Symphony #5 vs Galvanize and Paperback Believer

I wanted to finish up this week of mashups with this one from DJs From Mars: Symphony vs Galvanize:

While I like DJs From Mars, in the last few years they’ve developed a consistent pattern to their mashups where they’re starting with a techno/house base and layering other works on top of that base. And they’ll distort the hell out of the original works in order to make it fit with the techno base. I’m sure it works wonderfully for them in club performances; it’s a great commercial product.

But it loses something of the artistry that you get with works like Go Home Production’s “Paperback Believer”:

I don’t know if this is a sign that mashup has seen its day come and go – the Bootie Blog (which introduced me to many of these works) is still going strong, and they’re getting new artists on a regular basis. As computers and the tech to make these kinds of works well has gotten cheaper and more accessible over the last decade, we’ve seen a lot of people trying their hand at mashups. Many of them badly.

But I’m reminded of a conversation I had with an impressively skill graffiti artist. I said that I’d love to have art like he could produce on more walls and public spaces, but the crappy tagging just annoyed me.

He looked at me funny, and said, “How do you think I got started?”

I hope you’ve enjoyed these mashups I’ve shared with you. There’s a lot more out there; keep your eyes (and ears) open.