DJ Earworm "United State of Pop 2010 (Don't Stop the Pop)" Music Video Review

DJ Earworm "United State of Pop 2010 (Don't Stop the Pop)"

Music Video Review

By our guest blogger, Nick Hanover

Looking back on the hits of the year through the lens of DJ Earworm's now annual "United State of Pop" mash-ups can get a little depressing. Not because of Earworm's craft (if you haven't given into the ubiquity of the mash-up yet, you're a lost cause, my friend), but because it becomes pretty clear that most big hits follow nearly identical templates. In 2010, the defacto trait was the use of big, buzzy synths and digitally affected vocals while the videos leaned on MS Paint colors and street scenes. Every moment of "United State of Pop 2010" recalls the previous and ensuing ones, making the whole enterprise a weirdly addictive self-consuming snake.

While the presence of art pop pranksters like Lady Gaga and the increasingly ferocious and aggressive Rihanna offers a diversion or two, you can pretty much break down each component of Earworm's samples into a few bland categories. Which is basically what Earworm has done, yes, but in Earworm's deft hands that's for the best instead of the worst. Earworm's primary skill, like "Girl Talk," is to maneuver the flotsam and jetsam of pop culture into complicated, abstract creations that both pinpoint the homogenized nature of our consumption and alter it in a charming, intelligent way.

Because let's face it--when we're all dead and gone and our alien overlords are sifting through the detritus of our time on Earth, they're going to be stuck with a whole hell of a lot of junk like Justin Bieber and Katy Perry. They're going to wonder how it is that we, as a species, could create the Sistine Chapel and "Jersey Shore."

And there won't be an answer...but at least there will be artifacts like "United State of Pop" that can show that even the junk can be beautiful in the right hands.

View the video below. What are your thoughts?