July 13, 2009
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Monday Morning Mash-Up Madness
At the end of the 20th Century, the world was introduced to one of my favorite genres of music, the mash-up. Wikipedia offers one of the easiest definitions of what a mash-up is: a song or composition created by blending two or more songs, usually by overlaying the vocal track of one song seamlessly over the music track of another.
With the rise of peer to peer music sharing networks, people had access to more music. One thing I loved to do was to play different songs on different audio devices just to see if they could blend. I would have my stereo playing while I had music playing on the computer for the chance that a pair of songs may blend together and then I could mash them together into one grandiose post-modern musical expression.
I call these songs mashups but they are known by different names around the globe: bootlegs, booties, Smashups, Bastard Pop, Blends, Cut-ups(which I just found out is a tribute to William Burroughs who would cut out sections of one writing and paste it in a different writing), and powermixes.
One of the first bastard pop songs to hit the airwaves was the vocals from Eminem's "My Name Is" laid over the music from AC/DC's "Back in Black". After this song became a hit the BBC started airing a regular show featuring mashups. I sometimes would wake up early in the morning and hope my AM radio could pick-up what I thought was one of the greatest things to happen to music. It was like in grade school when one of my teachers took out the Lutheran hymnal and started playing a different tune for the words we were singing.
I went nuts with mashups and even created some of my own. I was a bastard and took the song combos that I heard featured on the BBC show and made my own version. I added tweaks here and there though. And the thing was, this was so simple. Using Kazaa at the time I was able to find anything and everything I needed. If I felt a music track from The Hives worked great with the vocals from Basement Jaxx, I could log on and find those tracks with just the vocals or just the music.
I sort of grew out of mashups when I had to deal with thesis writing and student teaching and serving in a church. Lately I have gotten back into it because a vast number of booties have been released in honor of Michael Jackson. Some are good and some are bad, which is just like regular music.
I am going to try sharing certain mashups that I enjoy on a weekly basis. It just depends on the response. Here is the first of what I hope are many mashups.
Can you spot the songs used? The only hint I'll give is that this mashup features pop music's oddest character mixed with rock music's most reclusive figure. Enjoy!
Comments (23)
bastard pop is a good one. never heard of a 'mash up' before now.
Imagine how long I've been waiting for a reference to Burroughs.
Jackson 5 - ABC! ... and I don't know what the other one is.
But that's pretty cool that you "mash" songs together. I guess it would be easy if you did beat/note counts and match songs up that have the same ones. Basement Jaxx recently came out with a new album. It's been so long since I last heard about them.
I could go crazy when I hear music from two sides and I really hate that because it never fits. But your creation sounds just like one song; well done!
Man, I've heard some of the songs but can't remember the title or the artist.
i think the chorus goes very well together but as i love slashes guitar i much rather have no one singing on top of it when it's singing it's solo
guns n roses and little mikey. was entertaining. i'd never really knew i heard anything that was a smash up although i have heard the eminem song just didn't know if was a smash.
@NightlyDreams -
I understand about wanting Slash's work to be heard by itself but this fit so well together especially the ending.
Wow I think you were the first to get both bands.
@faustuosa -
Well I am glad you enjoyed this. I hope to add some every Monday or so.
@mZdejavuZ -
I haven't heard the new Basement Jaxx album but I love them. I saw them once in Minneapolis at a legendary venue and it was so cool when they did "Red Alert" because on the album there are pauses and they played it with the pauses and everyone dancing on the floor stopped. I was in the upstairs watching. It was so cool. You got half of the mash-up correctly...ABC by the Jackson 5 vs Paradise City by Guns N Roses.
@nattata -
I wish I could take credit for this song but I found it on a DJ's website. I love trying to find it because I can tune out the words from one song. My brain works strangely like that.
@kachino -
Well there were only two songs in this one. ABC by the Jackson 5(vocals) vs Paradise City by Guns N Roses(music)
@godfatherofgreenbay -
i've heard so much michael jackson (jackson 5 lately) and i use to absolutely adore guns n roses so it was obvious to me. if it was anything else i would probably not have known it.
@godfatherofgreenbay -
Thanks for the info.
@godfatherofgreenbay -
I have their single "Raindrops" right now, but haven't heard the rest of the album yet. LOL I was gonna mention that I was hooked on "Red Light" for a while back when I first heard them years years years ago. I remember seeing a Coca-Cola commercial and that song was the commercial track. It was awesome.
@mZdejavuZ -
Hmmm now I am going to have to check it out. Red Alert was an awesome song and I think I remember that Coke commercial because it was like a group of kids hanging out in the woods and they were dancing like mad.
@mZdejavuZ -
I forgot to mention, but if you haven't already seen it, look for the Basement Jaxx video for "Where's Your Head At". That is one of the creepiest videos. They also did a Bollywood style video for their song Romeo.
@godfatherofgreenbay -
All I remember from that commercial was music, teenagers dancing, and the color red. ... and omg, you're right -- that is a creepy video! wtf! I think the dog on the leash freaked me out the most. That's one of their other good songs, but creepy video. And wow, I had no idea that "Romeo" was by Basement Jaxx... LOL awesome. I've heard this song before, and have seen a scene or two from this video, but never the whole thing. Oh Bollywood... I don't want to spoil anything, but have you seen "Slumdog Millionaire" yet?
@mZdejavuZ -
Yes, I have seen Slumdog Millionaire. When I heard that there was this Bollywood style dance scene in the movie, I was expecting it to break out at any moment and not during the end credits but it was still entertaining.
@godfatherofgreenbay -
LOL yeah, that's too bad you had to sit through the entire movie just to see the dance =P but it would have been equally entertaining to see them break out randomly during the movie too. Slumdog Millionaire is one of my favorite movies. I saw it when it was first released in theaters. I told my brother to go see it, but he didn't enjoy it as much. He saw it after all the reviews came out, after the Oscars, etc. and he said it was so "hyped" up. That's a shame, because I think without all the hype and expectations from reviews that surround most movies, people might be appreciate movies differently... I was trying to think of an example but can't think of one right now.
@mZdejavuZ -
I can think of an example...The Sixth Sense. I didn't see it when it came out because I think it was one of those summer movies. I remember being invited to a house party by one of my classmates and it was at her boyfriend's house and he had a DVD player. I wanted to go because these DVD players were brand new. I get there and all these people had seen the movie and they were talking about how scary it was and how it would make me defecate in my pants(not in those words). I watched it and was like, "Is that it?" It didn't live up to the hype. Oh and The Simpsons movie was pretty lackluster because of all the hype. It was just 3 episodes linked together and I think the only thing that made it stand out from the TV series was that they showed Bart's wiener.
@godfatherofgreenbay -
Yeah, I hate when that happens, when movies don't live up to the hype. Like, "what was all that about?" Even though I like reading reviews, I don't like the sense of expectation that comes with it. I'd rather find out little to nothing about a movie rather than a lot. And, oh yeah, shame to say, but "The Sixth Sense" was the movie that actually scarred me from watching horror movies again. Don't know what it was, but something bizarre happened to my emotional state during that time when I watched it, so I was extra sensitive when I saw it. LOL, and one of my friends actually described the Simpsons movie as "one really long episode".
@mZdejavuZ -
With the M. Night Shamylan movies like The Sixth Sense, I love them but to me they aren't scary. I think there has only been one moment during one of his movies that I have been scared at and that was during Signs when they show footage of the alien slowly walking and of course I was home from college and it was late at night with no lights on but the tv and I started seeing shadows and that freaked me out. My favorite movie of his is Unbreakable but I think that is because I wanted to be a superhero.
@godfatherofgreenbay -
Oh yeah, the part where the alien walks across the window was pretty freaky... And, also, the part where the hand reaches underneath the door. I haven't seen Unbreakable yet, but heard it was good.
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