as Lollapalooza and Coachella.[7] During this time, he released several trance music albums, which received mixed to positive reviews from critics.[8][9][10] In 2009, he ranked number 2 in the DJ Times "America's Best DJ" poll.[5][11]

Early remixes
Porter partnered with Vince Offer following the success of the "Rap Chop" remix.

Interested in branching out from traditional DJing, Porter began working on video remixes of commercials and celebrities. One of these remixes was a music video called "Rap Chop", which remixed the Slap Chop infomercial using auto-tuning.[12] Porter posted it to YouTube on April 25, 2009, and soon afterward the video went viral, garnering over 12 million views within two years.[5] A Guardian article compared the video to the similar Cillit Bang remix,[13] while Jason Lutz, in an article written for Billboard, compared Porter's mashup to similar viral video works by Mike Relm and The Gregory Brothers.[14]

In June, Porter released another remix entitled "Press Hop", which featured footage of basketball player Allen Iverson and his "practice" press conference, as well as a controversial rant by American football coach Mike Gundy.[15] The "Press Hop" video was viewed over 3 million times.[4]

In July 2009, because of the success of the "Rap Chop" video, Porter partnered with Vince Offer to produce official commercials for Offer's products. Porter was also contracted by FedEx, and the "Press Hop" remix aired on ESPN.[12] The "Press Hop" remix also helped Porter gain attention from other sports associations.[16]

PorterHouse Media
Steve Porter on ESPN's SportsNation debuting "Press Hop 2"

Because of the success of his early remixes, Porter founded a production company, PorterHouse Media, in 2009. Porterhouse Media is a multi-media company based in Holyoke, Massachusetts. The company's main service is creating viral media remixes as advertisements for sports teams and leagues and television networks such as ESPN, ABC, and NBC. By 2012, the company had produced approximately 100 video remixes, each of which takes between 100 and 250 hours to create.[7] Most of them are about 30 seconds long.[16]

In 2010, PorterHouse Media partnered with Goodby Silverstein & Partners to produce advertisements for the National Basketball Association's "Where Amazing Happens" campaign. They produced four commercial spots, "Where Defense Happens", "Where Clutch Happens", "Where Determination Happens", and "Where Stepping Up Happens", which each remixed footage of basketball players into rap songs.[17] In the same year, PorterHouse Media also produced a series of advertisements for ESPN's Sunday NFL Countdown and CBC Television's Hockey Night in Canada.[4] Although Porter's remixes are generally well received, fans of his early work as a DJ are often critical of his commercial work.[18]

Other work

Porter's remix of "Put Your Faith In Me" by Konami in-house artist UZI-LAY appeared in Dance Dance Revolution Universe and his own song "Somebody In Da' House" appeared in Dance Dance Revolution Universe 2. Porter contributed two remixes to the 2014 video game Fantasia: Music Evolved. In 2015, he created a musical "supercut" of clips of the rapper Eminem, to celebrate the artist's birthday. The video was featured in Rolling Stone.[19] This led to a series of subsequent collaborations with the magazine.

Porter also did a mashup of Jeff Dunham's NBC-special "Unhinged in Hollywood".[20]

Awards and accolades
Steve accepting Webby Award for "All He Does Is Win" with Skip Bayless

Porter has won two Webby Awards for his video remixes. In 2012, Porter won the award for "Best Video Mashup" for his "All He Does Is Win Remix" featuring football player Tim Tebow.[21] In 2013, Porter won the same award for the "So Disrespectful" remix. In the same year, Porter was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award for "Outstanding Promotional Achievement" for his work with ABC, creating "monthly mashups" for the morning news program Good Morning America.[22]

For his DJing, Porter was voted runner-up in the 2009 "America's Best DJ" poll conducted by DJ Times.[5] In 2012, Porter ranked number 60 on Fast Company's list "Most Creative People 2012". Fast Company specifically cited his "Lin-sanity" video remix, which highlighted Jeremy Lin and the New York Knicks.[23]

Discography

Albums
  • Homegrown (2005)
  • Planet P (with Funk Harmony Park) (2005)
  • Porterhouse (2006)
  • Porterhouse Volume 2 (2007)

EPs
  • Operation Berlin (2006)
  • The Control (2009)
gollark: Look, you can use this to decode this.
gollark: I even posted the decoder!
gollark: Yes.
gollark: It keeps increasing the login timeout each time I try and log in. Darn you to heck, good security!
gollark: _discovers that he has forgotten the password_

References
  1. "Campus Invited to Honor Catharine Porter, Former University Ombudsperson". University of Massachusetts Amherst. 2015-09-17. Retrieved 2015-11-05.
  2. Antosiewicz, Frank (1998-09-07). "Researcher Roger Porter Dies". Plastic News. Retrieved 2015-11-05.
  3. "UMass Professor Emeritus Roger Porter, First Head of Polymer Science and Engineering Dept., Dies at Age 70". University of Massachusetts Amherst. 1998-08-26. Retrieved 2015-11-05.
  4. Hicks, Brandon (2010-12-07). "DJ Steve Porter remixes HNIC". CBC News. Retrieved 2015-10-22.
  5. Medeiros, Matt (2011-05-09). "Steve Porter of Holyoke followed varied path to the founding of Porterhouse Media". The Republican. MassLive. Retrieved 2015-10-22.
  6. Porter, Steve (2005-07-26). "Chris Fortier: Much More Than "Progressive"" (Interview). Interviewed by JIVE news. JIVE. |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  7. Cortez, Samantha (2012-07-11). "After Getting 14 Million YouTube Views, This DJ Started Creating Video Remixes For Big Brands". Business Insider. Retrieved 2015-10-22.
  8. Rinehart, Dave (2007). "Porterhouse Vol. 2 mixed by Steve Porter". Resident Advisor. Retrieved 2015-10-22.
  9. Greene, Jo-Ann. "Porterhouse - Steven Porter". Allmusic. Retrieved 2015-10-22.
  10. Greene, Jo-Ann. "Porterhouse, Vol. 2 - Steven Porter". Allmusic. Retrieved 2015-10-22.
  11. "2009 Results". America's Best DJ. DJ Times. 2009. Retrieved 2015-10-22.
  12. Anderson, Kyle (2009-07-14). "'Rap Chop' And 'Press Hop' DJ Turns Viral Video Into Big Business". Newsroom. MTV. Archived from the original on 2012-07-12. Retrieved 2015-10-22.
  13. Kiss, Jemima (2009-05-01). "Guardian Viral Video Chart: Why you need a Slap Chop, and becoming a superhero". The Guardian.
  14. Lutz, Jason (2010-08-24). "YouTube auteurs remix videos into pop music hits". Billboard. Reuters. Retrieved 2015-10-23.
  15. Herrera, Tom (February 14, 2011). "Justin Bieber's Ringtone: 'Come After Me! I'm a Man! I'm 40!'". AOL News. Retrieved October 11, 2011.
  16. Petersen, Matt (2010-05-14). ""All I Gotta Do Is Focus": DJ Steve Porter, the Man Behind the NBA Playoffs Ads". Bleacher Report. Retrieved 2015-11-05.
  17. Thomas, Vincent (2010-05-03). "Where the Remix Happens". Retrieved 2015-10-22.
  18. McCarthy, Zel (2013-06-21). "Steve Porter: From Nightclubs to NBA, the DJ Talks About His Video Remixing Evolution". Billboard. Retrieved 2015-10-22.
  19. Shteamer, Hank (2015-10-16). "Watch 'Shroomed-Out' Eminem Goof Off in DJ Steve Porter Birthday Supercut". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2015-10-22.
  20. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOM8TzzTFQI
  21. "President Barack Obama, President Bill Clinton, Bono Lead Tribute to Steve Jobs at the 16th Annual Webby Awards" (Press release). New York, NY: The Webby Awards. 2012-05-21. Retrieved 2015-10-22.
  22. "Holyoke DJ receives a Webby win and an Emmy nod". Holyoke Redevelopment. 2013. Retrieved 2015-10-22.
  23. Pastorek, Whitney (2012-04-27). "Most Creative People 2012 - 60. Steve Porter". Fast Company. Retrieved 2015-10-23.
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