Feeling Triggered?
Have you ever had a song trigger some kind of musical memory in your head? Something sounds familiar but yet different, sometimes the answer comes quickly, other times you are left scrabbling around in the musical detritus of your aging mind trying to grasp at an elusive thread of a shared melodic phrase or rhythm. I get it quite a lot, especially when I’m out running as that’s where I find myself listening to music with the least distractions.
Give it a name
I call these “mutating musical earworms“, they bring a mix of frustration and joy, depending on how long it takes me to figure out what musical dots my addled synapses are trying to connect up. I’ve shared a few examples before (like when Kenny Loggins’ “Footloose” morphed into Alphabeat’s “Fascination“, or Plain White T’s reminding me of a 70’s hit from Brotherhood of Man), For a while, I even dedicated a whole section on this site to these cognitive musical conundrums.
Bringing “the worm” to life
Sometimes I actually take the time to see how well the tracks might merge together. Most of the time, I give up after a few minutes of comparing tempos and keys (I’m no pro DJ). But on rare occasions, it turns into something worth listening to.
Take “Uptown Funk” for example – it’s practically the perfect mashup record when you look into the layers of direct and indirect musical references. While the Wikipedia page does a good job breaking this down, there’s one track it doesn’t mention: Was (Not Was)’s “Walk the Dinosaur” from 1987. The two share the same tempo (115bpm), the same key (D), and punchy horn sections throughout, which I probably why I connected the two together. It was only after mxing the two together for my wedding reception playlist that I discovered I wasn’t the first!
Subsequently I came across EvanPaulMusic’s efforts which preceeded mine by 4 years. My version does however add in a third element of the Gap Bands “Oops Up Side Your Head” which needed some time stretching as it’s about 10% slower than the other two tracks. Despite having all the audio editing tools one might wish for at the time (and a fair amount of experience editing) it still took me several days to structure the track and complete the edit
Showing off a little
I revisited my mix recently and polished it up utilising some of improved tools now available to re-mix tracks, despite all of the promise of AI and clever automation however there is still no replacement for “human hands-on” when you what to achieve something very specific. Pleased with the Re-mixed Re-mix, I featured it in my guest appearance hosting the CGR Happy Hour radio show. It seemed to go down well, but I’ll let you be the judge. Take a listen below and tell me what you think…
Do you have your own favorite “mutating earworm” or mashup? Let me know in the comments – I’d love to hear about your musical mind puzzles.