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Sat 05 May 2007Mix and mashFrom Christina Aguilera and The Strokes to The Police and Snow Patrol, DJs are pairing unlikely songs - a technique called a mash-up. Is this art or just techno-geekery, asks Michael KellyI remember, a few years ago, being mesmerised by a song I downloaded that mixed Green Day's Boulevard of Broken Dreams, Wonderwall by Oasis, Writing to Reach You by Travis and Eminem's Sing for the Moment (which itself samples Aerosmith's Dream On). I couldn't decide whether I loved or hated it, but I remember thinking: how did they do that? Who did it? What is it? The industry calls it a mash-up. The concept is nothing new. Run DMC's 1986 version of Aerosmith's Walk This Way fused rock and rap so successfully that it was credited with bringing hip hop into the mainstream. What has changed is that many of the best-known mash-ups are done by amateur producers without the permission of the songs' writers. Software such as Sony Acid Pro and Adobe Audition has allowed anyone to knock together combinations and distribute them over the internet in hours. Websites such as Get Your Bootleg On and YouTube give them forums to release the songs.