One of the coolest musical innovations in recent memory is the mash-up. For those that may not be familiar with the term, it is when you take the vocals from one song and place them over the instrumental from a different song. This technique was popularized last year when a DJ by the name of Danger Mouse took Jay-Z’s The Black Album and mashed it up with the Beatles White Album to create the Grey Album. Since then the art form has exploded with DJ getting more creative and sometimes mashing up five or more different song at the same time. So to honor the brilliance of this new art form I decided to list the best mash-up I have heard for the first time this past year. I tried to give credit to the creator of the mash-up, but due to some poor labeling, some have gotten lost and I even had to create a name for a few mash-ups that I discovered nameless. Please do not ask for me to send you any of these songs because for legal reasons I cannot confirm or deny that any of these songs actually exist not that I would illegally download copyrighted material even though that material has been altered from any version that could be bought. If you want the unaltered album version, I will list some of the songs featured in the mash-ups in parentheses.
1. Boulevard of Broken Songs - Dean Gray (Green Day - Boulevard of Broken Dream; Oasis – Wonderwall)
2. Spending One of These Nights with Kelly - Aggro1 (The Eagles – One of these Nights; Kelly Clarkson – Since U Been Gone)
3. You're The One I Want in the Next Episode - Artist Unknown (Songs from Grease; Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg – The Next Episode - 2001)
4. Behind These Immigrant Eyes - Aggro1 (Led Zeppelin – Immigrant Song; Kelly Clarkson – Behind These Hazel Eyes)
5. Karmastition - Artist Unknown (Alicia Keys – Karma; Stevie Wonder – Superstition)
6. It Takes a New Sensation - Big Ruckus (INXS – New Sensation; Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock – It Takes Two)
7. We Will Rock and Roll You - DJ Matt Hite (Joan Jett – I Love Rock and Roll; Queen – We Will Rock You; 50 Cent – In da Club)
8. Yoshimi Battles Snoop Dogg - DJ BC (Snoop Dogg – Song Unknown; The Flaming Lips – Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots)
9. Make Love in Ohio F*** War - Aggro1 (Public Enemy – Make Love F*** War; Crosby Stills Nash and Young – Ohio)
10. Somebody Rock Me - Party Ben (The Clash – Rock the Kasbah; The Killers – Somebody Told Me)
11. Rock wit Hurt - Aggro1 (Johnny Cash – Hurt; Ashanti – Rock wit You)
12. Behind This Summer Madness - Aggro1 (Kelly Clarkson – Behind These Hazel Eyes; Kool and the Gang – Summer Madness)
13. Drop When The World Ends Freak - Aggro1 (Snoop Dogg – Drop it Like it’s Hot; Dave Matthews Band – When the World Ends; Missy Elliott – Get Ur Freak On)
14. Feel Like Making La-Di-Da - FiDELSKi – (Bad Company – Feel Like Making Love; Slick Rick – La-Di-Da-Di)
15. Left You a Closing Lullaby - BigBadBaz (Avalanches – Song Unknown; Semisonic – Closing Time; Shawn Mullins – Lullaby)
16. Oblateeth - bass 211 (Obie Trice – Got Some Teeth; The Beatles - Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da)
17. Nothing In It's Right Place - DJ BC (The Roots – Don’t Say Nothin'; Radiohead – Song Unknown)
18. How We Do Cocaine - DJ Spenny (Eric Clapton – Cocaine; 50 Cent – How We Do)
19. Tipsy Bros - Artist Unknown (J-Kwon – Tispy; The Blues Brothers)
20. Thundertrain - DJ Over-EZ (AC/DC – Thunderstruck; Quad City DJ's – C’mon ‘N’ Ride It)
21. Somebody Told Me to Feel Good - Aggro1 (Gorillaz – Feel Good Inc.; The Killers – Somebody Told Me)
22. What I Got is Two Turntables – Artist Unknown (Beck – Where it’s At; Sublime – What I Got)
23. Dope Man Stew - Listen up! (N.W.A. – Dope Man; Green Day – Brain Stew)
24. Hey Ladies Night - DJ BC (Beastie Boys – Hey Ladies; Kool and the Gang – Ladies Night; Cyndi Lauper – Girls Just Want to Have Fun)
25. I Ain't Got Daughters - c.h.a.o.s productions – (Alicia Keys – If I Ain’t Got You; John Mayer – Daughters)
It seems as the years go by the music on the radio gets worse and worse. Even though I severely limited my radio listening this year thanks to my iPod and my custom made radio station on yahoo (check out the side bar if you give it a listen), every once I’d tune in just to see if they started playing anything good, and the resounding answer was no. Before I list the overplayed crap, I would make special note of Kevin Federline who released a song to the internet that I heard pieces of because I’m sure had I heard it in it’s entirely it or new its name would have made this list. And to Kevin, I’m pretty sure everyone will hate a lot longer than 2008. Now here are the worst forty songs the corroded the air worse than any Hummer could and in honor of the top 40 radio stations that have ruined radio even though I bet playlists are down to 25-30 these day (Feel free to leave the songs that really irritated you this year in the comment section):
1. Confessions of a Broken Heart (Daughter to Father) - Lindsay Lohan
2. Rich Girl - Gwen Stefani & Eve
3. L.O.V.E. - Ashlee Simpson
4. Hollaback Girl - Gwen Stefani
5. Like You - Lil’ Bow Wow & Ciara
6. Get Right - Jennifer Lopez
7. Laffy Taffy - DL4
8. Twisted Transistor - Korn
9. Lose Control - Missy Elliot, Ciara, & Fat Man Scoop
10. Hung Up - Madonna
11. One, Two Step - Ciara & Missy Elliot
12. Mockingbird - Eminem
13. Oh - Ciara & Ludacris
14. When I’m Gone - Eminem
15. Over and Over - Nelly & Tim McGraw
16. Wordplay - Jason Mraz
17. It’s Like That - Mariah Carey
18. Caught Up - Usher
19. Goodies - Ciara & Petey Pablo
20. Do Somethin’ - Britney Spears
21. Cold - Crossfade
22. The Ghost of You - My Chemical Romance
23. Solider - Destiny’s Child, Lil' Wayne, & T.I.
24. Grillz - Nelly, Paul Wall, Ali, & Gipp
25. Shake it Off - Mariah Carey
26. The Great Divide - Scott Stapp
27. Get it Poppin’ - Fat Joe & Nelly
28. Bat Country - Avenged Sevenfold
29. Candy Shop - 50 Cent & Olivia
30. Photograph - Nickelback
31. Just Want You to Know - Backstreet Boys
32. I'm Not Okay (I Promise) - My Chemical Romance
33. Untitled - Simple Plan
34. Blue Orchid - The White Stripes
35. Helena (So Long & Goodnight) - My Chemical Romance
36. Don’t Lie - Black Eyed Peas
37. Have a Nice Day - Bon Jovi
38. Don't Cha- Pussycat Dolls & Busta Rhymes
39. How We Do - The Game & 50 Cent
40. Don’t Phunk with My Heart - Black Eyed Peas
Before I get into the list, anyone who is smart probably has stopped watching Saturday Night Live after the Sandler, Myers, Rock era ended, yet for some reason I still turned but last week I was treated to the funniest sketch since the S/M/R era featuring Chris Parnell and newbie Andy Samburg. If you know what I’m talking about iTunes and NBC have given us a Christmas present in the form of the sketch for free download. If you haven’t seen it, I won’t go into it that much it as it will slightly ruin the hilarity, but watch out for the line "You can call us Aaron Burr by the way we're dropping Hamiltions." You definitely want to download it. Unfortunately iTunes doesn’t have a feature where you can link to videos but if you click on any of my iTunes links and go to the store’s main page, it’s will rotate on one of the top ads. So go ahead and download it, it’s free and I promise you won’t be disappointed.
And before I get into the best of coming after Christmas, I first want to start with those albums that you should all avoid. I would like to note that this list was compiled from albums that I reviewed this year and may not truly represent the worst of the worst, just those that I was willing to listen to. I’m sure albums released this year by Madonna, Korn, or the dude from Creed were even worst than most of the albums on the list, but I couldn’t bring myself to give them a listen. If there were any albums you absolutely hated in the past year feel free to leave them in the comment section. For those that are interested to check these albums on the list out, the link on the album goes directly to iTunes (and you can use it to get to the SNL skit too) while the links in the parentheses go to my original reviews.
1. A Little More Personal (Raw) – Lindsay Lohan (You Turned Something So Good So Bad)
2. The Real Thing – Bo Bice (Is He All the Things You Tried to Change Me Into)
3. I Am Me – Ashlee Simpson (Hey How Long Till You Face What’s Going On)
4. Switch – INXS (It Ain’t Pretty After the Show)
5. A Bigger Bang – The Rolling Stones (I Think I Made the Biggest Mistake of My Life)
6. Get Rich or Die Trying Soundtrack (The Top Is So Much Better Than the Bottom, Yet More Boring)
7. All the Right Reasons – Nickelback (I Guess it Wasn’t Really Right)
8. Almost Honest – Josh Kelley (Hard Times Happen)
9. Mr. A-Z – Jason Mraz (It Takes a Thought to Make a Sound)
10. Tommyland: The Ride – Tommy Lee (I’d Rather Play You on My TV)
11. Somebody’s Miracle – Liz Phair (Do You Really Know Me at All)
12. TP.3 Reloaded – R. Kelly (I Hope Y’all Got Yo Playa Cards)
13. Unpredictable – Jamie Foxx (Things Have Come So Mundane)
14. Oh No – OK Go (Who’s House Are You Haunting Tonight)
15. Seventeen Days – 3 Doors Down (If I Get Boring Would You Still Call Me Superman)
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