Each year since 2007, DJ Earworm has created a mashup called "The United States of Pop." This annual mashup features the top 25 songs of the year from the Billboard charts. It's a particularly challenging concept for a mashup artist, since usually DJs choose which songs to mix together based on various elements of musical fit between them (see my dissertation for more on these musical elements). In the case of "The United States of Pop," the songs are dictated by the charts, and DJ Earworm has no say in the matter. Like almost everything that Earworm puts together, this year's selection is quite artfully done. His technique for dealing with songs that don't fit into the mix as well seems to be simply to limit the amount that they're involved at all. Take "Let It Go" from Disney's Frozen - it's only in the mashup for about 3 seconds, probably because it just didn't work very well for an extended period of time. Also, when you're trying to fit 25 songs into three minutes, certain songs will necessarily be prioritized for continuity's sake.
I also heard another year-end mashup with a similar concept, called "Pop Danthology" by Daniel Kim. This one actually features 66 different tracks, which is pretty impressive. It's stuctured differently that DJ Earworm's mix, however. The "Pop Danthology" seems more like a megamix mashup (e.g. anything by Girl Talk) than one continuous track. This is where Earworm's biggest strength with the "United States of Pop" mixes is - he creates a single song from all the different tracks, rather than a medley. Not that there'a anything wrong with Kim's mix. The "Pop Danthology" is also very well made from a musical standpoint, but it has a very different feel to it.
Agree? Disagree? What are your favorite compilation mashups of this sort?