Over the past year or more, the internet has been going crazy with DIY mash-ups of popular songs popping up all over YouTube. And forsome reasonmost of them seem to involve ‘All Star’ by Smash Mouth.
In the interests of balance, we’ve compiled a list of the best and most creative mash-ups in history, and tried really hard not to let Smash Mouth make the list.
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1. Stranger Things x Starboy (C418 Remix)
This mash-up is pretty much the sound of 2016: it combines the theme song from the biggest show of the year with one of the biggest songs of the year, and it weirdly works.
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2. Soda_Jerk & The Avalanches – ‘The Was’
To celebrate the release of The Avalanches’ second album, the New York-based artists Soda_Jerk released a mash-up video that’s part music video, part experimental film. The 13-minute clip mashes songs from the album with over 150 clips from films and TV shows in what can only be described as the visual version of The Avalanches’ sound.
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3. Danger Mouse –The Grey Album
In 2004, renowned producer Danger Mouse combined The Beatles’ so-called ‘White Album’ with Jay-Z’sThe Black Albumto formThe Grey Album. The mash-up caused a bit of trouble when EMI Records attempted to stop its distribution, despite Jay-Z and Paul McCartney having no issue with it.
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4. Jaymee Franchina – B.I.G. Flume Part 2Pac
Ever since thatIInsane’ remix with Killer Mikefeatured on Flume’s mixtape, everyone knew how well rap could work with his tracks. Jaymee Franchina saw this potential and used it to make two mash-up albums of Flume’s work, pairing Flume’s albums with popular hip/hop artists. The most recent mash-up album combines Tupac with Flume’s second album and its companion EP.
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5. Wait What –The Notorious XX
The San Francisco producer Wait What has produced three mash-up albums in seven years. His first album, released in 2010, combined the highly acclaimed debut album from The xx with music from The Notorious B.I.G. The record received the thumbs up from members of The xx, and The Guardian named it the best mash-up album of 2010.
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6. Coins – Daft Science
In 2014, Coins gave us something we have always wanted without knowing it: an album of classic Beastie Boys songs, remixed using only Daft Punk samples. Awesome.
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Highly Commended
Hey now, not everything could make this list. Mash-ups are everywhere in music, and not all that glitters is gold; only shooting stars break the mould. So in that spirit, here are four more mixes that narrowly missed our list…
