Project Alpha 08

In November of 2005, the American Edit album was “released” (i.e., distributed for free online). The album is a compilation of mashups that all use songs from Green Day’s album, American Idiot. One approach to making a mashup is to identify disparate songs that share a key (or some other melodic component–I don’t really know the terminology). Ideally, the songs you use are similar enough to match up well, but different enough that the listener is surprised by the combination. Today we look at a mashup from American Edit that takes this approach and applies it to a bunch of different components.

I present to you Boulevard of Broken Songs. From American Idiot it takes two songs, “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” and “American Idiot”. Using Green Day’s songs as a foundation, the mashupper (Party Ben, who makes another appearance on this list later) interpolates samples from Travis (“Writing to Reach You“), Aerosmith (“Dream On“), and Oasis (“Wonderwall“). I wouldn’t say that this song has a powerful message–it’s simply an artful conglomeration of songs that, musically, go together well. Sometimes that’s enough.

Here it is: Boulevard of Broken Songs. I couldn’t find a satisfactory streaming version of the song, but below you can stream an earlier version of the mashup which ends differently from the American Edit cut, allegedly because the DJ didn’t have access to the Aerosmith recording and substituted Eminem’s “Sing for the Moment” for “Dream On” at the last minute. Obscure mashup trivia: you’re welcome.