People who know me know that I when it comes to consumer behavior, and especially anything mass media related, I am what some might call a “free-thinker”.  (Others might simply use the term weirdo, and oddly enough, I’m okay with that.)  Not one for mainstream anything, sometimes my weirdness surprises even me.  Take this “mashup” that landed in my Twitter stream a few minutes ago (btw, don’t get me started on the whole “mashups as legitimate art” controversy unless you’ve got a couple hours).

It all begins with two of my least favorite mainstream music acts of the last 20 years:

In this corner, wearing the same shirt he pulled from a wrinkled pile four days ago, a talentless 90′s heroin junkie that spearheaded the death of real rock and roll as quality entertainment…

I could write a book on everything I don’t like about the 5 years Mr. Cobain, his band, and contemporaries owned the rock charts and shoved heavy metal down the stairs to its untimely demise, but that would be, well,  a book!

And in this corner, wearing… is that a frog suit? Um, okay what was I saying?  Oh yeah- Encompassing all that is wrong with today’s pop culture machine manufactured mainstream commercial radio lameness, the more talented but otherwise even less interesting pop starlet, Miss Lady Gaga.

Regardless of my well-known dislike for both artists, I have to give each of them at least the respect that is warranted for suffering through everything it takes to become a “hit” in mainstream American music.  But that doesn’t mean I have to like it.

Yet, put the two together in a not-so creatively executed match-up/mashup that no self respecting six-figure “industry influencer” would ever dream of (let alone green light), and what do you get?  Something that is actually pretty entertaining.  To a weirdo like me, anyway.   More analysis after the jump!

I’m gonna have to check out some more of this “DJ Lobsterdust” person’s work- you know, as a thank you.  But most likely I won’t like it.

Perhaps there is more to this whole copyright infringement “mashup” culture than I give credit to.  I get why the MySpace and YouTube masses can find it entertaining. What I don’t understand is why people with any degree of talent would spend their time and energy on this “medium”, rather than create their own content (No, I don’t count mashups as original content. Should I? If so, why?)

Perhaps like the vinyl divers of yore who spent countless hours finding gems among the wreckage called your local record shop, sampled the hell out of them, and invented hip-hop, folks like Lobster Boy- that is to say, people with real jobs who are not caught up in the hipness of being hip- can actually go out on a limb and create something fresh and interesting because they don’t have a $4500 mortgage riding on their next big hit.  Even if they can’t write their own stuff.

On the other hand, it might simply speak to the notion that essentially, all pop music is the same.