Mash-ups & gravy (vegan, natch!)

For those of you who just realized what that icon was on your desktop & found the Internet just this very moment: A mash-up (or boot or blend) is the music produced when one puts the vocal track from one song atop the instrumental from another. That's rather simplified as there are many more types of mash-ups with many more types of "mashing-up" as it were, but you just found the Internet, so let's keep it simple, shall we?

Mash-ups have been around since, well, since the recording of music itself really... Back in the day, vinyl was pressed with the vocal stripped away leaving just the instrumental track so aspiring singers could groove along on their Victrolas. The "mash-up" as an actual art-form would start to evolve with the advent of hip-hop as rappers would freestyle over various tracks & then dj's took it to a whole 'nother level.

More than a few years back, the Internet her-own-self erupted with all the media latching on to the mash-up being the "new big thang". Now, things have died down, but mash-ups are still being made by many talented (& not-so-talented) folk. Some of my favorite new tracks are indeed mash-ups. When done well, a mash-up brings a whole new context to a beloved song, or can bring a heretofore unrealized aspect to a much hated one. When done not-so-well, they really suck. Most mash-ups regrettably fall into the second category. It actually takes a very talented individual to master the science & wonder of a good mash-up.

To assess & appreciate this process, let us take a master class in the art of the mash-up as some of the best purveyors of the genre all take on the same song:

Extra credit: team 9 hits it outta' the proverbial park with a different Stripes song head-to-head with N*E*R*D~
"She Wants To Twist"

Class dismissed.