The 2010s are about to come to a close - and DJ Earworm decided to celebrate the decade by making a mashup! I've written about his year-end mashups before, but this one is different. "Decade of Pop" uses 100 songs from the past ten years to make a three-minute mashup.
It begins with a 40-second intro/buildup that moves chronologically from 2010 to 2019 by featuring about two songs from each year. The beat drops at 0:40, and the rest of the songs (all listed in the description of the YouTube video) come in and out at musically (as opposed to chronologically) appropriate times. The mashup begins in the key of E, and there is a surprising modulation at 1:06 - Sam Smith is just finishing up a phrase in E when the synthesizer line from Clean Bandit's "Rather Be" starts in C major. It's definitely designed to be dramatic, given that the keys are so far apart, but in my opinion, this one crosses over from dramatic into "key clash" territory, at least during the moment of modulation. Another, more typical pop modulation happens at 1:54 - this one is a phrase modulation up a half step (from C to D-flat), and it serves to build up energy into the last minute of the song.
Like all of DJ Earworm's work, this is a well-thought out and well-constructed mashup (awkward first modulation aside). Hearing some of these songs again was surprising. Aren't "Stronger" by Kelly Clarkson (2011) and "Dark Horse" by Katy Perry (2013), older than ten years old? There are artists that I wish got more air time in the mashup. Lizzo, for example, gets exactly one second (1:30). But in the grand scheme of the decade, this does make sense; most of the world hadn't heard her music until earlier this year.
Overall: Great concept, well-executed!