I don't get the allure of these things beyond the 'cute'/'clever' factor?!

Well, in the case of the songs on these, they sound good. So, the allure is the exact same as any other song- if it sounds good, it's fun to listen to.

Hmmm. I'm sure they sound good to you.

OK... I don't get why you have to be condescending, though. I mean, I don't see anyone asking what the allure of jazz music is, or saying they don't get why people like rock music. We don't have to like the same things- that's what makes the world great. There's no need to snottily comment on the music other people like.

This looks like fun also.

I was just bringing into question their merit and was hoping for a defense and/or discussion that talked about/justified them beyond their "fun" factor. I admit my tone might be somewhat condescending, but I do not mean to malign you. (This looks like quite a comprehensive collection of the genre.) It's the merits of the `music' that I question. If, by associating yourself with liking this music, you take offence, I am sorry. To each their own, and what a better world we are that that's the case. It does not mean, however, that one should not be able to bring up a point such as mine on a mix such as yours.

I'd really like to hear this too!

It was the "Hmmmm" and the "I'm sure it sounds good to YOU" that rankled. That's not directed to the music, it's directed to me, so of course I took offense.

As to the style of music itself, I am no expert- and I don't "associate" myself with it beyond collecting songs I like and putting together a CD. I certainly don't create them myself. As I mentioned in the notes above, I've found them to be a way to enjoy old music (that either annoyed you to begin with or got old), or to introduce you to a new way of hearing an old favorite song. Culturally speaking, I imagine these type of songs can introduce fans of one genre of music to another genre they might not have listened to otherwise. But most of all, as I said in my first comment, they just sound good. It's the same subjective reasoning why anyone anywhere listens to any kind of music- because it makes you dance, or you like the backbeat, or the juxtaposition of the lyrics against the music, etc. How do you describe or defend your subjective enjoyment of a song?

I guess it comes down to: if you don't like the songs that are combined together, then you won't like the resulting songs above.

Also, I don't know why it would be called "music" (with quotes), because just like any song that is remixed or samples another song, it is music (no quotes).

Now that's an explanation I can live with. (And I'm sorry about the personal jab.) I find sampling music of any kind a bit of a creative cop-out, although it's probably a necessary part of the evolution of music, and has certainly existed for ages. Jazz is no stranger to this, as artists quote from other artists or composers all the time in jazz. However, I find the mechanical sampling that cut and pastes like mash-ups (without adding much musical invention) to be a bit rudimentary and regressive, bespeaking (perhaps?) the end of music as we know it, and that the only thing left (to combat the originality conundrum) is to piece together music that's come before. (I'm not really this pessimistic, but I think mash-ups take music in the wrong direction.) At best, I would call mash-ups novelty tunes, fun though they may be. The "music" is in quotes not because it's not, technically, music, but because mash-ups are not very musically inventive.

I'd like to throw a few cents into this discussion and of course all my comments are highly subjective but not personal. I recently checked out some mash-ups recently and that most of the hip-hop mashes like many on these two mixes here I didn't like because I really didn't know the original music in the first place. Usher vs Kylie. yikes but I realize if you know and like the songs then this could be fun. That Sisco/Cure thing is probably a hoot.
I didn't like the Grey Album I downloaded, listened to once and deleted. Mostly because I didn't care for Jay-Z's Black Album and mixing it with the Beatles' White Album didn't do anything for me. A lot of the time you couldn't hearing anything of the Beatles anyway
However, the London Booted mash-up of the Clash's London Calling with a variety of mixers had some great moments on it. Not all of it worked for me but overall it was pretty cool especially after my daughter pointed out who all the other artists were. It worked because there was some creativity going on there.
Just recently another AotMer pointed me to CCC's Revolved mash-up collection which was one guy recreating the Beatles' Revolver album. There again, not everything worked for me but there was some great stuff there. Tax Jam Pollution with the Beatles, the Jam and Beck while She Said Traffic contained the Beatles and Hendrix. One of the best mashes was Sunshine A Go Go with the Beatles, the Who, the Byrds and Deeelite jamming together. My wife asked why do they do this? Fun with technology probably and maybe for a resume. A demo project for a budding producer. Or maybe just because they can. Whatever.
And not to add any fuel to a fire but many of Miles' great works of the seventies were really mashes of snippets of many performances from many different players from many different times and places that were cut and pasted using available technology into the classic albums that we know and love.

Here are the links to the mash-up collections I commented on below.

The Grey Album
http://www.illegal-art.org/audio/grey.html

London Booted
http://www.culturedeluxe.co.uk/londonbooted.htm
The entire album may not be available anymore

CCC: Revolved
http://www.hearingdouble.co.uk/ccc/

George: Macero pieced together mostly previously unreleased music -- all of which was original (although I could be wrong, as I'm no expert on mid- to late-period Miles). I agree, Macero was the unheard "silent musician" on those albums, and I guess, in a sense, you could say he and Miles prefigured the current mash-up movement. But I think the analogy is not quite, um, analagous to these folks, who aren't really doing much beyond fiddling with tunes they've had no hand in creating. It's glorified dj-ing. Kind of like creativity by association.

I love the look of this..tremendous collection & great cover!

I threw in the Miles analogy just to make a point that there is a history here about taking previously recorded snippets, found objects, radio broadcasts, parts from other artists, etc, etc. and making something else with it. Creativity by association indeed. Today's technology has made this process so easy that virtually anyone can now do it and post the results on the net. Thus we now have all these mash-ups. While they may not all be creative they sure can be fun. I think someone who is up on the latest pop music would have a lot of fun listening to this mix here. I know I've had fun checking out some of the ones listed below.

Looks like a fun mix - has to be good to stir up a healthy discussion! Thanks George for the Revolver links, some good stuff there.

Light blue touch paper & stand well back! S-mash-ing mix.

wicked