Martial Mashup Artistry

Here's a recent release from DJ Earworm, a mashup artist whom I really admire.

Before you watch it, a confession: as a quasi-amateur musician, I'll admit that most popular music makes my stomach retch, given the relative unoriginality and low level of technical prowess of the writing, performance, and overall message.....however, I still find Earworm's craft to be fascinating.

Some background: DJ Earworm (aka Jordan Roseman) is a San Francisco based artist who has grown to Internet fame through "mashups", a form of remixing which is essentially a cut/paste job on several songs to blend them into a new version.  It's possible because most popular music is constructed with similar mechanics and can be taken apart and reassembled, like audio Legos.  DJs do versions of this all the time, often by mixing 2-3 songs together for dance mixes and/or workout music.

Earworm is no typical DJ though.  He displays a mastery yet to be matched....even by other prominent mashup artists.

Since 2007, DJ Earworm has created a mix with the Top 25 Billboard songs from each year, synthesizing elements of all 25 songs into a single mashup that has its own sense of lyrical melody (and a different overall meaning from the original works), with accompanying clips from the music videos so you can see his work.  While I feel that the Billboard Top 25 doesn't necessarily have much high-quality material to work with, Earworm is a genius at weaving it all into an interesting musical tapestry that I wouldn't mind working out to.  His 2008 mashup is my personal favorite, followed closely by this 2010 mix.  (I also confess that I've rocked out to this in my car at least twice, thanks to the free MP3 download on his website.)

Listeners can enjoy it on multiple levels.  Casual listeners may be able to enjoy hearing the catchy, familiar beats because it's like hearing several songs at once (because it is).  Serious listeners can appreciate Earworm's technique (his formal training includes degrees in music and computer science) in the way that he painstakingly shifts pitches and matches tempo in order to smoothly fit everything together as he layers his music.  Earworm is no joke - he wrote the book on how to do mashups.....here's his table of contents.

He even manages to fit in some commentary about the overall theme and feel of the music that we gravitate towards each year, briefly connecting it with a general societal mood that reflects the times that we live in:

In 2010, pop has gone into serious all-out party mode. In 2009 the music was encouraging us to pick ourselves back up after being knocked down again, and to rock out to some great dance music while your at it. This year’s music tells us to keep going now that we’re up and having fun. In fact, the fun seems to be in such overdrive that it borders on recklessness. Usher urges us to "dance like it’s the last night of your life”, and Katy Perry wants us to “run away and don’t ever look back”. 

I've written about Earworm a couple of times in my UBBT blogs, but my reason for doing so hasn't been to talk about his music, as much as it has been about the way he performs his craft, and the way we perform ours.  You see, there are plenty of DJs who don't have a clue about music, mixing mediocre beats that play in thousands of nightclubs, simply by randomly cutting/pasting music without purpose, without meaning, often allowing their DJ software to do the work for them while they stand behind a mixing board and pretend to look cool spinning their iPod.

And as you begin to expose yourself to the many wonders and projects of the UBBT, you must also make a decision as to how seriously you want to pursue your craft.  You can glance at the work, infuse it into your school in a haphazard way, without knowing much, and wonder why the results are mediocre even though the idea is so well-executed elsewhere.

Or, like Earworm....you train yourself to become a master in the fields that you share with the world, and infuse your product (your teachings, your life) with the kind of masterful artistry that only you can create.

Choose well, and take action in the direction of your dreams, my friends.


P.S.  Hope all of you are healthy, happy, and living well.  The holidays have tied me up, but I have some great material in the works to share with you all!  I'll be in touch again soon.  Until then, have a Happy New Year!