Is anyone sick of mashups?

[jimk]

i'm laid up on the couch with an injury for the last 2 days. it's given me a lot of time to catch up on listening to backlogged shows. i'm struck with one negative thhought after my mini-marathon:

i think i hate mashups.

it was bad enough when pop went the way of nothing but samples. i think we can all agree that puffy diddydaddy is a joke. what make
mashup "artists" any better?

also i kind of feel like it's boring. it was novel at some point but the bloom is off that rose, IMHO.

now i could be alone here...so tell me why i'm wrong.

p.s. posted through a haze of tramadol and with a pocket pc. apologies for bad grammar, spelling or typos!

[jeffoest]

Yup, me too Jim.

I enjoyed them for about the first 5-7 times then I quickly tired of them.

I'm sure we're not the only ones. From what I've heard on DSC, 1% of pretty inspired and creative, the others are just not interesting (to me, anways).

If I never heard another mashup, I'm sure I wouldn't miss it. Too many people out there with Acid and a few samples thinking they are cool.... ;-).

[comedy4cast]

They seemed a lot more clever at first. A lot of them mix rap (spoken word) with a song. It's a technical achievement, perhaps, but not really very creative.

I also really question how podsafe they are. I was going to do a parody mashup on one of my shows a few months ago, but decided to go really public domain instead by mixing the Alphabet song with "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star".

[bazookajoeshow]

99% of everything is crap and that applies from everything to mashups to regular songs. Go Home Productions seems to do consistently good mashups.

Bazooka Joe

[vox_monitor]

joe's got it exactly right.

they are good at about the same proportion as everything else.

very rarely.

[Hittman]

A couple of weeks ago I was watching the DVD of the Phantom of The Opera with my wife and kids. (It’s not as bad as the critics said.*) When they got to “The Music of The Night� I was struck by inspiration, and started singing Rocky Horror’s “Touch Me� along with it, at which point I was struck by popcorn, flung by the women in the room, who didn’t appreciate my inspiration.

I had never done a mashup before, so decided to give it a try. I loaded both songs on different tracks in Audition and started playing with pitch and speed and thinking about how I’d put them together. “Music of The night/Creature of the night� fit perfectly. Janet’s lines, “I’ll put up no resistance, I want to go the distance, I’ve got an itch to scratch, I need assistance� fit nicely into one of the maudlin, drawn out musical interludes. But about a half hour into it I realized it was going to take way, way too long to make it work. I was already getting bored with the process, so abandoned it.

Yeah, sometimes they’re interesting. Once. And usually for half a song or less. “Gee, I never would have thought of putting those together. Hey, what’s for dinner?� I’ve never heard a mash up that was worth repeated listenings.

- - -
* It’s worse.

[jeffoest]

99% of everything is crap and that applies from everything to mashups to regular songs. Go Home Productions seems to do consistently good mashups.

Bazooka Joe

I don't know, Joe. I wouldn't say that 99% of your shows are crap... don't be so hard on yourself! ;-)

[Craig]

I've only heard a handful that I thought were done particularly well. The most recent was "Toxic Shack" (B-52s vs Britney Spears), which Adam played on DSC and I thought was an excellent example of what a mashup can be in the right hands. The previous day (I think), however, he played one with Heart that was an absolute disaster; the stereotype of everything that can go wrong with mashups.

Craig

[podcastshuffle]

i think i hate mashups.

I wouldn't say I hate them, but I don't really like them. There's only been one or two that I did enjoy but not enough to listen to them twice, just enough not to fast forward past them.

My main curiousity about mashups is mostly about when one of the record label lawyers will drop a cease and desist on someone. Most that I have heard go pretty far beyond sampling or fair use. Maybe those mashup guys could make a Metallica mashup to see if anyone cares...

I met a couple guys from a band in LA a while back (Electric Love Hogs) that used to do "mash ups" of rock songs live (e.g. lyrics from one song with the music from another).

Jeff

[jimk]

I met a couple guys from a band in LA a while back (Electric Love Hogs) that used to do "mash ups" of rock songs live (e.g. lyrics from one song with the music from another).

Jeff

That might be a cooler deal, seeing a band mix it up live. Might get old after awhile, but it sounds like fun

[Hittman]

I met a couple guys from a band in LA a while back (Electric Love Hogs) that used to do "mash ups" of rock songs live (e.g. lyrics from one song with the music from another).

Way back in my musical days I used to perform the music of Stairway to Heaven with the words to Gilligan’s Island. I had found an old, unlabeled cart with it at a radio station, so have no idea who did it originally.

Not to be outdone, a friend countered with Purple Haze/Green Acres.

And lets not forget Dred Zeppelin.

On second though, let’s.

[bazookajoeshow]

I think my favorite mashup was back in the 80s. A Chicago DJ stripped the vocals of a Bob Seger song and then inserted his vocals from a totally different song just to demonstrate how much his songs sound the same.

Bazooka Joe

[Hittman]

Mad Magazine did that with Barbara Strisand movies, probably about the same time. They ran a movie parody titled “On a Clear Day You Can See a Funny Girl Singing Hello Dolly Forever.�

I just googled it – it was in ’71. Check out the cover:

http://www.collectmad.com/madcoversite/mad143.html

[Craig]

Way back in my musical days I used to perform the music of Stairway to Heaven with the words to Gilligan’s Island. I had found an old, unlabeled cart with it at a radio station, so have no idea who did it originally.
"Stairway to Gilligan's Island" by Little Roger and the Goosebumps (1975). Zeppelin sued them. You can listen to it here:

http://www.gilligansisle.com/stairway.html

Along the same lines (but not nearly as well performed) is "A Day in the Life of Green Acres" by Damaskas & Barnes & Barnes:

http://www.maggiore.net/greenacres/sounds/adayinthelife.mp3

(You may need to cleanse your musical palate with this after listening: http://www.maggiore.net/greenacres/sounds/meatmen.mp3 )

There's an interesting thread here, BTW, that manages to trace the origin of "mashups" with performance versions back through the '90s (Pet Shop Boys: U2 vs Frankie Valli), the '80s (Club House: Steely Dan vs Michael Jackson), the '70s (Little Roger), the '60s (The Lettermen: Little Anthony vs Frankie Valli), the '50s (Louis Prima), to classical music where they were apparently known as Quodlibets.

http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/archive/index.php/t-37600-p-1.html

And perhaps the most famous "mashup" (technically a medley) is "Just a Gigolo/Ain't Got Nobody" which was a hit for the following people:

1931: Ted Lewis
1954: Louis Prima
1978: The Village People
1985: David Lee Roth

Don't miss the "Just a Severed Head/Ain't Got No Body" parody lyrics here:

http://www.amiright.com/parody/80s/davidleerothlouisprima0.shtml

Craig

[tbr]

As with everything, you get a lot of crap with mashups, and in the past 2 years or so the amount of crap has increased exponentially.
I've been into Mashups now for almost 6 years and if your know where to look you can get some excellant examples, from inovative artists.
Also mashups have been going for quite a while and most things have 'been done'.

I don't listen to Adam Curry (used to back in the begining but stopped around christmas) but I've heard that the tracks that he plays arn't really the best of the bunch.

But as usual the general public and big name media have caught on and things arn't quite as good as they used to be.

[Hittman]

Thanks for the wealth of information, Craig. Time to do some clicking and exploring.

[Craig]

I've been into Mashups now for almost 6 years and if your know where to look you can get some excellant examples, from inovative artists.
So what do you consider the highlights of the past 6 years?

I admit I'm a relative newcomer to mashups. The ones I've found in my web travels that I thought were particularly well done, where the end-product is something that more than just a mix of its components (without necessarily taking into consideration the artistic merits of the original songs) are:

Bootystition (http://www.btinternet.com/~scott.akister/mashups/bootystition04_mash-ups_co_uk.mp3) (Destiny's Child vs Steve Wonder)
Girl Wants (to Say Goodbye to) Rock and Roll (http://www.gohomeproductions.co.uk/audio/ghp_girl_wants_to_say_goodbye.mp3) (Christina Aguilera vs Velvet Underground vs The Communards)
Karma in the Life (Beatles vs Radiohead)...the only Beatles mashup I've heard that's listenable
Rapture Riders (Blondie vs The Doors)
Somebody Rock Me (http://www.partyben.com/PartyBen-SomebodyRockMe.mp3) (The Clash vs The Killers)
Toxic Shack (http://www.madaz.net/music/jalad/jalad%20-%20Toxic%20Shack.mp3) (B-52s vs Britney Spears)

And for sheer creative genius:

Imagine (http://media.audiostreet.net/11D14A4AEAD246398E3FE9DEB979707F/Download/imagine___walk_on_the_wild_side.mp3) (George Bush vs John Lennon vs Lou Reed)

Obviously a heavy leaning towards Go Home Productions here but that's just me. What are other people's favorites?

Craig

[notyourusualbollocks]

So what do you consider the highlights of the past 6 years?

Toekeo vs Ice T - F*ck Bush

MK

[Craig]

Well that pretty much killed the topic.

Craig

[Illinoise]

Dan, is it just me, or does your avatar keep losing hair? Not very accurate, if you ask me.

Best mashup? A simple classic:

AC/DC vs. Chet Baker's girlfriend My Funny Valentine (http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playlistId=56899856&selectedItemId=56899799)