Every year, pop pundits across the country make bold declarations of success on behalf of every genre of music. If “It’s the year of pop” or “This will be a breakout year for country” sound familiar, it’s because they are. And for once, everyone is right–to a degree. The era of such categorization may be caving in on itself if 2005 becomes the year that mashups reign supreme.
Don’t be mistaken, mashups are nothing new. While the art of layering artists from different genres over one another can be traced back to the ’70s, it’s now starting a massive ascent out of basements and peer-to-peer file sharing networks and into the mainstream: Ludacris and Sum 41 are on “Saturday Night Live.” MTV brought Jay-Z and Linkin Park together on “Collision Course,” and the mashup album is spending its ninth week on the Billboard album chart after peaking at No. 1. Green Day and Oasis trade riffs on Q101.
And if local DJ “Psycho” Mike Flores has anything to do with it, mashups will be in every club in Chicago before long.
Hedging a bet on mashups being the trend of the future rather than the fad of the moment, Flores is teaming up with Holiday Club, 4000 N. Sheridan Rd., to throw all-mashup nights called Cease and Desist every Sunday this month.
“An art form born of technology won’t stay underground forever,” Flores said. “Besides, it’s exciting, fun music. Even if you hate the artists on the track, you’ll still dance to it because it’s so different.”
Likewise, Woody Fife has been betting on the growth of mashups for years. After stints in New York and St. Louis, the Q101 afternoon drive host is making his preference known on the Woody, Tony & Ravey show.
“A few years ago when I DJ’d for K-Rock in New York and I was pitching mashups as the next big thing to management, they showed some interest, but the conversation never got much further than that,” Fife said. “But now, just a few years later, it’s growing because it’s being done with the right music.”
The right music would be hard rock and hip-hop. And that’s the main difference between the UK mashup scene that reintroduced the art form back in 2000 and the growing American scene.
“The whole Jay-Z/Linkin Park thing is so American,” said producer Mark Vidler, who has a keen interest in growing the mashup genre in America. Now one of the most prominent producers in the field, Vidler operates under the Go Home Productions moniker and has turned a bedroom hobby into a full-time gig working with established stars such as David Bowie and Alicia Keys. One of his best-known works, the Sex Pistols-meets-Madonna masterpiece “Ray of Gob,” was well-received with both artists but ultimately nixed as an official release by Maverick Records.
Although record companies have stopped well short of giving the genre the legal footing needed to become profitable, that hasn’t stopped the legions of underground producers from splicing Eminem and Metallica together and posting mashups online.
“Corporations are really powerless to crack down on mashups,” said San Francisco’s “Party” Ben Gill, a notable U.S. producer taking part in the movement. Listeners of San Francisco’s Live 105 were the first to hear his Green Day/Oasis/ Travis/ Eminem monstermash “Boulevard of Broken Songs,” which has since enjoyed airplay around the globe, even getting props from Green Day frontman Billy Joe Armstrong.
“This is Seattle in the beginning of the grunge era; it’s an amazing thing happening here,” Gill said. “This is an art form.”
Back in Chicago, Flores has a different perspective on it.
“We’re saving pop music.”
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Edited by Cara DiPasquale (cdipasquale@tribune.com) and Victoria Rodriguez (vrodriguez@tribune.com)
