DJ Earworm Mashup - United State of Pop 2011 (World Go Boom)
Having mashed up the year’s top pop hits for four years, DJ Earworm could be forgiven for feeling like the whole thing is kind of played out. When oversamplers like the Black Eyed Peas can top the charts with “originals” that sound suspiciously like mash-ups to begin with, why bother sticking the rest of the top 25 in a blender?
One answer is that every year deserves a class portrait: some record of the stars who monopolized our eardrums and eyeballs. There’s something comforting about seeing them all together like this, the prom queens sharing space with the class clowns, the jocks jockeying for time with the nerds. About halfway through you first hear from a girl you’d never have noticed at school, had she not signed up for the talent show. “We could have had it all,” she sings, young enough to believe herself.
Given the demands of the form, there’s not a lot of heart here — lots of “boom boom boom” and “woah oh oh,” with any gaps filled in with the shaking of ass. But as a high-school talent show “United State of Pop 2011” is a buoyant success. It says to us: end your year not with mopey sentimentalism, but jazz hands. I’m game.
(download)
