Ever Thought a Remix Was Better Than The Original?
Then trust me, you’re not the only one.
The times when a remix would simply consist of a soulless EDM beat over a successful, mainstream song are over. An example of this early-2010s trend might be “Summertime Sadness,” originally performed by Lana Del Rey and remixed by Cedric Gervais, which to me is the definition of the soulless EDM beat I was talking about before.
Now, remixes have grown to develop their own flavor and character: they feature not some unknown French DJ but other notable pop stars, rappers and producers, and, for the most part, they maintain the original instrumental of the song.
Dripping in Finesse
The first release that really made me reevaluate remixes and the reason why some artists drop remixes of their own songs was “Finesse” by Bruno Mars. The song, featured in his 2016 album 24K Magic, is pretty catchy in and of itself, but Cardi B brings even more heat in the remix.
Instead of coming after Bruno’s original part, she kicks off the song with a freestyle-like section. However, her verse isn’t long enough to satisfy the most refined ears and she comes back for more towards the end.
Further proof that the addition of Cardi B was the right move for the success of the track was the duo’s performance at the 2018 Grammy Awards. Choosing to bring to life the same 90s vibe of the music video, Bruno and Cardi appear in perfect synchronicity with their dancers, until the song reaches its climax during the bridge before the final chorus kicks in.
In a sort of a mashup with Cardi’s song “Bartier Cardi,” she raps while pushing Bruno as he literally moonwalks his way back together with the other dancers. It is undeniable that this performance helped establish Bruno Mars and Cardi B as two of today’s most promising artists.
Rappers & Co.
A similar energy is brought to the studio when rappers join other rappers. In the video for “Wow.,” Post Malone takes us on tour with him, even inviting the “43-year-old dancing sensation”--as described by Variety–to appear towards the middle and the end. The song is literally the bomb.
And what better way to add more energy to the song than bringing Roddy Ricch and Tyga, who, just like Malone himself, are rich and successful young rappers who enjoy flexing their cars, their clothes, and their girls.
The song starts with Malone’s verse as heard in the original track, but then Roddy Ricch takes control of the middle section with his even more high-pitched, autotuned voice. And what about Tyga? His verse comes at the end, replacing the instrumental that is supposed to represent the outro of the song, a choice that makes it sound like the song lasts a bit longer than the original. This way, there are no empty sections in “Wow.” It’s a continuous succession of verses over verses that are always different and never boring to sit through.
However, remixes are not only a man’s business, and who’s better suited to explain this than Ariana Grande?
Featured in the 2020 album Positions, “34+35” sounds like a typical Ariana song: though elegant production-wise, the lyrics express Ariana’s sexual desire for her man. So, it makes total sense to bring on the track female rappers that are famous for their raunchy, witty bars, like Doja Cat and Megan Thee Stallion.
In the music video, the three artists appear in a big mansion, where they lip sync to the song wearing nothing but lingerie, drinking champagne and having fun. Up to here, nothing that we hadn’t seen before, right?
But then, Doja’s verse comes in and her interpretation of the lyrics bring out her humor as a songwriter: lines like “I want that six-nine without Tekashi / And I want your body and I’ll make it obvious / Wake up the neighbors, we got an audience /They hear the clappin’, but we not applaudin’ ‘em” are indeed very funny, if you read them out loud.
And then Thee Stallion comes in, with her extensive history of crazy dirty lyrics from tracks like “Freak” and the infamous “WAP,” and she brings the heat one final time before the song comes to an end. I can’t even choose one line because they’re all gold, so go listen to the song and pick your favorite ones yourself.
Moving away from the American music scene and towards Latin American reggaeton, the one-time Puerto Rican duo Jhay Cortez and Ozuna equally did an amazing job in the remix of Cortez’s “Easy,” which was shouted out by Rosalía in this video for ELLE.
The original song, included in Jhay Cortez’s Famouz and simply featuring the artist’s low vocals, lacks something, and that “something” is a higher-pitched counterpart. And that’s when Ozuna comes to help.
Ozuna’s vocals provide the perfect balance to Cortez’s low-pitched singing, and this “marriage” of such different male voices is what makes the remix so addictive to listen to.
Just like the above-mentioned tracks, this remix also has its own music video, which–correct me if I’m wrong–has become increasingly common for remixes that have come out in the past few years.
Gaga and Dawn of Chromatica
If you thought that Lady Gaga’s innovative genius ended with the Born This Way era, think again.
After the release of her 2020 album Chromatica, which I was not too enthusiastic about, Miss Germanotta dropped not only the remix of one song but of the entire album.
So I decided to make up for my lack of interest back then by listening to the album to write this article, and I must say that it is very enjoyable to listen to, though very generically pop; some features even reminded me of Gaga’s early works, like the spoken part in “Babylon” that recalls the “Don’t be a drag, just be a queen” of “Born This Way.”
Therefore, I was hoping that the remix of the album would help spice it up a bit.
And it did. Sort of.
Some of the remixes do enhance the songs or offer a completely new perspective on them: it’s the case for “Sour Candy,” which features BLACKPINK (like in the original version) with the addition of British rapper Shygirl and Mura Masa; Chester Lockhart, Mood Killer and Lil Texas’s apocalyptic remix of “Sine From Above” featuring Elton John, and Dorian Electra’s heavy rock interpretation of “Replay.”
Besides some unknown producers whose stage names I really fail to pronounce correctly, the collaborations, like in perfect Gaga fashion, are mostly with artists belonging to the LGBTQ+ community or the current experimental electronic music scene: among the most notorious, we find Venezuelan visionary Arca, Japanese-British singer Rina Sawayama, Michael Jackson’s secret son Clarence Clarity, Brazilian drag queen Pabllo Vittar, cartoon-looking rapper Ashnikko, and experimental electro-pop producer Charli XCX.
On the other hand, “911” didn’t really benefit from A. G. Cook’s overwhelming beats on Gaga’s hypnotic chorus, nor did DOSS’s interpretation of “Enigma” or the Haus Labs version of “Babylon.”
Despite these songs that really have no purpose in being there and that only function as fillers, the project does show the vision behind it, which ultimately makes it a worthwhile listen.
Finally, what we can learn from the above-analyzed remixes is that artists now have much more control of the remixes of their own songs, and that a specific remix doesn’t have to be too different from the original to be fun, catchy and addictive.
Will Gaga’s project influence a new trend in the music industry, just like she did ten years ago when she was singing about representation for LGBTQ+ folks and POC and self-esteem for all? Will we listen to more, better remixes from now on? And will those become more popular than the original songs themselves?
We shall see.