When I taught piano lessons (circa 2005?), I was surprised to see "Funkytown" by Lipps Inc. in one of my students' piano books. I started telling her about the song and how catchy and cool it was, but this eleven-year-old stopped me; she already knew the song, because it was featured in the movie Shrek 2. She was thrilled to play the song, especially since she got to stop playing for a few seconds to do a hand-clap part! Additional trivia: perhaps it's because my parents are attorneys, but I had always pronounced the name of this band as "Lipps, Incorporated," as if they were some sort of legal corporation. Wikipedia informed me today that it should actually be pronounced... "Lippsinc" (like "lip sync." Ha!) I present this information because "Funkytown" is truly a jam that has stood the test of time. It was a number one hit when it was released in 1980, and I think you would be hard-pressed to find anyone of almost any age who didn't know this song. It's catchy, it's fun, and it's family-friendly.
A couple of weeks ago, a friend of mine sent me this mashup:
The title is "Nine Inch Nails - Closer But It's Funkytown By Lipps Inc." The first thing I'll do is acknowledge that "Closer" is shocking and funny whenever it's mashed up with anything. The lyrics are so brashly direct that they contrast starkly with most other songs in existence, and result in a genre/subject matter clash, which tends to result in humor. See my dissertation for a discussion on Nine Inch Nails vs. the Spice Girls. (And for reference, here is the NIN source track:)
In addition to being funny and shocking, this mashup by William Maranci is constructed in a pretty interesting way. It's an A+B mashup, which means that there are only two songs involved, but it doesn't operate the way this type of mashups usually does. In a typical A+B mashup, the isolated vocals from one song are superimposed on the instrumental track from another song. Either or both tracks can be transposed to make for a better melodic/harmonic fit, but the melody of the vocal track isn't heavily altered; the melody remains the same recognizable melody.
This mashup begins with percussion patterns from both songs - the bass and hi-hat from "Closer" (sped up and altered slightly) and the cowbells from "Funkytown." Then the bassline enters; it's Nine Inch Nails' bassline, but it's been sped up enough that it has sort of a disco feel to it. Next, the famous "Funkytown" synth line enters at its original speed and pitch. At 0:40, the vocal line enters. It's Trent Reznor's voice singing his original lyrics ("You let me violate you,") but the pitches have all been manipulated. He is singing those lyrics to the tune of "Funkytown" - "Gotta make a move to a town that's right for me." He loops the line "help me," to transition back to the synth line. It's quite unusual, at least for an A+B mashup. Reznor's vocals are unchanged during other parts, including the famously profane chorus. It begins at 2:09, and is accompanied by the break-down section of "Funkytown" (complete with saxophone solo!). Maranci has taken a lot of liberties to mix these two songs together, and the result is quite pleasing, at least in my opinion. It does beg the question, is this a mashup? I think that it is, although I would maybe call it a "mashup-arrangement," or an "arranged mashup," to distinguish it from the more typical construction of a two-song mashup. Creative, clever, and fun!
***Note: Above mentioned eleven-year-old piano student is now a brilliant graduate student!
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