My latest musical addiction

Just a few weeks ago, I was complaining to Flame-Haired Angel that music had faded from my life as any kind of moving force. I'm sure that's unremarkable for the vast majority of 40-year-old tie-wearers, but the absence of music for me seemed a sign of a creepingly insidious malady of the spirit. I'm a former DJ and a former (and still sometimes) musician, after all. But I hadn't bought but the occasional CD since leaving China. (CDs, still, yes. iTunes DRM can bite my pasty white butt. I'd rather pay ransom to the RIAA.) Some small number of days after I'd been whingeing, the music gods reached out and touched me with a skin-blistering revelation. I discovered bastard pop. Bastard pop is either a synonym or a sub-genre of music mash-ups, depending on whom you ask. "Mash-up" has quickly become a generic term for taking various bits of any existing content -- mostly video, music, and computer code -- and "mashing" them together in new ways, to create entirely new stuff. Wikipedia's definition is characteristically succinct: "Mashup, or bootleg, is a musical genre which, in its purest form, consists of the combination (usually by digital means) of the music from one song with the a cappella from another. Typically, the music and vocals belong to completely different genres. At their best, bastard pop songs strive for musical epiphanies that add up to considerably more than the sum of their parts." I had been aware of both the mash-up revolution and remix culture, of course, but I had rarely been inspired by it. Most of the mash-ups I was familiar with were web applications (see this for an example, which mashes up Google Maps with the Chicago crime database) In music, I'd heard plenty of remixes of existing songs, but most left me cold. Of course they were explicitly derivative, but often they seemed to subtract from the original, rather than add anything special. At best, re-mixes rarely seemed worth the effort, and at worst they just screwed up the original song. But that view is to type for me. I'm not into novelty for novelty's sake. I'm not so much a minimalist or a purist, but I'm certainly a simplist. In photography, for example, I'm attracted to simple uncomplicated images more than to wildly theatrical set-ups or dramatically manipulated Photoshop productions. In music, it's rare that gimmickery overcomes boring songwriting and uninspired playing, but a great song -- or even just a great hook -- performed in a way that distills the essence of the song's intended impact is always a pleasure. Remixes don't really appeal to the simplist. Plus, DJs remixing lots of songs that all go "psshh-thump psshh-thump psshh-thump" never struck me as the height of any kind of musical experience. It certainly never hit my ear as a genuinely new art-form. I'm sure it takes talent and practice to do it well, but then so does auto-fellatio. There have been big exceptions to this generally yawning reaction to remixing. Fatboy Slim. Moby. The occasional dance re-mix of an already-great song would sometimes equal the original while, at the same time bending it into something new. Admirable. Fun. But these were exceptions for me. Then I discovered bastard pop. Like work in every art form, the vast majority of bastard pop is mediocrity masquerading as more. Most of it is little more than bits of two songs played over top of each other. But the real masters of this stuff can just floor you with profound nonsummativity. Sometimes it's the simple discovery of how two songs work together. Sometimes it arises from novel ways of combining the source songs. Sometimes the effect derives from elision as much as from combination. Whatever. It's making me dance. And dancing makes the mid-life crisis go down easier. I like the term "bastard pop" better than its supposed synonyms. "Mash-ups" can refer to the product of several different kinds of combinative work, like video splicing and web 2.0 applications, as mentioned before. "Bootlegs" is also used, but that just appropriates a word that's referred to illegal or "unofficial" recordings for decades. Makes me think of Dylan or The Grateful Dead. The term "bastard pop" distinguishes mash-ups from both simple remixes even though the line between the two kinds of mixes is grey and wide. I also like that the term implies the use of pop music, rather than just dance music or rap/hip-hop/R&B. Speaking as a total ignorant, never having attempted to mix a damn thing, it still strikes me that a whole lot less talent and skill is required to layer a rap vocal over a dance track. I'm sure that making it sound half decent is tricky, but both tracks are principally rhythmic. Putting together two tracks that have complex melodies and harmonies is, by contrast, frought with complexity. Plus, I've got a natural bias. You might be able to lay Snoop Dogg or the Beastie Boys over Daft Punk and get a decent dance-floor mover. But you smash Annie Lennox headlong into Rush and you're putting my high-school experience in the spin cycle, and forcing a mating ritual between two entirely different species. I don't dislike dance music, I just find the non-dance/non-rap mash-ups more surprising. They don't work well very often but, when they do, they're transcendant. They're also freaking funny. Bastard pop DJs and bootleggers tend to mix a fair measure of humour into their choices. One of my favourites, a DJ named aggro1, seems a little obsessed with Kelly Clarkson, having mashed her up with Led Zeppelin, Depeche Mode, Van Halen, The Eagles, and Earth Wind & Fire. I know, I know. But they just flat out ROCK. Part of the pleasure in combinations like these is that you find yourself grooving despite knowing that, by all rights, they should be unlistenable. And for mashed-up songs, you get mashed-up titles. Say you combine Mousse T's "Horny" with a Dandy Warhols track. Of course you have to call it "Horny as a Dandy". And it doesn't take much imagination to figure out which AC/DC and Smokey Robinson songs were bloodied to create "For Those About To Clown" It's fantastic. No, really. "Talking about music," David Byrne once said, "is like dancing about architecture." So, enough with the words. To find out if you share even a little of my converted zealot's enthusiasm, have a gander below at a list of favorites. Wherever possible, I've supplied web links to the mp3s and, in a couple of cases, videos. I've depended heavily on the fantastic goodblimey.com, which is the best compilation of downloadable bastard pop I've found on the web. There are lots and lots of others, of course. A Google search will send an avalanche down your broadband pipe. If you think you might like any of the stuff below, you might want to download now. Publishing mash-ups of copyrighted material isn't exactly, uh, legal. So, links go dead pretty often. Enjoy. * * * Pink vs ELO: Don’t Start Me Down Good Blimey Vol 2 Eve & Alicia Keys vs Joan Jett: Rock ‘n’ Roll Good Blimey Vol 1 Kylie Minogue vs New Order: Can't Get Blue Monday Out Of My Head This is one of the most famous bastard pop mash-ups, which became a hit in its own right. The mp3 was recorded live when Kylie paid the original mash-up DJs, Soulwax/2manyDJs, the ultimate compliment of performing the track as they had mashed it. Link to mp3 Kelly Clarkson vs Led Zep: Behind These Immigrant Eyes Link to video Link to mp3 This track, by the aforementioned aggro1, is one of the most laughed-about mash-ups on the net, and has garnered the fantastic "cover art" at right. Kelly Clarkson vs The Eagles: Gone Since One of These Nights Good Blimey Vol 6 Link to mp3 Dandy Warhols vs Beastie Boys: Intergalactic Friends Good Blimey Vol 1 Yaz vs Veruca Salt: Don’t Seether Good Blimey Vol 5 Jet vs The Beatles vs Joe Walsh: Jet Lady Good Blimey Vol 1 Dandy Warhols vs Mousse T: Horny as a Dandy Good Blimey Vol 3 Cure vs Black Box: Everybody In Between Good Blimey Vol 1 DJ Riko: For Those About To Clown Link to mp3 Diana King vs Paul Simon: Ain’t No Lovers Good Blimey Vol 2 Kool & The Gang vs Kelly Clarkson: Since You Been Gone Link to mp3 download page This is one of my faves. Another aggro1/Kelly Clarkson mash, it's oddly mis-labeled, as the instrumental behind Clarkson isn't Kool & The Gang at all, but Earth Wind & Fire. Fefe Dobson vs Macy Gray: I Try Everything Good Blimey Vol 1 Who vs Whitney Houston: Can’t Explain, OK Good Blimey Vol 1 Destiny’s Child vs 10CC: Dreadlock Child Good Blimey Vol 4 Queen vs Annie Lennox: No More Pressure Good Blimey Vol 7 Beyonce vs Jimi Hendrix: Work it out with a Foxy Lady Good Blimey Vol 1 Destiny’s Child vs The Cure: Close To A Bug Can't find source Benny King vs The Police: Stand By Me Can't find source Beyonce vs Ernest Ranglin: Work Out My Number Good Blimey Vol 1 Christina Aquilera vs Extreme: More Than A True Genie Good Blimey Vol 7 Pilchard: The Doors Take a Walk Down Sesame Street Link to mp3 Nirvana vs Michael Jackson: Billie Spirit Good Blimey Vol 3 Doobie Brothers vs Montell Jordan: This is How We Doobie Good Blimey Vol 1 Link to mp3 Kelly Clarkson vs Depeche Mode: Since You Been Gahan Link to mp3 Rush vs Annie Lennox: Annie Rush Good Blimey Vol 1 The Police vs Snow Patrol (The Snow Police): Every Car You Chase Link to mp3 Gwen Stefani vs Amerie: Bareback Amerie Good Blimey Vol 6 Human League vs Kylie Minogue: Slow Good Blimey Vol 1 ..