Commissions & mash-ups

As the 1980s unfolded, major artists and record labels began to see the value in commissioning remixes of their music, to give their songs appeal to a wider audience. Early pop remixes typically stayed true to the original song, just with a longer arrangement and extra instrumentation to make them work as extended mixes for club play.

As technology evolved, leading to the dance music explosion and Summer of Love in 1988, remixes increased in complexity, becoming a staple for a significant number of dance music singles. In the 90s, the rise in affordable samplers and computer-based recording also gave birth to the mash-up, where a remixer would find an instrumental and mix it with a vocal in the same key to create a not-so-subtle hybrid of two tracks.

Fast forward to 2017, and remixing is an ingrained part of music culture. There are several styles of remix (see the adjacent page), but they’ll either be official or unofficial. An official remix will typically be commissioned by the record label or artist in question, with a fee often involved when remixing for bigger artists or labels. Most official remixers are provided with all of the parts for the original song, whereas unofficial remixes are always done without permission, without the luxury of full audio and MIDI stems to work with. Throughout this feature, we’ll look more closely at specific remixing techniques, and exactly how you can approach them for yourself.