I have for the longest time loved mashups… even back when they used to be called “blends.” This was back maybe in 2003.
I’ve noticed that they have become really popular at my college, but I think it is getting to a point where it is being saturated.
I personally think it sucks at a party when you hear a song you like (the instrumental starts) and then you start to hear lyrics that you weren’t expecting. But then on top of that those lyrics are chopped up and altered with even more different songs, when all you really want to do is enjoy the party.
I guess I just feel that good music shouldn’t throw the listener off or be “deceiving” subconsciously. I don’t know it is a tricky subject because it is “creative art” but at the same time it is more of a “collage of other musical pieces.”
What do you think? How much “creative justice” should be taken before it goes too far?
I guess I just thought of this because i saw this:
and absolutely hated it. I love LMFAO btw. and I thought United States of Pop was the coolest thing on Youtube when it first came out.
Does anybody feel the same way? Are mashups becoming a fad?
Well I’m from the time when it was called a remix, not a mashup. I guess remix has come to mean a more original reworking and a mash up has come to mean a cut and paste of two songs… but it didn’t always.
IMO they will be around forever–at least in some form. And some are AWESOME. BUT it’s become so popular and easy to do that that most are garbage – including the one you posted… TBH tho, the originals are trash too, lol… so… what goes in is what comes out…
Remixes are sick tho. As a DJ I find it pleases the most people (including myself), sounds good (if it’s a good remix that is), and is a better club track… it lets me throw in references to trash 80/90s songs I grew up listening to. That’s rad.
The thing I think is ruining most mashes/remixes is all the HORRIBLE raps people keep dropping over hot remixes. Just sayin.
I think that far too often mashups lower the bar a bit. I mean this in two ways. First, mashups are very hit or miss for me, and I think that the creators too often think, “oh I can mash Swedish House Mafia with Britney! How can I f*ck that up?” and then manage to do exactly that. Secondly, because of all of the transitions already in mashups, it makes them extraordinarily easy to DJ because the actual transition of the DJ is pretty well masked, so even if it’s shitty the listener often thinks, “oh well that was just part of the song”. I agree that United States of Pop 2009 was great, but aside from that I haven’t heard a ton of great mashups. DJ Earworm, for example (who made USoP2k9) has maybe one other track I like.
Then again, with mashups being a somewhat new phenomenon (though I may be completely off-base with that comment), maybe they have a lot of room for improvement like Dubstep where there are some killer songs but an awful lot of crap because the genre is the hip new thing (see: Brostep).
EDIT:
Though honestly the song you posted really wasn’t all that bad.
Only times I liked mashups were on songs like Avicii’s Levels/Penguin or Kaskade’s stuff.
Good moving lyrics on a crazy minimal house track or similar.
I found with some trance tracks I grab some of them are EXTREMELY basic and bland but used with another in the same key if it’s dont right can make the 2 tracks sound complete.
I hate shitty mash-ups as much as the next sensible guy, but What about when a mash-up is basically equivelent to having two channels up at the same time? No chopping, just two tunes made for eachother. I make mash ups, but only because most ppl dont have the tension span to listen to a full 1 hour mix. When I mix I always want two channels up as much as possible and I feel by making mash-ups I am slowly working toward doing it more often.
Listen to this mash-up and tell me it is anything other than two tracks complimenting eachother beautifully! (D Ramirez and Mark knight - System w/ Format:B - Gospel SuperFlu’s anti-christ remix)
maybe releasing them as single songs, yeah… i’ve never gotten the appeal of that, not sure why that’s popular.
but not the technique, the technique has been around forever and will continue to be.
it’s just another weapon a dj has in his box of tricks to make a set dope.
bit of history:
mashup used to be a name for a type/style of dj set, now you have to call those kind of sets “eclectic” or “multi-genre”.
“bootleg” is the old name for what people call mash-ups now, the ones that get released as songs.
the old name for the actual technique when used in a dj set was called “blend”
Mashups arent a fad and they will never go away because there will always be some idiot that thinks that just cus 2 tracks have the same BPM and he can get the ac-cappella then they fit on top of each other.
Most are shite, some are fun for a short time.
Some are excellent when done with as dub versions of tunes (and by dub i dont mean dubstep).
Oh and +1 for the miss-use of the term as pointed out by duerr
Unless it’s epic i’m normally bored by half baked mashes for the reasons already mentioned here. Listened to a crappy attempt of this and took the challenge.
i was in a club last night, and this one was played, which surprisingly worked. I’m a massive New Order fan(well actually, thats a mis-statement, i’m a massive Joy Division fan, and by default like New Order a lot!) and i do think PDF is very overplayed, but still, this was a fair banger.
mashups are awsome and will never go away. the only problem is sifting though the rubbish and there is alot of it. the best mashups are ones that take completly differnt genres and put them together to make sumthing new, the worst ones are ones that use 2 tracks that sound very similur from the same genre and release date.
heres 2 recent mashups are like both very differnt from each other
sayin mashups suck because theres a ton of bad ones is like saying music sucks because there is a lot of shitty music out (which is true without a doubt).
i totally feel you on bad mashups destroying a good original. the main problem here is that djs have alot of fun mashing up songs and/or feel very original playing them out. i even heard crappy mashups played by djs i normally enjoy. (i recently started jumping around with a friend who is a huge prodigy fan when ‘smack my bitch up’ dropped just to have it destroyed by some random pop sample on top)
still i will always enjoy a good mashup and play them myself, especially as part of a transition to another genre. they can also freshen tracks up that are somewhat overplayed (for example by throwing a great vocal over an instrumental dnb track you’ve heard a zillion times).
