IT'S AS IF IT'S 2003 ALL OVER AGAIN!
MASHING THE SONGS I LOVE WITH SONGS I REALLY COULDN'T CARE LESS ABOUT! AND IT SOUNDS GOOD!
But then I realised...why am I limiting myself to MTV mashups? There's a whole fucking wide world of mashups out there.
As Don Cherry would say: LET'S GO!
One of the best, as far as I'm concerned, is Linkin Park's Faint vs Britney Spears' Toxic. HATERS TO THE LEFT, IT'S 2004 UP IN HERE AND THEY'RE BOTH STILL COOL. Here it is set to clips from Harry Potter because SURE, WHY NOT? Mashups are inherently creative and open to interpretation from anyone - that's the fucking point - so of course we're not going to stick to videos generated by the assholes at MTV. We have socialist tendencies.
...I kind of want to keep going with Wax Audio's work, and I'm not even being paid to talk about it. He has an amazing mashup of Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit vs The Final Countdown by Europe. Teen Spirit has such emotional resonance, and The Final Countdown is an exemplary power ballad, but somehow it goes together quite naturally, like plaid and despair.
Sad But Superstitious, being Metallica vs Stevie Wonder, is Epic. I have a tremendous amount of respect for Wax Audio. He puts out great work, and it's all just clearly out of love for music and a desire to share it. That is the essence of mashup. Loving the material and wanting to honour it by using it as inspiration, and then sharing it because that's what you're supposed to do with music.
I don't think this actually has a name, but it's AC/DC vs Queen vs Outkast vs The Beatles vs Snoop and Dre vs Led Zeppelin vs Prince vs (deep breath) Crowded House. This is probably the most expert juggling of so much source material that I've uncovered thus far.
Here we have Gorillaz vs. The Cure. There had to be some goff on here, right? One of the curse/blessings of Lullaby is that it matches everything. It's like a good pair of black pants. You can wear it anywhere, and it matches just about everything. Including, apparently, Gorillaz and the corresponding universe. \M/
I know that it's basically sacrilege to do anything to the work of The Beatles. (So I will mention, only in passing, Let It Be Me and mention that it's vs Shaggy and pretty hilarious.) BUT HAVING SAID THAT, and my boyfriend will judge the fuck out of me for this, this is REALLY GOOD. MGMT'S Kids vs The Beatles In My Life. I think the tempo of Kids really works for The Beatles' song. I'm not saying it's better, I'm just saying that it works. SORRY NOT SORRY.
Control yourself, take only what you need from it.
Kids actually mashes up with almost everything, from Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol to Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana to Sleepyhead by Passion Pit to Harder Better Faster Stronger by Daft Punk. Is it because it's such an up-tempo, feel good song? I really don't know. Maybe it's just a great base. Maybe it's flour.
I was going to talk about this Pixies vs Marvin Gaye mashup, but then I found Adele's Rolling In The Deep vs Survivor's Eye Of The Tiger and honestly I think my world has changed a little bit. This mashup is so hardcore that Survivor's official Youtube account commented on it...positively.
Speaking of Adele, go watch this video that my boyfriend set to her song Skyfall.
I would leave it there and go out tonight, but I just found this mashup of The Smiths' This Charming Man vs Lana Del Ray's Video Games and Morrissey won't let me anymore. As one of the Youtube comments said, I cried hipster tears. I guess it's not a traditional mashup because it's his voice over her music, but my hipster tears are falling regardless. MORRISSEY, YOU DICK.
I know that a lot of people hate mashups, or think they are a lesser art form for utilising other songs as their base, or just think they take good songs and ruin them. I understand that opinion - I even agree with it, in some instances. Technically speaking, though, it takes talent to generate a good one, and not just that: a deep respect for all of the songs involved, an intense familiarity with their nuances, and not just a little bit of creativity and flair for editing. It's all just about having fun, and playing with cool toys.
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