Girl Talk, Super Mash Bros. among best artists in underplayed brand
These days, there are just as many musical genres as there are performing artists.
Pick any two genres, and chances are, you can find some combination of the two — there’s folk punk, crunkcore (a screamo/hip-hop combo) and even Nintendocore, which matches hardcore metal with — yep, you guessed it — a variety of video game music. While you may not have the time to unearth all of these obscure genres by yourself, this biweekly guide may help put you on the right path to new music discovery.
What to Dig Up This Week: Mashup
Also known as: bootleg, smashup, bastard pop
What is mashup?
Consider any of your favorite songs. Now, strip down the best elements of those tracks, put them together and shake well. That’s a mashup. A blend of two or more tracks, mashups have been around for years. However, it has only been in the past decade or so that mashup artists and their tracks have skyrocketed in popularity, with many bootleg spinners headlining major music fests like Bonnaroo and Lollapalooza.
What makes it awesome?
Mashups turn the seemingly impossible into the possible and quite likeable. No genre, song or artist is off limits, and the medleys are endless, with some songs containing upward of 20 or more samples in just one track. Mashup artists can choose to sample any part of a track from the vocals to the bass line and mix them any way they see fit. The beats can also change rapidly — Lil Wayne may be rapping “Lollipop” on top of the Red Hot Chili Peppers’s “Under the Bridge” 30 seconds before it flips to Huey’s “Pop, Lock and Drop It” over AC/DC’s riffing “Thunderstruck” guitars. The fusions are free, the flows are unexpected and it’s almost impossible to tell what the mashup artist will lay down next.
The best in the biz
Girl Talk (aka Gregg Gillis): Let’s face it, Greg Gillis looks like any other skinny white guy out there. But when he gets behind that laptop, Gillis is transformed into Girl Talk, one of the best-known masters of mashup. Going strong for a decade now, Girl Talk has traversed the globe with his tracks, hosting massive dance parties (complete with balloons that burst with confetti), including last year’s show right here at USC. Girl Talk samples across the decades from Eminem to Al Green, and his work shows he knows when to add the right sound at the right time. Recently, Girl Talk dropped his new mix tape “All Day” for free download on record label Illegal Art’s website.
Super Mash Bros.: “Scientifically proven to get that booty movin’!” Or so the Los Angeles-based trio claim, but they’ll let you be the judge. Made up of members Dick Fink, Ethan Dawes and Nicolas Fenmore, Super Mash have released two albums and have toured countless cities with their mashups — all while being full-time college students. Often touted as even better than Girl Talk, Super Mash tend to sample less in the long ago and more in the not-so-long-ago, selecting many ’90s chart-toppers to pair with more popular hits of today. The progression between track changes is flawless and will often leave you wondering why the original artist didn’t think of that in the first place.
Where can you get it?
Most of these artists offer all of their music online at a low price or for free. Of course, these are only two of the best, and there are thousands more out there that also blow mashup out of the water.