Katy Perry, Christina Aguilera, Usher, and Adele. (WireImage/Getty Images/FilmMagic)There were so many great songs that hit the radio airwaves this year, and now there's a way to enjoy them all in just eight minutes. Daniel Kim, a Vancouver-based deejay and photographer, has spent the last three months painstakingly selecting, organizing, and mashing up the top 55 songs from this year — including Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe," Adele's "Set Fire to the Rain," Katy Perry's "Part of Me," and One Direction's "What Makes You Beautiful" — into a neat little package.
"Making a mash-up is like completing a huge puzzle (not every piece goes together)," Kim, who has done this the past two years, writes on his website. "Fortunately, my brain was made for these kinds of puzzles. The whole process takes me about three whole months."
Kim, who calls himself a "mathemusician," began the first four weeks with gathering the songs, his "least favorite part of the process because it feels so unproductive. All I do for one month is gather my ingredients (vocal parts, instrumental parts, video clips, etc.)." Then, in the second month, he does the planning. "Audio parts must be in the same key AND in the same tempo in order to fit together," he writes. "But it is not as simple as digitally manipulating all the tracks to one key and tempo (though many other mash-up artists do this) ... In order to find the perfect key to work with, I make a key chart." The final month is comprised of arranging and mixing all 55 songs, which Kim calls his "favorite part," even if it drives him crazy. "I get very OCPD [obsessive-compulsive personality disorder] about mixing because everything just sounds so imperfect and messy to me," Kim shares. "This is the part when I listen to Rihanna sing the line 'Shine bright like a diamond' on loop, over and over again, as I make my changes."
The one hit song from 2012 that did not make it on to Kim's mashup? Taylor Swift's "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together," even though he really wanted to include it in the final product. "Unfortunately, the tempo of the song is too different from the tempo of the section of my mash-up that is in G major (the key that Taylor Swift's song is in)," Kim explains.
A free MP3 of the impressive mashup is available on Kim's Facebook page.
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