Bizarre Mash-up

[Mr Bill]

One of my recent fascinations in music is called "mash-up" where in some intrepid individual with some skill and a few audio computer programs mixes two songs from two usually drastic different artists and concocts a "new" sound. Part of the fun is in the creator coming up with a new name that incorporates both artists or both songs. One of my favorites is one where Eminem is mashed with a 1920's piano rag tune (entitled "Marshall Gets Snookered").

Well, there are several out and about that use Herb Alpert (with and without the TJB). One could argue that the Re-Whipped album is in some ways a mash-up though in that case the "guests" concocted new sounds in which to feature the classic LP.

One on You Tube features someone's amazing (to me anyway) mash up of the TJB with the Jackson 5:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLyKEN-cvgQ

Enjpy!

--Mr Bill
(re-edited for sober clarity )

 

[Mike Blakesley]

Wow, that is cool!

 

[Rudy]

Too bad it was the Jackson 5...

I still recommend the Beatles' "Love" soundtrack as a fantastic mash-up, and it has to be heard in its surround version. Basically, Beatles' songs de- and re-constructed into something new, as the soundtrack to the Cirque du Soleil show in Vegas. Even a casual listener like myself, who knows all the songs, recognizes many of the different parts of songs reassembled. My favorite is "Within You, Without You" mixed up with the rhythm track from "Tomorrow Never Knows"--it actually makes the former song listenable.

Mash-ups are technically recombinations of existing songs. Projects like "Rewhipped" are known as remixes, although in this day and age, a "remix" is something where only parts of the original are used, and new parts (usually rhythms and synth parts) are added. Some of the Bebel Gilberto remixes of her first two albums are neat; even White Zombie/Rob Zombie had a couple of remix albums. I'm split on the success of these--some remixes work great, where others just fall apart. In the dance/disco days of the 70s and early 80s, a remix was a different mix of what was on the tape, sometimes with percussion parts added to make it more danceable...but nothing was drastically changed like in current day remixes.

 

[rmos]

There's an album of Henry Mancini remixes (done by his son, Chris) available on I-tunes.

 

[Rudy]

There's an album of Henry Mancini remixes (done by his son, Chris) available on I-tunes.

You can listen to it here also:

http://free.napster.com/view/album/index.html?id=12507791

 

[Mr Bill]

Another by a swedish guy named "Jonas Medz" mixes the hip-hop artist Nas' "Made You Look" with Alpert's "Peanuts" -- it's almost natural...

Find it here by clicking the link "Herb Albert Made You Look" (yes, I guess this guy doesn't get the "p" and "b" thing):

http://musicformaniacs.blogspot.com/2007/04/mashups-go-go.html

--Mr Bill

 

[Mike Blakesley]

I guess my big question is, HOW in the world do these people get these ideas? Do they just have a knack for imagining one song on top of another one?

 

[Mr Bill]

I wonder the same thing. Do a search on "It Is To Laugh" and there's a whole LP's worth of mash-ups you can download. Another guy named "Party Ben" does some amazing things and has hours of mash-ups you can download (my fave being a mash of the Darth Vader March with Earth Wind & Fire and some rapper I am unfamiliar with). Some of it is just plain funny and some is sheer brilliance!
Take Party Ben's Amy Winehouse and the Four Tops "Rehab" for instance...

--Mr. Bill

 

[Dave]

Is this supposed to be reciting your own lyrics over an already-done Popular Song... While at the Dollar General I heard on the loudspeaker/Muzak system, someone singing "his own song" over Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama"...



Dave

 

[Mr Bill]

Is this supposed to be reciting your own lyrics over an already-done Popular Song...

Umm, no. That's been done for years, first with Allan Sherman in the 60's and then since the 80's by the one and only 'Weird' Al Yankovic.

Mash-ups are done with a variety of computer tools (to shift pitch so both songs are in the same key and to slow or speed up tunes so the rhythms sync up).

Wikipedia has a gret article on the genre and even breaks it down into sub-genres (including "created tracks" things like the Suzanne Vega/DNA "Tom's Diner" and Herb's Re-Whipped project). FInd the article here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mashup_(music)

--Mr. Bill

 

[Rudy]

I'll have to read that article. I'd argue Rewhipped is nowhere near being a mashup. That implies two different songs are superimposed on each other, where as Rewhipped is more in the "remix" genre (which in this day and age, means adding new parts to existing tracks).