Rebecca Farr

A&E Editor

The music scene seems to be an ever-changing phenomenon. From jazz to pop, from rock to R&B and from hip-hop to electronic, the music industry has seen a countless amount of genres and styles that people from all over the world have come to know and love.

A different type of music production, commonly known as “mash-ups” has taken flight and soared through the air in the past decade.

A mash-up is most recognized as the composition of two or more pre-recorded songs. What makes mash-ups special is that the sound of multiple tracks is well blended so that the ear picks it up as one song. Mash-up artist Gregg Gillis, popularly known as Girl Talk (who performed at Keene State College’s  Spring 2011 concert), has shown through his great success the possibilities of who he used to be—the man behind the laptop.

Technology’s advancements have played a big part in the emerging mash-up craze. There are various types of software that are purposefully made for its users to mix and match songs to create a masterpiece of their own.

“You find an instrumental type of the song to use for the background, find the key and beats per minute and then you find the song you want to mash it up with,” said Chris Hill, senior and Business major at KSC. To Hill, it’s all in good fun but there is more than just the selection of good songs to the mash-up process.

“You want the songs to be in the same key so they don’t mess up when you mix them,” he said, “You find sections where the core percussions match up and throw them over one another.”

Hill said his software program makes music mixing really accessible. One problem with such convenience is that more people have the ability to get a lot more creative, but, “There are also the talentless people mashing songs up together and it sounds awful,” he said.

In a slightly different direction, junior and Graphic Design major Aaron Testa DJs in his spare time and creates mash-ups as well.

What differentiates Testa and Hill is that Testa makes his mash-ups live on the DJ scene.

“Just like instruments, you have to practice what goes well together,” Testa said, “So when I DJ live I like to already have a good idea of what will work and what won’t.”

Testa said it’s a lot of beat matching, especially as a live DJ. Between instrumentals and acapellas, he matches the tempos. Two songs are playing at the same time but the timing is fundamental to the success of a true mash-up.

If timing is off, the two songs do not fit together as one, and could very well create a DJ disaster.

Luckily, the accuracy of Testa’s Serato DJ Software is usually on point to determine the tempo of songs. However, certain tempos may look similar on the computer screen but do not sound nearly as similar. In this case, “You have to have an ear for it, not everyone can do it,” Testa said.

Dr. Craig Sylvern, Coordinator of Music Technology and composition professor at KSC  said he sees the entertainment value in mash-ups. “In one form or another, mash-ups have been around for decades,” he said, “Medleys are very similar, it’s sort of the live performance version of a mash-up.”

In another case, though, at-home produced mash-ups lead Sylvern toward concern. From the perspective of a professional performer and composer, Sylvern questions the issue of legality with song mixing.

“They’re [mash-up artists] taking bits and pieces of copy written stuff, not changing it, and giving no credit, so it’s a copyright issue,” he said.

But, Hill said that in his own mash-up posts to YouTube, he inserts a disclaimer to the artists of songs he uses to prove they are not his productions, that he simply mixed existing songs together as one. Not only that, but YouTube also has a screening software that removes the video if the user infringed on a copyright.

In live DJ mash-ups, copyright issues do not stand strict as it does to at-home mash-up artists. While making mash-ups at home is for listening entertainment, Sylvern said the DJ mash-ups serve as dancing purposes rather than listening.

As a live DJ, Testa said one of the hardships is to read the crowd and continue to produce mixes that they do not get sick of.

“The easiest part [about live mixing] is having fun, but the hardest part is also having fun,” Testa said, “It’s easy to have fun and get lost in the music but it’s hard to have fun and get the songs on point … but I also have to make sure that everyone else enjoys it and is having a good time.” Testa said his biggest inspiration is Adam Goldstein, otherwise known as DJ AM. “The industry is constantly changing, and music is becoming more readily available with sound packages,” Testa said, “It’s all about trying to find your sound.” Finding and sticking to “your own sound” seems to be difficult in the fast-paced music industry,  and that is exactly why Testa looks up to DJ AM’s work.

“He stuck to his sound, he stuck to who he was as a DJ and he let his DJing speak more than his productions. He wasn’t afraid to play what he liked,” Testa said.

Inspirations like Skrillex, Tiesto and Girl Talk started over a decade ago in the same place as Testa and Hill. Mash-up artists are leading the music industry in a whole different direction.

Famous music producer, Avicii, has continuously been raising the bar by mashing-up his own produced songs over one another to create a true musical treasure. Take a listen to the song “Fade Into Darkness.” Initially it sounds like one hit song. But, give the ear a second listen and see it is actually a mix of several compositions.

Who knows- perhaps the future of the mash-up music  genre lies right in your laptop.

Rebecca Farr can be contacted at rfarr@keene-equinox.com