Pop music mashups for 2024

December is the season for music video mashups, and the two I watch every year were released within a couple days of each other over the past week and a half. As it happens, I saw a Facebook “Memory” today for my blog post on December 17, 2015 in which I shared several mashups in at once, and so, here we are.

Nine years ago, I said “This year, I’m sharing the videos by the same three artists I did last year, but this time they’re all in one post rather than separate ones (even though having the extra posts would have been nice for me…).” All of that’s the same this year, though I still have doubts that I’ll manage 22 posts this month (well, I did say that I was “possibly unrealisticly” optimistic about that goal…).

Be that as it may, this year’s post has two folks I’ve shared in the past, one of whom I also shared nine years ago. The guy who made the other video mashup still available stopped making them many years ago, and the channel of the third has been deleted. These two are likely to be around for awhile.

I’ll have \specific reactions to each video, but, in general, I have a question: Have I finally crossed into the “way to old” category? I recognised individual artists in both videos, but, for the most part, and for the first time ever, I didn’t recognise the vast majority of the videos. I’ll answer my question: I may well be in that category, but by itself this new reality isn’t an example of it.

I used to be so aware of current pop music because I was able to watch music videos on TV, which is barely available anymore, and what is available (one part-time channel) doesn’t necessarily show videos that are even remotely current. Since I don’t listen to the radio, and seldom to any streaming service, the only way I know of a current pop music song is if a snippet is played on a TV programme, in an ad, or the very rare times someone shares something on social media. So, it’s probably not even remotely surprising that I don’t recognise most of the videos or even the songs. Or, maybe I’m just refusing to acknowledge reality.

Here are the two mashups I’m sharing this year, and fist up is “CLUB 2024 | A Year-End Megamix (Mashup of 150+ Songs) // by Adamusic”, released on December 9, 2024:

I think it’s interesting how these mashup artists can draw a theme out of songs in a year, in this case, about beat-driven club music. In this video, I recognised snippets of videos from Beyonce and Teddy Swims, along with several artists, but the vast majority of what was in this video was completely alien to me, like I’d just been dropped into some future year. Honestly, it was kind of a weird experience being so utterly out of touch with so much pop music from the year. Even though I felt perosnally disconnnected form much of the video I nevertheless like Adam’s work (obviously, if I keep sharing it…). Adam doesn’t post a track list as such, but the YouTube description has a link to a Spotify playlist of all the songs.

Next, it’s “United State of Pop 2024 (Blame It on the Whiskey) - DJ Earworm”, released December 11, 2024:

This video is a third the length of the first one, but it’s also a “mashup of the 25 biggest hits in the U.S. during 2024”, according to the YouTube description. This video takes a different direction, focusing on the more country aspects of this year’s music: Different emphasis and vibe, which is nice (I like variety). While the video may have been shorter, I didn’t do any better with recognising most of the videos, though I was more likely to know the artists in them, for whatever that’s worth. One thing I especially like aboutDJ Earworm’s YouTube videos is that he always puts the tracklist in the YouTube description—though in this case, sadly, it just confirmed how many of the artists I was unfamiliar with.

I like both these mashups, even though there were so few music videos that I’ve actually seen. And I also like—well, more like am amused by—the fact that so much of all this was true in my post nine years ago. In fact, back then I summed up what I feel this year:

This means that when I watch/listen to one of these end of year mash-ups, the odds are good (and getting better) that I won’t recognise much. Still, I like them as a nice way to find out what was popular in the preceding year.

Indeed—and very relevant: I recently saw a mention of Hozier’s “Too Sweet”, a song I hadn’t heard. Then, as so often happens these days, I promptly forgot all about it—until I saw his video included, and sought it out (here’e the link if you want to see/hear it—and so I can find it again…).

I guess my theme for these mashups is probably, “plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose”. Once again, it proves the point.