Beat-Boot-Ique

Beat-Boot-Ique is the newest Mashup (Bootlegs, B*stard Pop), Remixes, Long Mixes & Podcasts forum! Check us out!

What is a Mashup?

Mashup or a bootleg, is a musical genre which, in its purest form, consists of the combination of the Instrumental from one song with the Acapella 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.

A vs B

Putting an acapella against a completely different backing track in order to make a "third song" is the original "mission" of bastard pop, and it is no surprise that, in the wake of "A Stroke of Genie-us", the genre has continued to focus on this basic premise.

Later notable "versus" songs include:

Soulwax: "Dreadlock Child" (10cc's "Dreadlock Holiday" v Destiny's Child's "Independent Woman")
McSleazy: "Don't Call Me Song 2" (Blur's "Song 2" v Madison Avenue's "Don't Call Me Baby")
Loo and Placido: "My Favourite Name" (The Cardigans' "My Favourite Game" v Destiny's Child's "Say My Name")
DJ WyZz: "Everybody Gossip Now" (Missy Elliot & Ludacris' "Gossip Folks" v C & C Music Factory's "Everybody Dance Now")
Richard X vs Liberty X: "Being Nobody" (Chaka Khan's "Ain't Nobody" v Human League's "Being Boiled")
Kernkraft 400 vs Goblin: "Zombi - Zombie Nation" (Kernkraft 400's "Zombie Nation" v Goblin's "Zombi") [As Featured on Shaun of the Dead Soundtrack].
In addition, Lionel Vinyl, Soundhog, Go Home Productions and Party Ben, amongst many others, have produced a number of critically acclaimed songs in this vein, and in some instances have secured record deals on the back of these exercises, which arguably serve as "demo MP3s" of their songwriting and production skills.

However, not all mash-ups are as simple as A vs B. In some cases, DJs will mash 3, 4, 5, and even 6 songs to form one complete track. Mixing more than two tracks together can be a daunting task, and it requires a great deal of skill.

Recent notable "multiple mashes" include:

DJ BC: "Summer in the City" (Harry Belafonte v Ace of Bass v Jurassic 5 v The Beach Boys v Third World)
DJ WyZz: "Satisfaction Megamix" (Benny Benassi v 50 Cent v Black Eyed Peas v Sir Mix-a-Lot)
DJ John: "Devil Candy Grillz" (Nelly & Paul Wall v 50 Cent v Kid Rock & Joe C v N.W.A)
DJ Earworm: "Over The Confluence of Giants" (Under the Influence of Giants v Steely Dan v David Bowie v Queen v Steve Miller v Common)

Glitch pop

Glitch pop is a subgenre of the bastard pop scene which marries the Digital Signal Processing (DSP) wizardry associated with Kid 606 and Tigerbeat6 records to the ostensibly familiar contours of pop. Sometimes this is done in a spirit of homage; sometimes it serves merely as a form of ridicule and even vilification; often it is both at the same time.

An example of the "double science" at play in glitch pop is Skkatter's "Dirty Pop", which takes a song that is already an epic of carefully constructed digital micro-malfunctions (BT's deconstruction of *NSYNC's "Pop") and pushes it even further out to the margins of musical mayhem. Similarly, Australian bootlegger and glitch pop co-conspirator Dsico has reworked a number of R'n'B tunes by such artists as The Neptunes and (again) *NSYNC in a spirit that is at once both satirical and steeped in fanboydom. In most cases these remixes render ostensibly mainstream songs avant garde and fresh, sometimes by working against the spirit of the original, but often by leveraging the sugar rush at the heart of much of the best contemporary pop, and adding sonic CGI to its emotional armoury.

In the UK, the most notable exponent of the genre is Poj Masta, a teenage schoolboy whose work has been keenly supported by DJs such as Eddy Temple-Morris and James Hyman of London's Xfm radio station. Their weekly show, The Remix, has played a major role in nurturing new bootleggers and bringing them to the attention of a wide audience.

Notable glitch pop tunes include:

Skkatter: "Madonna Is A Filthy Slut"
Dsico: "Flash In Herre", "Fuckin Girlfriend"
DJ Lance Lockarm: "Bladderwaul"
Poj Masta: "Crazy In Love"

Remixes

Technically, all bastard pop songs are remixes. But while most are made up entirely of plundered material, some bootleggers have fused old acapellas with completely new compositions of their own devising.

The most popular example of this phenomenon is the Björk Remix Web, which contained hundreds of remixes of Björk tunes (for which the acapellas are rarely, if ever, available - the vocals are typically extracted by the application of clever EQing or "phase inversion"). However, the site is currently undergoing "reconstruction" and has been unavailable for several years. (A partial archive is available at the Björk Remix Web Archive.)

Another popular example with fans of Japanese pop is Evil Morning, an album which combines vocal tracks from Morning Musume and their associated artists with new instrumental tracks that rearrange or replay the original music in the style of hard rock or heavy metal.

Bootleg albums

DJ Danger Mouse's critically acclaimed remix project The Grey Album effectively launched a new bastard pop subgenre: the bootleg album. While The Beatles had made appearances on bootleg tracks prior to this album (for instance PPM's "A Life In The Day" and JPL's "Let It Be Missy Elliott (Beatlesmix)"), The Grey Album distinguished itself by being made up entirely of samples from The Beatles' White Album and vocals from Jay-Z's smash hit The Black Album. The project received considerable attention following EMI's legal threats towards distributors of the album.

Notable bootleg albums include:

Revolved (created by CCC) a popular mash up of the songs on The Beatles Revolver album with various artists.
The Beastles (created by dj BC): Meet the Beastles (The Beatles and the Beastie Boys)
The Kleptones: A Night At The Hip-Hopera (Queen)
DJ Tommy The Cat: Phish Battles The Pink Floyd Robots (Phish, The Flaming Lips Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, and Pink Floyd The Wall)
West Sounds: Kanye West vs. The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds (Lushlife)
Various Artists: Always Outsiders, Never Outdone (The Prodigy)
Various Artists: Flip The Switch (The Chemical Brothers)
Dean Gray (a collaboration between Party Ben and Team9): American Edit (Green Day)
The Beachles (Clayton Counts): Sgt. Petsound's Lonely Hearts Club Band (The Beatles and The Beach Boys)
Culture Shock: Mash Ups Vol. 1
Various Artists: The Best Mashups In The World Ever Are From San Francisco 2
DJ Z-Trip & DJ P: Uneasy Listening
DJ Deep See: Phish Remixes Volume 0 + Volume 1 (Phish vs. Jay-Z, Missy Elliott, Snoop Dogg, Eminem and others)
Totom - Nine Inch Nails: "With Boots"
Girl Talk: Night Ripper
Various Artists: Hippocamp Ruins Pet Sounds
9th Wonder:God's Stepson
RyKe:Ice City
Q-Unit Queen v.s. G-Unit
The Remix Demon Kon-Tempt's Mash Up Of Original Vocals, Remixes And Mashes
Sound Advice: Gnarls Biggie

Cut-ups

While there is some overlap between the terms "cut up" and "mash up", the former has increasingly come to refer to pieces that rely on the humour (or pathos) of reconstructed spoken word and video material.

The best known cutups remix political speeches and rallies to satirical effect. Johan Söderberg's "Endless Love", in which George W. Bush and Tony Blair appear to serenade each other like lovebirds, and Chris Morris' "Bushwhacked", a détournement of Bush's 2003 State of the Union Address, are two popular examples.

Notable cut up artists include Cassetteboy, Osymyso, rx, Cartel Communique and Evolution Control Committee.

Remixes

A remix is an alternative version of a song, different from the original version. A remixer uses audio mixing to compose an alternate master of a song, adding or subtracting elements, or simply changing the equalization, dynamics, pitch, tempo, playing time, or almost any other aspect of the various musical components. Some remixes involve substantial changes to the arrangement of a recorded work, but many are subtle, such as creating a "vocal up" version of an album cut that emphasizes the lead singer's voice. A song may be remixed to give a song that wasn't popular a second chance at radio and club play, or to alter a song to suit a specific music genre or radio format. Remixes should not be confused with edits, which usually involve shortening a final stereo master for marketing purposes.