3 Of The Best Classical Mashups You Need To Hear
Classical music is awesome but the younger generation tends to forget that, and with good reason! I’ve never seen a huge commercial featuring Beethoven or Bach with their shirts half opened surrounded by runway models. We live in a fast-paced environment where our focus tends to break every second and classical music needs to somehow be “cooler” to get our attention.
That’s why we have a bunch of cool remixes, mashups and crazy performances, based on classical music. Here are the top three, in my opinion of course!
#3 Bach Time-Traveling To The 1970s
The Piano Guys are impressive dudes who take classical music (or sometimes other cool themes and songs) and make it popular and fresh. Here’s one example of how they combine Bach’s music with some Jackson 5.
The idea behind the video was related to the question of “What if the harpsichord of the 1770s was a hit on in the 1970s? And what if an amazing composer like J.S. Bach was alive and had a jam session with the Jackson 5?” Check out this clip of “I want you Bach”!
#2 Mashups You’ll Get Hooked To
Here are the first two pieces of the classical mash-up album “Hooked on Classics” from 1981. Though the album was disliked by many classical music purists (mostly, I guess, because of the background beat that was added), the album did well to the classical music genre by reviving it to for the younger generation. It gained so much popularity that a single album actually become the first album in a series of six classical mashup albums! Yes, that popular!
This specific cut from the first album was a very successful single and reached No. 2 on the UK singles charts from 1981-1982. A few years ago, there was even a live performance of the album to celebrate 30 years since its’ debut.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17dP0QvjsOU
#1 The Best Classical Mashup Ever
There are so many beautiful and known themes in the classical music world, too many to put in one piece… or is it? This crazy guy took 57 classical tunes from 33 composers and combined them together PERFECTLY!
As I showed in the Musical Auditory Illusions post, when you see something while hearing it, your ears are reacting to what you see and that can mislead you (not to mention, freak you out on the way too). The same idea happens here but in a good way. Grant Woolard, the creator of this amazing mashup, notated the pieces so we could follow. Even if you’re not a musician, the notes you see (that are represented by the composers’ heads) will “pop out” and you’ll be able to better hear whichever layer of the mashup you like.
