Mean Glee Girls

So I know that I may or may not have posted a lot of Mean Girls related things in this class, but I thought that with an "obsessions" assignment such as this one, it was too good to pass up. I thought about merging two of my obsessions- Mean Girls, and Glee (from my last post) somehow, so I figured that an image was the best way to do it.

This is the picture that I got my inspiration from- the Glee "loser" posters that came out during the beginning of the first season. There's individual and group versions of these posters too (I'm not hinting at possible Christmas presents at ALL). Pictured on top are the Glee characters: Quinn Fabray (Dianna Agron) and Rachel Berry (Lea Michele).

So my lack of photoshop left me with nothing but the use of paint and a LOT of trial and error in order to merge the characters Regina George (Rachel McAdams) and Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan) together in this picture. But even if I could find someone with photoshop, I would still need a while to figure out how to use it. So after almost 2 hours of attempting to match skin colors by using the paint brush, and free-form select tools, I came up with this monstrosity.

Thankfully, I found an online image editor called Fotoflexer that allowed me to change the design of the picture so you couldn't actually see any of my butchering. I had you fooled about my skills, right?

Just Crush

"Just Crush"

A mash-up of Paramore's "Crush Crush Crush" vs. Lady Gaga's "Just Dance".

This is one of my all-time favorite mash-ups, because I love these two artists. Hayley Williams (Paramore) can definitely hold her own with her strong vocals and as the only female in the band, and Lady Gaga has some serious Madonna stage presence. I like the way this was centered around Lady Gaga's vocals, while Hayley Williams' is just kinda whispering her part in the background. I didn't think I would like Lady Gaga's voice coupled with electric guitars, but it works here. And it makes for a really great work-out song!

Rude Boy Resort

"Rude Boy Resort" ***

A mash-up of Papa Roach's "Last Resort" vs. Rihanna's "Rude Boy".

***Disclaimer: I apologize for some of you who may be offended by the content of this song. It's nothing more than most of you have heard on the radio, but just in case.

Again, with the mash-ups where you never would have seen it coming. I remember Papa Roach's "Last Resort" years ago, so when I saw this mash-up, I was so excited! I'm actually not a huge fan of Rihanna's "Rude Boy" because of the subject matter, but I can't help but like it because of this. It's like a conversation between the two artists, only more inappropriate :)

Club Love

"Club Love"

Mash-up of  Usher's "Make Love in this Club" vs. Taylor Swift's "Love Story"

So this is really just an audio mash-up that was uploaded as a youtube video- probably just to let people downloaded it via youtube link. These two artists from two completely different song tonality and genres and whoever mixed this clearly has a lot of talent. When mixing two songs like this, it's really hard to find a way to find a balance out the two melodies when one of the artists has the potential to have their part overpowered by the bass beat. I'd like to see if T.Swift can get some R&B songs under her belt at some point in her career. I really like the way the tempo towards the end just catches you off guard.

An Honest Mistake

"An Honest Mistake"

A mash-up of M.I.A.'s "U.R.A.Q.T." vs. The Bravery's "An Honest Mistake"

I had never listened to this song by M.I.A., which may or may not be a good thing after listening to this mash-up. I don't think I would have liked the original "U.R.A.Q.T." song on its own. But now that I've listened to how this mash-up incorporates the verses, I can't help but listen to M.I.A. and try to fill in a faster tempo (from "An Honest Mistake") in my head.

A Gleeful Obsession

It's been over a year since the Glee phenomenon began, and I'm still a loyal fan to the show. Glee is a TV-series that's part comedy, part musical -but for the most part, the songs that they sing are in a music room/choir room setting and not just them choreographing about their feelings in the cafeteria like High School Musical. They do covers of songs that I love- from songs that I grew up with, to the latest jam on the radio. But even more than I love the music on this show, I love the script even more. The story lines deal with real high school issues and puts a comedic spin on it. These stories are ones that people can actually relate to, unlike other shows that try to sugar-coat the issue and resolve it at the end of each episode. There will always be bullies, you can't always be popular, you will have crappy teachers, and they might ban your tater tots.

Here's the trailer for the Season 1 DVD set that came out in September.

And how about that talented cast, huh? These are some of my favorites.

1) Lea Michele as "Rachel Berry"

I love Lea Michele's voice more than anything. She began as a broadway performer from the age of 7 on Les Miserables. Her character is a huge overachiever and not very well-liked. But she still has moments on the show.

2) Heather Morris as "Brittany S. Pears"

I can't believe this girl didn't make it that far on So You Think You Can Dance and yet got a job as a back-up dancer for Beyonce on her world tour. But she turned down Beyonce's offer for a second tour to pursue her love of acting and got cast by Ryan Murphy as the dumb cheerleader!

Brittany's best moments

3) Kevin McHale as "Artie Abrams"

I was so surprised when I found out that Kevin used to be in a boy band called NLT, but plays a kid in a wheelchair. It's a shame that he's confined to the wheelchair because he's one of the best dancers of the cast. (well, maybe not as good as "Brittany" or "Mike Chang").

He's snatchin them to Neverland

I'm sorry if this is slightly offensive to some people. I didn't autotune the audio, as many of you may already recognize the song used in this video.

Edit: I just re-uploaded the video. I think this actually shows up.

This last one is more of an audio mash-up, but I really like the layering of the videos. I found Kurt Hugo Schneider's videos a couple of months ago when he produced Sam Tsui's cover of "Don't Stop Believing". I've been following his work ever since. I'm also seeing a lot of musicians on youtube that are utilizing his talent for producing some of their music videos. Examples include Tiffany Alvord, and

Mash Up Examples

My friend actually just posted this on my wall last night and I thought it was a perfect introduction to some examples of mash-ups. I personally love mash-ups and remixes of almost every kind, so my friends tend to post . So when she posted this on my wall, I thought it was pure genius. It's a mash-up of clips from Toy Story and some audio bites to create an actual song. I may or may not be adding this onto my itunes later tonight.



This next one is more for fun for those Lord of the Rings and World Cup fans out there. It can be considered a parody, but also it's a mash-up in a sense that it takes a large portion of the clips from the film/trailer.