A few months ago, I came across a mashup by Wax Audio called "Whole Lotta Sabbath." It combines "Whole Lotta Love" by Led Zeppelin with "War Pigs" by Black Sabbath. Have a listen:
It works, right? But it strikes me as being too obvious of a combination. Zeppelin and Sabbath (two of my favorite bands, by the way) are each touted as the "the first heavy metal band" by different sources. They both focused on riff-based, driving rock tunes with electric guitar and showy vocalists. N. B. There are certainly songs from each group that don't fall into this category. No one would mistake "Going to California" for a Black Sabbath song. But from a general standpoint, the two bands are of the same genre, and have many sonic similarities. As I have written about, the most praised mashups combine songs from different genres and/or time periods. Surprising
similarity is valued, and funny. Great mashup artists can take very different songs and fit them together in an unexpected way.
Construction of this mashup seems to have been fairly simple. Of course, as I've discussed before, simplicity of construction isn't necessarily a negative. But in this case, the simplicity is a factor of the surface similarities of the two tracks, not some hidden, underlying similarity. The track starts with some sound from the beginning of Zeppelin's "Black Dog," but the opening riff from "Whole Lotta Love" enters quickly, untransposed, and, I think, at the same tempo as the original, too. The main riff from "War Pigs," also untransposed, fits very well at the end of each of Zeppelin's phrases:
The riffs both center around E, use open fifths (power chords), and feature the Mixolydian version of scale degree seven. Since these riffs continue for a considerable amount of time in each of their respective source songs, it makes sense that vocals from each song fit well over this accompaniment. And, indeed, both Robert Plant and Ozzy Osbourne sing during this mashup.
This mashup works well, and is well-constructed. And, honestly, I did enjoy it, because it features two bands that I really like. But I continue to think that mashups that combine songs without so much surface similarity, are much more creative.