Viva La Pop

December 26, 2008 8:42 AM

DJ Earworm does it again - Like last year, he's made a year-end mashup and accompanying video featuring the top 25 hits of the year (as calculated by Billboard). Can you name most of the songs included? Are you more or less hip than last year?

Previously: last year's FPP, song, and video.

posted by flatluigi (35 comments total)

I liked last year's better -- but then I liked most of last year's top songs better. DJ Earworm is a national treasure though.
posted by hermitosis at 8:57 AM on December 26, 2008

Heh - I preferred last year's one as well, but I prefer this year's hits. :-)
posted by YAMWAK at 8:59 AM on December 26, 2008

No comment on the mix, cause I haven't listened, but Lil Wayne - 'Lollipop' is this year's 'Umbrella'.

It was THE song to remix and over this year.

Most of them can be found on hypemachine.

My personal fave was Disco Villains

I even like the rock remix that's all over the radio now.
posted by empath at 8:59 AM on December 26, 2008

Oh, and in case you missed it, here's one of DJ Earworm's other recent topical mashups: "No More Gas" (video).
posted by flatluigi at 9:02 AM on December 26, 2008

Unsurprised that "Vida La Vida" provided the backbone of this year's mix; it's just such a sweeping, epic song that offers a lot of different ways for a remixer to go.
posted by mightygodking at 9:06 AM on December 26, 2008

I only tolerate popular music via mashups. Am I some kind of nerd?
posted by fatllama at 9:19 AM on December 26, 2008 [7 favorites]

Being familiar with the Billboard Top 25 makes you hip?
posted by greenie2600 at 9:22 AM on December 26, 2008 [1 favorite]

This is great.
posted by iamkimiam at 9:27 AM on December 26, 2008

It's quite samey, in my opinion. Viva La Vida is fine as the backing track, but he needs to glitch up the beat.
posted by synaesthetichaze at 9:33 AM on December 26, 2008

Being familiar with the Billboard Top 25 makes you hip?
No, it's an inverse relationship.

Right?
posted by Floydd at 9:39 AM on December 26, 2008

This was painful to listen to, and I like almost all the songs on the list. I couldn't stand the backing track.
posted by desjardins at 9:39 AM on December 26, 2008

Are you more or less hip than last year?

Well, I couldn't be less hip than last year but at best I've heard two or three of these songs. Or at least I've heard of them.
posted by octothorpe at 9:45 AM on December 26, 2008

This was painful to listen to, and I like almost all the songs on the list. I couldn't stand the backing track.

I'm with desjardins. The orchestral buildup keeps growing and growing but never breaks. I made it two minutes before my unjustified need for progression kicked in frustratedly. Impressive work otherwise.
posted by Popular Ethics at 10:01 AM on December 26, 2008

While I appreciate the work and talent that went into this, it serves as a good reminder that even though the top songs of the year have their moments, in the end, it's always, always all buildup that never gives us any real resolution or relief, just inane phrases bobbing up out of the mess now and then. And it makes me feel ill and dull.
posted by theefixedstars at 10:17 AM on December 26, 2008

Who, precisely, likes "popular" music? I mean, I assume it's a huge demographic, but I never seem to interact with them.

Personally, the only song I'm even remotely familiar with this time around is "Paralyzer," and that's just because the woman in the music video is hot as the burning fires of Hell.
posted by sonic meat machine at 10:18 AM on December 26, 2008

I was dissapointed to find out this mash-up is basically Vida La Vida with a bunch of processed vocals added on top of it. Vocals have never been the interesting part of mash-ups for me.
posted by jchgf at 10:55 AM on December 26, 2008

Being familiar with the Billboard Top 25 makes you hip?
No, it's an inverse relationship. Right?

Naw, the more you weigh, the more hip you have.
posted by rough ashlar at 11:08 AM on December 26, 2008

Ditto on 'huh' popular music? But Bootie Blog.
posted by zengargoyle at 11:09 AM on December 26, 2008 [2 favorites]

Madonna's still making music. Huh.
posted by boo_radley at 11:15 AM on December 26, 2008 [1 favorite]

I liked this year more than last year. I was also out of the country for most of this year, so I didn't hear these songs ringing in my ear all year like most others.
posted by k8t at 11:20 AM on December 26, 2008

Sounds like something we would make if we were musicians.
posted by An Infinity Of Monkeys at 11:22 AM on December 26, 2008

Who, precisely, likes "popular" music?

People like popular music. That's what makes it popular.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 11:29 AM on December 26, 2008 [1 favorite]

Listening to this makes me happy. Last year I was working temp day labor, and I knew all the pop songs because the woman behind the counter would be listening to them and I would usually get a ride to whatever job the sent me to and they would usually listen to music in the car. This year I don't have any idea what music most people like because I am not forced to listen to it. Yay for not being forced to hear other people's music. I am positively delighted to say I could not name a single song (and maybe two artists) from that mix.
posted by idiopath at 11:42 AM on December 26, 2008

Last year's mashup was better than each individual song on its own. Here's hoping this mix will be as well.

I love DJ Earworm so much I could marry him.
posted by WolfDaddy at 12:15 PM on December 26, 2008

You can't really play this on the dancefloor (not before 5 AM, anyway), but I think it's brilliant. The choice for Viva La Vida -- in many ways an inevitable choice for song of the year -- really lends it a wistful quality that I just die for this time of year.

*runs off to listen to Pink Moon again with hot cocoa and a blanket*
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 1:16 PM on December 26, 2008

The video is kind of like a super-improved version of the bumpers that VH-1 used to have.

PS: No Single Ladies? I call shenanigans on you, Billboard.
posted by mhum at 1:16 PM on December 26, 2008

PS: No Single Ladies?

Here you go.
posted by camcgee at 3:10 PM on December 26, 2008 [1 favorite]

Holy macaroni!
posted by bitteroldman at 3:53 PM on December 26, 2008

Viva La Vida is the only song in that mix that I like (and I *hate* Coldplay). No Vampire Weekend? No Radiohead "In Rainbows" or NIN "Ghosts"? No Sigur Ros?
posted by mike3k at 5:11 PM on December 26, 2008

mike3k: Viva La Vida is the only song in that mix that I like (and I *hate* Coldplay). No Vampire Weekend? No Radiohead "In Rainbows" or NIN "Ghosts"? No Sigur Ros?

It's the Billboard top 25, which is probably one of the most objective ways you can calculate what music is most popular.

_{(most popular not always meaning best, of course)}
posted by flatluigi at 6:11 PM on December 26, 2008 [1 favorite]

I liked it but the multiple layers of autotune putting everything in order make the vocals sound excessively robotic. But yay mashups.
posted by GuyZero at 7:08 PM on December 26, 2008

His Beatles/Scissor Sisters/George Michael/Aretha Franklin mix was class
posted by kersplunk at 8:11 PM on December 26, 2008

Joe Satriani files a plagiarism lawsuit against DJ Earworm in 3, 2, 1...
posted by bugmuncher at 8:40 PM on December 26, 2008

I really, really like the beginning, where it bounces Rihanna's 'Disturbia' off of the Viva La Vida melody. Awesome, but it does get a bit repetitive (and I could never hope to have the technical skill to put something like this together).
posted by Corduroy at 10:52 PM on December 26, 2008

These are gorgeous. I'm recognizing more than a few of them from Girl Talk's "Feed the Animals." Earworm's spinning at the Bootie New Years Eve, which makes it more than a bit tempting.
posted by Pronoiac at 5:17 PM on December 30, 2008