Statement:
I have always been in love with music, and practically all genres that exist within. You could just as easily find me listening to new popular music as often as listening to video game soundtracks such as Zelda. I feel that trying to blend these two distinct genres of music together not only will gather attention, but could possibly introduce those who only listen to one of the genres to a whole other genre of music. I felt that ultimately Work Hard, Play Hard by Wiz Khalifa and Lost Woods from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time gave me what I was looking for. I decided to use Audacity for mashing up these works since I am most familiar with that software.
For spreadability, I decided on posting it to YouTube, and using my various accounts on social media to link the YouTube video to them. I originally was going to use soundcloud as well, however I was unable to post it as the automated copyright program that they have immediately caught my use of Work Hard, Play Hard in my mashup. YouTube did as well, but the publisher has allowed use of their song as long as they get monetized for its possible popularity.
Context:
I first got this idea when thinking about a previous mashup of Zelda's Astral Observatory with Tipsy by J-Kwon. I remembered feeling pleasantly surprised by how well these two songs mashed up, and I decided that I could make a similar mashup that shows how well these two different styles can blend together to make something both entertaining and eye opening.
Here is the mashup that drew my inspiration: https://soundcloud.com/luigineku/everybody-in-this-observatory-gettin-tipsy
Process:
I begin with playing a bunch of popular music with songs from the Legend of Zelda to try to find two pieces that worked well together. This was easily the most difficult part of the process. It took around three hours to find two pieces that I felt that I could build on to create an entertaining mashup that I would see myself listening to. I then started forming Lost Woods to Work Hard, Play Hard to compliment the piece. After I finished editing Lost Woods, I then tackled the awkward pauses in Work Hard, Play Hard that came with using the "clean" version of the song. I decided to use sounds from Ocarina of Time to further pay homage to the game. I then spent finished working with the mashup by changing the amplification to make all parts of both tracks match to create a more clean sound.
Product:
The end product is just about exactly how I wanted it to turn out to be. It blended two genres of music that normally do not have any correlation with each other to make a mashup that, in my opinion, works decently well with each other. I feel that the upbeat Lost Woods oddly works very well to compliment the beat of Work Hard, Play Hard without taking away any feeling or emotion viewers receive when listening to the original.
Critique:
Obviously, the ultimate determination of my success with this mashup will not be determined until I am able to view how the piece spreads. My inner critique is worried that there may not be many viewers that actually thoroughly enjoy this kind of mashup. Just because I like a form of remixing music does not mean that everyone who listens to it will as well. I have always listened to mashups like this, however it is obvious that they are not as popular as some other forms of mashups. Overall, I am content with my work as it matches what I enjoy in a mashup, and honestly I created this mashup to make me satisfied because I believe that any creator should always make what they like over what they think others may like. If other viewers end up enjoying it as well, then all the better.
Reflection:
Overall, I learned a lot with this project. I learned that finding two songs that not only have the same tempo, but also sound at least decent together is not a trivial task. I also found how long it can take to make a mashup sound exactly like you wanted it, even with using only two songs. If I had to one thing differently with this project, I would have most likely ended up not settling for two pieces that sounded decent together, but have multiple options for my mashup, and choose the one that I found best at the end.
Sources:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uInmFU6JkU - Lost Woods - The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8ctW9ZNcbM - Wiz Khalifa Work Hard, Play Hard (OFFICIAL CLEAN VERSION)