T w e n t y S i d e d

The other day in the post on creativity, several people mentioned what they listen to when their creative juices are flowing. I thought I’d mention this:

This is what I’ve been into lately. There is apparently an entire subculture of these mashup artists now. I remember hearing my first mashup years ago, and I thought they were amusing but limited in what could be done with them. Since then the number of artists has really grown, they have developed better techniques, and gotten their hands on better software. Now there is just a whole lot of really impressive mashups out there. The artists seem to thrive on unexpected or challenging combinations. Like, Kanye West vs. Beethoven vs. Walter Murphy. Or Jay-Z vs. Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons. If you want one song with some of everything, try Chemical Brothers vs. Velvet Underground vs. U2 vs. Sugababes vs. MARRS. Note that these don’t sound like an overlapping mess. The mashup artists take these songs apart and make something amazing and new from the components.

I can’t explain why I’m so fond of this stuff. It tickles my brain the same way They Might Be Giants and Weird Al do. The music is clever and unexpected. I never listen to Metallica, and I haven’t listened to Run DMC since I was junior high, but I can’t stop listening to the Enter Sandman + Tricky mashup. Often I’ll enjoy a mashup even if I hate the source songs.

You can download any and all tracks for free. It’s likely to be very hit-or-miss, and the favorites will most likely vary from one listener to another, but for what it’s worth my favortie tracks are #3, #4, and #12.

I love the internet.

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.