Music Legend Frank Zappa
said “All the good music has
already been written by people
with wigs and stuff.”
But for D.J. Earworm, this is
not a problem. For each of the
past four years, he has compiled
the Billboard Top 25 hits
of the year into a single
video/audio mash-up, called
“The United State of Pop.” In
each, he takes snippets of the
songs- some lyrics here, a beat
there, some chords, or even
just some funky sounds- the
recent surge of the electronic in
pop music provides plentyinto
a fresh, new track.
Earworm had his big break
at the end of 2009, with his
“Blame it on the Pop,” featuring
smash hits like Lady
Gaga’s “Just Dance,” Keri
Hilton’s “Knock You Down,”
and T.I. and Justin
Timberlake’s “Dead and
Gone,” all backed by the jubilant,
furious Black Eyed Peas’
track, “I Got to Feeling.” country
darling Taylor Swift with a
sweet twist of an ending. Once
“Blame it on the Pop” could be
heard on local radio station
94.5 PST, no one could deny
Earworm’s influence on the
popular music scene.
But before this shot into
fame, Earworm was hard at
work. His first mash-up, the
“United State of Pop” 2007
appealed to the masses with
music widely loved and
instantly recognizable. Popular
songs included Rihanna’s
“Umbrella.”
But he has a long way to go
yet- certain songs are still kept
intact, so it’s a little like a
“laundry list” of hits, without a
unified theme. Also,
Earworm’s musical finesse has
yet to be sharpened, and certain
moments feel weak and
rough in harmony.
2008’s “Viva La Pop” took
Coldplay’s smooth, stringfueled
“Viva La Vida” as its
backing, peppered by Leona
Lewis crooning, “I don’t care
what they say,” Katy Perry
confessing, “I liked it,” and
Bucks County’s Pink shouting
“So what? I’m still a rock
star!” A lyrical theme never
fully develops.
But Earworm’s growing
understanding of music theory
shines through, as he places
songs in new musical context –
pairing lyrics that might have
been accompanied by a minor
chord with a major one, for
example. If certain vocals
sound higher or lower than in
their original versions, it’s
because Earworm had to
manipulate the pitch so that all
the songs sound right when put
together.
Then, in late 2009, the
“Blame it on the Pop” videos
exploded.
For 2010’s mash-up, expectations
were high- since
2009 brought a riproaring
mix that simply
will not get out of one’s
head. When “Don’t
Stop the Pop” finally
came out, reactions
were mixed.
The vocals in “Don’t
Stop the Pop” have
been highly manipulated,
so the lyrics cannot
be heard clearly. The
production is so smooth
that the final product
loses some of the individual
flavors of each
song.
Still, other fans
defend Earworm, claiming that
he didn’t have good enough
material to work with in the
first place. Indeed, it’s surprising
that some of the year’s
mega-hits, like Lady Gaga’s
“Bad Romance,” and
Eminem’s “Not Afraid,”
weren’t featured more, while
Earworm went heavy on the
Katy Perry and particularly
Ke$ha, to the chagrin of fans
tired of the glitter-eyed pop
princess of auto-tune.
But the real triumph of 2010
is that “Don’t Stop the Pop”
says something about
American culture: “If life is
just a party, then I don’t want
the party to stop;” “Ain’t got no
money in my pocket, but I
wanna be a billionaire;”
“Dance like there’s no tomorrow,
there’s just right now,
now, now, ’cause we’re never
getting old.” Also, “Don’t Stop
the Pop” is a complete song
and sheds most gimmicky
traces of the previous mashups.
With the infectious combined
“instrumentals” of “Tik
Tok” and “California Gurls,” it
will be hard to top.
Now, fans look forward to
2011s mash-up. It will feature
great music from Bruno Mars,
Justin Bieber, and Lady Gaga,
and especially the return of
Taylor Swift and her longawaited
new album, “Speak
Now.”

To hear more, visit
Earworm’s website, djearworm.
com. All mash-up
videos are available on
YouTube, on channel “djearworm.”