The cinema and the mashup
This art of mixing tunes or texts disappeared in the 19th century.
We have to wait for the advent of the cinema to rediscover the mashups under a new aspect.
Fernand Léger, a French painter known for his still lifes, closely followed the birth of the cinematograph. In 1924, he shot "Le Ballet Mécanique". His work is nothing more than scraps of other films that he recovered and then edited in his own way to accompany the whole by a hypnotic music.
20 years later, the film "Casablanca" brings together the biggest stars of the time and wins 3 Oscars.
An emblematic mashup slipped into this film. In a bar, Germans sing a Nazi song. Victor Laszlo then asks the musicians to play the Marseillaise. The consumers, courageous, accompany them until creating a kind of "battle" between the two anthems.
This scene so evocative of a civilized world fighting against barbarism will return to the forefront after the attacks of November 13, 2015.
Let's jump back in time and find ourselves in the golden age of Canal +, in 1994. The French encrypted channel offers an audience to Michel Hazanavicius for his film "La classe américaine". Like "Ballet Mécanique", this production is an assembly of great Warner classics. The original voices are replaced by more zany dialogues and the numerous scenes follow each other to form an unclassifiable parody.
With the advent of Youtube, the fans also take to the game.
Some decide to modify the trailer of a movie to give it a completely different look.
By combining a horror movie music, Mary Poppins becomes otherwise darker ...
In another genre, the mashup is taking over the world of anime with AMVs. An Anime Music Video is a video work made from anime extracts. The soundtrack of an AMV is generally a music unrelated to the world of animation. Challenges are organized.
The example below shows anime mixed with 80's hits... Welcome to the world of Japanese mashup!