In 1980, Negativland released its first self-titled album with handmade covers, distributed through California Bay Area record stores. Co-founder Mark Hosler recalls selling 500 copies in three months, far exceeding expectations. The multimedia collective — originally Hosler, David Wills, and Richard Lyons — has produced over 30 albums and EPs across 46 years, pioneering the term "culture jamming" to describe their layering of found and original material.

Negativland continues innovating with remote collaboration. Their live show "Over The Edge: Significantly Less Deceptive" runs September 16 at the Internet Archive's San Francisco headquarters, featuring Hosler (North Carolina), Jon Leidecker ("Wobbly") in San Francisco, and Wills by phone from Seattle. The group gained prominence after a 1991 lawsuit from U2 and their label over sampling "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For," leading to a reluctant settlement and the 1995 book Fair Use: The Story Of The Letter U And The Numeral Two. Hosler delivered over 140 lectures on appropriation and copyright reform worldwide.

Since 2015, the Internet Archive has preserved 4,000+ hours of "Over The Edge," Negativland's weekly freeform radio program airing since 1981, originally driven by Don Joyce (d. 2015) and now hosted by Leidecker at KPFA in Berkeley. NPR featured the group in its 2021 Tiny Desk (Home) Concert. Members maintain day jobs and avoid personal photos, directing attention to the work: "We are always responding to and describing American culture," Hosler said, "creating this alternate, weird, parallel universe version of reality."