Mash-ups

So a recent musical phenomenon that I have grown quite fond of is the idea of the mash-up. This is when a kid with a computer, or possibly two or three kids with computers, take several pop songs, and mix them together so that they sound good. The three relatively successful mash-up DJs that I know of are Girltalk, the Hood Internet, and Norwegian Recycling. All of these guy’s works have a slightly different tone, and they all obviously do it for different reasons. Girltalk is party music; all of it, at least all of it that I’ve heard. He usually takes several high energy songs, and mixes them together, with the lead vocals usually coming from a very prominent pop song. He usually only uses one song’s lyrics, as opposed to several, but he often uses more than one pop song for the background, the bass and the rhythm. I’ve actually heard that Girltalk puts on an amazing live show. It’s just this guy with a computer on stage, but he really has a good time, and sometimes crowd surfs. Solid.

            The Hood Internet does the simplest mash-ups. They usually take two pop songs, usually rap or hip-hop songs, and mix them together. It’s great work out music, a lot of fun to run to, or mountain bike to, in my case. It pumps you up, and some of them are really quite good. My personal favorite song by the Hood Internet is a mash up of “all my love,” by Led Zeppelin, and “scrubs,” by TLC. It’s really well done, the timing is perfect, and it’s just a really cool sound. I like the Hood Internet, they consistently provide music I can work out to, or just listen to if I’m in the mood for something quick and amped. They make safe choices regarding the songs that they mix, and they work 99% of the time. It’s not as inspired as Girltalk or Norwegian Recycling, but it’s still fun.

            This brings us to Norwegian Recycling, who happens to be my favorite of the three. This guy is ballsy, he takes two, four, sometimes even eight songs and mashes them all together. He doesn’t just take lyrics from one and music from another, he usually puts several different choruses and verses, from each song, into all the songs he creates. He takes big risks, and granted sometimes his songs don’t come out perfectly, the timing might be a little off, or you can tell that he messed with the pitch significantly. When it works though, it works. He has this amazing ability to find these songs that really compliment each other, and the music he creates with it isn’t just for partying, it isn’t just for working out, its for anything. He doesn’t just match the songs in terms of sound, but also tone. He takes sad songs and pairs them with sad songs, he takes fast songs and reinforces them by adding other quick songs. It’s really a great ability, and he makes good music. He obviously spends a lot of time on it, and I have to applaud his effort. Most of the stuff he’s made has really worked for me, I listen to it a lot, and I haven’t gotten tired of it. Norwegian Recycling has retained the musical complexity that makes a really great song.

            So now that I’ve talked about a few of my favorite mash-up artists, I want to just say a few things about the music they make in general. Mash-ups are cool. They’re kind of post-modernist in that they are purely aesthetic, in most cases. It is very difficult to retain any kind of theme, or poetry of lyrics, when you’re creating a new song from two old ones. That said, most pop music doesn’t have a whole lot of substance anyways, so I see no problem with mixing it all together and making a new sound. Plus Mash-ups have an automatic advantage in terms of listenability. People tend to like songs that they’ve heard before, so mash-ups are very easy to listen to because they’re usually two songs that the public is familiar with, as opposed to one. It’s basically a new way to listen to old music. It shouldn’t replace musical creation by legitimate artists, but I don’t think there’s any danger that it will.