Very true, and seemingly very true in the world of mashups which was called Bastard Pop back then, Must say I wasn’t expecting the return of the Hampster Dance [sic] so soon in this WAP mashup by TayFerret!
Certainly Soundclown, memes and Crumplebang have kept the silly bootleg thing alive, but there’s a real feeling of deja vu when people in their 20’s like oneboredjeu put a cutesy girl pop vocal over Rammstein:
Or Neil Cicierega cuts up and reformulates old early internet adverts, acapellas and songs like Ghostbusters to say silly things, like a modern Cassetteboy or Negativland:
Even early 00’s faves Eye of the Tiger and Limp Bizkit has had surprising remix revivals, along with Nine Inch Nails and DMX, and more recently joined with Death Grips, because shouty man/metal over a happy/80’s/game soundtrack never gets old!
And reboots like this – those on Twitter will have seen the heated debate about remakes, glad that ah! credited Pop Bastard with this one, even though I think it was an accidental remake. And yes this proves why remakes aka Pomdeter’s name for it ‘reboots’ are great – because it sounds better and shinier than before.
There is precedence for this, Lenlow’s 2005 remake of Apeboy’s Enya vs Prodigy where he credited it, even though Apeboy was a very early mashup, from 1999 if I recall correctly, He did it live in sections playing both MP3s at once and recording it, way before Acid and Traktor et al.
(Yes I think it was earlier than Stroke of Genius. Smoke that in your pipe early mashup historians!)
And even the return of rapper over soundtrack orchestral scores and classical which was very common. Back then it was more John Williams/Star Wars but also later Hanz Zimmer’s Time got a massive look in via memes – and indeed has again, I seem to remember someone did an entire Jay-Z Black Album orchestral/soundtrack album once?
I for one welcome this revival, anyway. It is why I came back to playing and making mashups, because it felt like it was time to return although I never really went away. Hopefully the years of endless pop vs pop/EDM vs EDM multi-mashes have gone, and a return of humour.
I will say this though: please don’t recycle the same Thomas the Tank Engine/LL Cool J/DMX/Smash Mouth/Soundgarden/Slipknot/Jay-Z 99 Problems/Blink 182/Disturbed/Alanis/Biggie/2Pac/Rock vs Rap/Rap vs Rap cliches like this is DJ Hero or Fuser and you need to infinite monkey all the combinations until you get Mashup Shakespeare!
They were lame in 2003, well shortly after as those jokes have an exceedingly short shelf life and outstay their welcome fast….try the well known with the obscure/weird/un-mashed. There is a world out there of un-mashed music, especially outside the States. And some very forgotten and funny genres even within the States like DJNoNo’s beloved Myron Floren with his Disco Accordion.
And indeed, despite the rise of Strictly, no-one has topped his Ballroom album? Big band/jazz/classical etc are very untapped genres….
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