Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Brief obsession: Mash-ups

My daughter asked about mash-ups when they featured them on Glee (which starts up again on April 13--finally almost here!) And it reminded me of some really good mash-ups (which are commonly overlaying the vocals of one song over the instrumental of another song, as well as flowing between songs) out there--one of my first favorites being "A Stroke of Genie-ous" a mash-up between songs of The Strokes and Christina Aguilera.

Unfortunately the nature of different songs being mixed together by DJs has a fleeting, bootleg essence to them but there are a few DJs that have their mixes available online.

Some of my favorites are by Party Ben, which he has available on his website (www.partyben.com): Boulevard of Broken Songs, We Will Jump You, Somebody Rock Me, Pump up the Doorbell, Live Your Life Punk.

Another DJ has some interesting mash-ups, like between Jay-Z and Dave Matthews Band--check out "99 Crashes". I also found his "A Promiscuous Journey" pretty darn catchy.

Some songs definitely mash up better than others, and after hearing various mash-ups, I'd say there is an art level and skill involved. But in the end, they're a nice change of pace, when you're in the mood for something different.

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