Music

Like most people, I’ve gone through musical “phases”, where I’ve listened to say, Speed Metal for a year… or strictly remixes for a few months. That kind of thing. Yes, my tastes have changed and adapted over the years, but there’s one genre that has out-shined all the rest, and kept my boredom at bay: mash-ups. 

So I was watching the premier of The X Factor earlier tonight featuring judges Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul, Nicole Scherzinger, and LA Reid. The X Factor is a talent show just like American Idol and America’s Got Talent. As some of you may know, I am always on the lookout for new artists.

The one artist that really stood out for me on the season premier was Chris Rene performing an original song called ‘Young Homie’. When Chris Rene first said that he will be performing an original song (especially the name of the song), the judges sort of rolled their eyes and already started to judge him before he even sang. To everyone’s surprise, Chris Rene did an awesome job and got a standing ovation. His vocals on the audition really reminded me of Mike Posner.

I heard Pop Culture by Madeon a few months ago and it immediately got in my head with its crunchy synth and infectious dance styling, so when it came up in my playlist today, I decided to check for a video. When I found the official release on YouTube, I was blown away by what I was seeing. I knew it was obviously a mashup, and could pick out bits and pieces of songs I like, but I didn’t realize just how deep this rabbit hole went. The seamless editing blends 39 separate tracks from artists ranging widely from ELO and The Who to Chromeo and Nero.  Watching Madeon’s fingers dancing across his Launchpad and trying to figure out how he’s keeping track of the samples and levels while playing a freestyle organ solo is nothing short of amazing. His mastery of digital dj equipment seemingly knows no bounds. And then, I found out he’s only 17 years old – queue puff of smoke leaking out my ears. Hit the jump and turn it up for a great party track, an unbelievable visual use of musical technology… and bonus utterly ridiculous dance video .