Another year in music has come and gone. And once again DJ Earworm has given us a mash-up that says it all. He has taken the Top 25 hits of 2009, according to Billboard and arranged and mashed them all into one 4 and 1/2 minute song. And I have to say I am pretty impressed that this can be done and made into a reasonably enjoyable song. It even has a bit of a theme and a decent song structure.
But what does that say about the state of pop music, that all of these songs are similar enough to mashed up into one singular song? I don’t think this a completely untalented group of artists. I actually enjoyed a fair amount of these songs this year. But I think it goes to show how much the labels and producers are controlling the sound on these records. It’s no wonder we eat these songs up and then make ourselves so sick of them that we never want to hear them again. Because we’re essentially listening to the same song over and over again. What do you guys think?
Here’s a list of all of the songs included in this year’s mash-up.
The Black Eyed Peas – BOOM BOOM POW
Lady Gaga – POKER FACE
Lady Gaga Featuring Colby O’Donis – JUST DANCE
The Black Eyed Peas – I GOTTA FEELING
Taylor Swift – LOVE STORY
Flo Rida – RIGHT ROUND
Jason Mraz – I’M YOURS
Beyonce – SINGLE LADIES (PUT A RING ON IT)
Kanye West – HEARTLESS
The All-American Rejects – GIVES YOU HELL
Taylor Swift – YOU BELONG WITH ME
T.I. Featuring Justin Timberlake – DEAD AND GONE
The Fray – YOU FOUND ME
Kings Of Leon – USE SOMEBODY
Keri Hilson Featuring Kanye West & Ne-Yo – KNOCK YOU DOWN
Jamie Foxx Featuring T-Pain – BLAME IT
Pitbull – I KNOW YOU WANT ME (CALLE OCHO)
T.I. Featuring Rihanna – LIVE YOUR LIFE
Soulja Boy Tell ‘em Featuring Sammie – KISS ME THRU THE PHONE
Lukasz Sebastian Gottwald, otherwise known as “Doctor Luke” has managed, yet again, to get indie hipsters and radio lovers all across the country to move their feet and swivel their hips with Miley Cyrus’ incredibly catchy and dance-able “Party in the USA.” But for whatever reason, the majority of the people who found themselves dancing to and loving this song last night, will inevitably deny doing so today. Because Miley Cyrus isn’t “cool” or “hip.” Nor is Katy Perry, Britney Spears, or Kelly Clarkson. Yet you know that each of them has released a song in the past year or two that you actually liked. I know this because of the insane amount of remixes from these artists that have been floating around the blogosphere and climbing to the top of the charts on Hype Machine. In fact, right now the #1 most loved track is a mash-up of “Party in the USA” with a Biggie song. Over 2,000 people “loved” this track. I don’t remember the last time I saw a track reach over 2,000. And believe it or not, the main reason you like those remixes, is because there was something great about the song in its original form.
Don’t get me wrong now, I’m not trying to compare any of these girls to the truly great female artists of our time, such as Neko Case, Feist, or Brandi Carlile. For the most part they are nothing more than a pretty face and great voice. But when you add that great voice with some of Gottwald’s hooks and melodies and you’ve got something worth listening to. I’m not saying that you should throw caution to the wind and go buy the new Miley Cyrus record at Wal-Mart (for that is the only place it can be found). That would be foolish. But when Dr. Luke has the chance to get his hands on a single, I am going to pay attention.
So why can’t we just unabashedly own our love for these songs. I’ll go first. I love the new Miley Cyrus single. I don’t care that the lyrics are a little elementary. It makes me dance and puts me in a swell mood. Here are a few other hits that Gottwald had his hands in that I’m not afraid to say that I enjoy, regardless of whether or not Diplo has remixed it yet.
Here is the next installment in our series “Lessons From Late Night” where we attempt to school you in the way of good music, through live performances from late night television. This past week, “The Late Show with David Letterman” was really solid. It started off a little rocky with a Kelly Clarkson performing a track off of her new album, “Already Gone.” It may be a just another mediocre break-up ballad from an American Idol winner, but this girl can really sing. But don’t worry it gets better from here.
On Tuesday David had Wilco performing one of my favorites off of their new self-titled album with Feist joining Tweedy on vocals. It was a great performance, that finds the band sounding better than ever.
Wednesday marked one of the more historic performances in the past year. Paul McCartney returned to the Ed Sullivan Theater where he played atop “The Late Show” marquee, 45 years after his first appearance with the Beatles. I’m not quite sure why they didn’t just wait til the 50th anniversary to do this big shin dig, but it seemed to be a pretty exciting event either way. The streets were packed with screaming fans, and Paul and the band sounded great. Here is “Band on the Run.” Head over to Youtube and search for “Paul McCartney Letterman” if you want to see the rest of the songs he performed.
Paul McCartney – Band On The Run
On Thursday Dave had Grizzly Bear performing “Ready, Able” off of their newest record, Veckatimest, which is becoming one of my favorite albums of the year.
Grizzly Bear – Ready, Able
Friday wasn’t quite as strong as the middle of the week, but it was still a great performance by a band that I have really been getting into lately. I wasn’t a huge fan of this performance. This was definitely not the track I would’ve liked to hear them play. But their new album, Fantasies is really strong and I definitely recommend it.
Before I get started today, I gotta give some backstory. One of our lovely readers, @jonodom, challenged anybody and everybody to listen to their entire music library from A-Z. I took up the challenge, as some peeps who follow me on twitter, @codybrom (shameless plug), might already know. Anyways, I was hoping that maybe I’d be able to find a track just based on what I’d heard so far, which amounts to 386 songs totaling just over 24 hours.
And I emerge triumphant with an amazing mashup by Aggro1.
First up, I must admit, I’m not a huge fan of either Kelly Clarkson or The Eagles. But for some reason I’m tempted to go buy entire back catalogs of both artists after this mashup. Clarkson’s vocals are crisp, clear, and unmistakably great. The Eagles smooth guitar work finds a great match with Clarkson’s vocals, and even when the tempo picks up the song holds. I love this song, and would definitely listen in on more.
Another year in music has come and gone. And once again DJ Earworm has given us a mash-up that says it all. He has taken the Top 25 hits of 2009, according to Billboard and arranged and mashed them all into one 4 and 1/2 minute song. And I have to say I am pretty impressed that this can be done and made into a reasonably enjoyable song. It even has a bit of a theme and a decent song structure.
