One great by-product of the digital revolution is the mashup - an entire body of new music created by splicing / layering together popular songs into entertaining (and often humorous) hybrids.  There's nothing more American than the mashup.  Our indigenous musics - blues, jazz, and rock - are mashups of African and European influences.  Many of us are ethnic and racial mashups ourselves!  

My first musical love, Led Zeppelin, was a mashup band, combining English folk and American blues into a new and distinctive stew.  Robert Plant's new "Band of Joy" is also a mashup band, with Appalachian and rock 'n' roll elements - he's backed by American folkies Buddy Miller, Darryl Scott, and Patty Griffin, among others.

If you thought there was nothing new under the sun, check these out!  Long live the mashup!
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Links:

Beatles vs Green Day:  "Green Beatles."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSEkTKC0eNQ&feature=related

Beach Boys vs. Pink Floyd:  "Wouldn't it Be So Nice"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5spik08-e1Y&feature=related

Police vs. Rick James:  "Put on the Superfreak" -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYY0ZEL8f1w&feature=related

   **These two are my FAVORITES -brilliant improvements on both tunes!**
Dream Theater vs. Rick Astley:  "Never Gonna Wither You Up"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5egA3dZ91Dc&feature=related
      and
Stevie Wonder and REM:  "Uptight Religion" - great footage of a young Stevie
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdZl-Xgra2w&feature=fvw

Listen to Robert Plant's "Band of Joy" here:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129178865

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Eyes and Ears:  What I'm Reading, Listening to, and Watching
--Music:
   Buddy Mondlock, "Poetic Justice"  http://tinyurl.com/38h7yrf
   Jef Lee Johnson, "The Zimmerman Shadow"   http://tinyurl.com/27wtal9
-Books:
   Studs Terkel, "And They All Sang:  Adventures of an Eclectic Disc Jockey" http://tinyurl.com/2d6yj32
   Charles Gasparino, "The Sellout:  How Three Decades of Wall Street Greed and Government Mismanagement
         Destroyed the Global Financial System."  http://tinyurl.com/38begxq
--Movies:
   "Shrink"  http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/10011435-shrink/
   "The Book of Eli"  http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_book_of_eli/
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