What’s the first thing that comes to mind when asked what brands like Coca-Coa, L’Oréal, Ford, and Ray-Ban have in common with today’s popular culture? EveryInstrumental breaks it down for you plainly… The Remix
Remixes didn’t always exist in this form, and the term “remix” itself wasn’t as ubiquitous. Thanks to the research of the team at EveryInstrumental.com, they’ve broken down the many facets of the “remix” and how they have evolved with our “History of the Remix” infographic.
The prevalence of remixes has exploded over the past 30 years. There were only 79 officially released remixes in 1980. By 2010, that number jumped to more than 30,000 released remixes! Remixed releases went from being a sliver of available music in 1980 (0.1%) to an entire FIFTH of all music released in 2010 (20%).
The remix actually began as we know it today in Jamaica in the 1960s, where studio geniuses such as “Scratch” Perry and King Tubby stripped the instrumentals from tracks to create new versions of a record. As time went on, Americans in the 70s started to play around with original records during the Disco era to create dance versions of tracks. These two aforementioned sounds collided in New York to create hip-hop. The 80s saw a rise in remixes in pop, as well as the beginnings of “sampling” records, seen in electronic and hip-hop music. The 90s saw the rise of the remix as it is more commonly known: new instrumentals, new verses, sometimes both on a song to create something entirely different than the original record. The 2000s saw the rise of the freestyle, as well as chopped & screwed music. Near the end of the aughts and the beginning of the 2010s, we end up where we are today, with the resurgence in electronic dance music thriving off of remixes to get shows hyped up.We utilized the twitter following of our sister site DJServicePack.com as well as currently published rankings to determine the GREATEST remix of all-time. Without a doubt, the majority of the love was for Craig Mack’s “Flava In Ya Ear” remix featuring Busta Rhymes, Diddy, LL Cool J, The Notorious B.I.G. & Rampage. The 90s and early 2000s are strong on the ranking, with ATCQ’s “Scenario” remix and Talib Kweli’s “Get By” grabbing the next two spots. Biggie’s “One More Chance” is at #4, followed by the most recent entries, The Game’s epic “One Blood” remix featuring most of the music industry, and Jermaine Dupri’s all-American “Welcome To Atlanta” remix. MOP’s “Ante Up” remix rounds out our list.
Brands couldn’t let such a cultural paradigm shift go to waste at this point, now could they? Large companies such as Starbucks, Ford, Sprite, and more worked “Remix” into various marketing and ad campaigns, with the “Sprite Remix” soda line being the most noteworthy.
