Music Monday: The, "Yukon," Covers, Remixes, and Mashups are Delightful

The song, "Yukon," by Justin Bieber, is solid. It's a weird little minimalist tune. I liked it, and others did too, taking advantage of that minimalism to do all kinds of wild things with it. There is one remix that has taken over the radio more than the original, along with other riffs on the song, adding in other artists. We have covers by artists such as Sekou and Jamie Ave, Tate McRae , and more. Oh, and some wild mash-ups and tweaks, such as mixing it with Usher's hit, "Nice & Slow," or another R&B classic, "Let Me Love You," by Mario. Being a fun song and easy to manipulate with its intentionally bare-bones design has resulted in a lot of cool stuff. Sometimes a song just arrives at the right time and strikes a creative nerve in a lot of folks. I like it when that happens.

Music Mondays: When the Remix is Bigger Than the Original Tune

Generally, a remix isn't bigger than the original song. It can become a huge hit as well, but bigger? That said, it can happen. This thought occurred to me when I heard the really catchy song, "Stateside + Zara Larsson," by the artist PinkPantheress. The original song was, "Stateside," and it has had a number of remixes made with different artists. That said, I heard the remix with Larsson joining on the tune first, and having listened to all versions--including the OG--I like the remix the most! It appears many agree with me as while, "Stateside," was good, this remix just sounds better!

This seems to happen a lot with songs that were maybe slower or quieter and with a remix getting louder/busier/wilder. You've got, "I Took a Pill in Ibiza," and its dance remix that blew up. The recent, "Yukon," song by Justin Bieber got a good degree more airplay when its minimalist singing and guitar had some trippy electronic beats added. Hell, the "Macarena," is best known by those in the United States for its version with English lyrics and a faster tempo.

PinkPantheress and Zara Larsson in the remix music video.

Changing a beat isn't the only aspect to make a remix gain even more traction than the original tune, of course. You often see in rap a remix bringing in another music artist, and that can play a major role. From the, "Touch It Remix," with Busta Rhymes and friends to Fabulous and the, "Throw it in the Bag Remix," which incorporated The Dream and Drake to immense success, those are just two examples that popped in my head right away of many. In the late 90's and early 2000's it felt like every rap song had a remix--sometimes to its benefit and other times to little note, but helped give everyone options for which version of a song had the rappers they liked listening to the most!

From the version of, "Summertime Sadness," most recognize to the, "Ignition (Remix)," there are occasions where the remix overshadows the first iteration of a song. That isn't a bad thing, by any means, as sometimes the second/third/whatever time is a charm! I just find it interesting when such a thing happens, and I thank PinkPanteress and Zara Larsson for their tune making me think about all this.