Yoshimi Battles the Slam Jams

Outcome

Statement

Originally, I wanted to mix together the vocals from Smash Mouth's "All Star" and Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, but that did not sound very good after the first few measures. Instead I decided to use another popular internet meme, the Space Jam mashup. In this meme, the theme song from the 1996 film Space Jam is layered over another song to create a remix that is distinct from both. I wanted to find out how this process worked by doing it myself. Also, I found it funny to combine the tacky Space Jam song with a much better piece of music.

Context

The context that inspired this work is the Space Jam Mashup meme. According to Know Your Meme, the trend of mixing the Space Jam theme with other songs began in 2005 in various remixes. Since then, it has grown in popularity, with many dozens of remixes on Youtube today. I decided to contribute this so that there would be one fewer unslammed song in the world.

Process

I used the website http://www.beatsperminuteonline.com/ to find the BPM of each song. First I tried to mix together Yoshimi and the vocals from All Star, but for reasons I do not completely understand, it did not work at all. Then I tried Space Jam instead, which worked much better. I stretched Space Jam so that its BPM was the same as that of Yoshimi, making it much slower. Then I matched up the initial drum beat with the beginning of the vocals in Yoshimi, and it matched for the rest of the song. I also added a fadeout after about 3 minutes so that it didn't get too repetitive. The initial (longer) version is here:

Product

The remix is mostly influenced by Yoshimi, but has the strong drum beat of Space Jam and occasionally its lyrics as well. The tempos match up which sort of makes them sound like they were meant to fit together originally, although the lyrics on Space Jam are distorted since I slowed them down. I uploaded it to YouTube and it has been viewed 3 times so far. I considered posting it on Reddit to the /r/comeonandslam subreddit, but decided not to because I don't want to link my real name with my Reddit account (or vice versa).

Critique

I think this is a successful instance of the Space Jam meme. After lining up the beats and tempo I found that it was not unpleasant to listen to, despite having heard both songs many times before. It definitely adds something new to both. One thing I would like to change is the lyrics aligning better- for example, the Space Jam lyrics frequently overlap those in Yoshimi, when they could be rearranged to fill the gap. If I get more practice doing this type of remix I may attempt that for future projects.

Reflection

I now understand the amount of work that goes into the simple-sounding Space Jam remixes, especially those that rearrange the song to fit better. It is not as simple as "load both songs in Audacity and click a button". If I were to do this again, I would choose a song with a faster BPM to mix with Space Jam, so that it does not sound as distorted when I match the tempos.

Sources

Quad City DJs- Space Jam (obtained from https://www.reddit.com/r/comeonandslam/comments/1pxy46/tutorial_slam_jams_in_fl_studio/ and is available on YouTube here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9FImc2LOr8 )

The Flaming Lips- Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Part 1 ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzlMeTxVdH8 )

References

Space Jam meme- documented on http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/slam-remixes-vs-quad-city-djs