Get Your Bootleg On

“Get Your Bootleg On” – or GYBO5 as it is now – is one of the very best sites on the web for amateur bootlegs and mash-ups. I say amateur in the sense that people aren’t getting paid for their submissions; in fact that standard of submissions is generally very high. THere are a number of users whose work makes it onto TV and radio shows.

http://www.gybo5.com/

There’s a lot more to creating a good mash-up than simply matching an acapella to an instrumental. It’s easy to take two sources of approximately the same tempo and match them together – and trust me, the road to creating a good mash-up is littered with the bodies of those who have tried and failed – but it takes skill to get the timing and phrasing right; it takes a good ear to make sure there are no key clashes; and it takes a great deal of imagination to produce something really unexpected. Click on the link below to see what I mean:

Bobby Martini : Queen / Leona Lewis : \”Bleeding Gaga\”

They run competitions and challenges, to (for example) concentrate on a single song or artist and produce the best mash-up you can. At the time of writing the challenge is to mash-up The Cure, and there are bootlegs that see them mixed with Axwell, Katy Perry, Hard-Fi, Kanye West, Rihanna, Diana Ross, Stereophonics and The Clash, amongst others.

GYBO is a great site, professionally run and presented, and home to people who are dedicated to their craft (and conscientous with it – check out the terms and conditions). Well worth a look!

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