Have you ever heard a song only to think, “man, this song would be awesome over the beat of Ke$ha’s “Tik Tok”?” Well, if you’re a budding mashup artist, chances are you have.

Mashups (otherwise known as bootlegs) are original songs created entirely by blending two or more pre-recorded songs together. Usually, one song’s lyrics will be placed over another song’s beat using a music editing program like Virtualdj or Audacity. Mashups can be a lot of fun and artists usually strive to combine two seemingly different genres into one flawless piece.

The staff at The Bolt recently became interested in mashups upon finding out that one of our very own, Max Provost’14, is an avid mashup artist.

Max uses Virtualdj to edit and remix his favorite songs into hit mashups. So far, his favorite creation has been a Rick Ross vs. Skrillex mashup– which blends Ross’ vocals over Skrillex’s dubstep beat.

“The trick is to find two songs that have the same beats per minute.” Max says.

Junior Amanda Durfee has also tried her hand at mashups, agreeing with Max that similar beat pattens are essential to a clean mix. Amanda uses a combination of Virtualdj and Audactiy. Her proudest production so far has been a Skrillex vs. 30h!3 mashup of “Don’t trust me.”

A quick search online reveals that mashups are quite the internet phenomenon. The Google term produced over 11 million hits.

Below are some interesting examples we found.

The Beatles v. Ke$ha- “Tik Tok Together” 

Chiddy Bang v. MGMT v. Iyaz- “Replay Kids”

La Roux v. Britney Spears- “3 bulletproof” 

Jay Z v. Dolly Parton- “Jolene is Mine”

Let us know what you think! Are you a mashup fan or do you prefer the songs in their original form?