This is a supreme – indeed superpowered – example of skills. Media matching, synchronization, and content management.
Like so many who simply cannot imagine how a thing is done, this is simply an amazing mystery to me. I imagine it starts with a riff matching another riff, then cascades from there. But, isn’t that how it always is? One riff leads to another, besides…
The jump cuts between Ozzy saying “I’ve been a bad bad boy” and Donna in the tutu are a collision of cultural iconography that would make Andre Bretton scream orgiastically. Jesus fucking christ, how can I even attempt to type out superlatives after that!?
Then there is:
I actually may like that more than the source material. Oh, wait, AI something bad something or other.
Remember, this was done with human pattern matching skills and blending but, uh, wait something, I dunno but YOU CANNOT POSSIBLY DEFEAT:
I apologize for leaving this out initially. There are also some Michael Jackson mashups that are genuinely great:
I will say that I would be happy to see any of these performances, live. Because fucking awesome. Plus, Donna Summer in a tutu. Something something James Brown WooooAHG!!!!!
Of those three, I like the James Brown-Judas Priest mashup the best. BUT, James Brown without the horn section is blasphemy.
WooooAHG!!!!!
Something a little more sedate, and without video, now.
I was put on to the Reply All podcast when someone in the Guardian said episode #158 was the best podcast episode of anything, ever. You be the judge: https://gimletmedia.com/shows/reply-all/o2h8bx
Anyway… that got me into listening to other episodes, and in one they identified what they felt to be the best hold music of all time, a simple instrumental track called “Simplicity” by a band called Macroform. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqUqm47soSk
Meanwhile, on the album “High as Hope”, Florence + The Machine have a track called “Sky Full of Song”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1TSiB9OuVM
And some genius did apparently almost nothing at all, apart from taking the acapella track from “Sky Full of Song” and laying it over “Simplicity”. It’s hard to see if there are ANY other adjustments or changes – it’s as if two entirely separate artists somehow accidentally wrote two tracks that just mesh together perfectly. I’m familiar with mashups, of course, but they always sound like they take a lot of effort. This one bafflingly feels like it took almost no effort at all.
Not with you on this one at all.
I tried to listen to the second one because I like the original. I had to shut it off after a few seconds. My ears felt violated and I sincerely regret clicking on that video. After that, I feel zero inclination to click on any of the other videos presented. I do not care how it was made, it made me want to puke, and I am not exaggerating. I quite often, though not always, dislike remixes or remakes, but I do not remember having such a visceral dislike of a piece of music, ever. The disconnect between what I expected to hear based on my knowledge and liking of the original “Down Under” and whatever this is was just too much.
To me personally, this is an abomination, and I cannot be persuaded to like it.
@charly, 5
I completely get your reaction. I find the remix (mashup? melding? morph?) oddly disturbing.
I don’t know exactly what it makes me feel – but it definitely makes me feel something. Genuine art here, just not art I enjoy, and yet still clearly a work of serious talent and vision.
Marcus, I can’t tell from your post – was this created by an AI? Because if so, I may be revising some of my opinions.
It reminds me quite a lot of a much more sophisticate version of the Mario Bros remix of Nine Inch Nails’ “Closer” (NSFW). I imagine someone, likely with an altered mental state, switching between different songs and thinking “This kind of works, I wonder if….”