Girl Talk

Greg Gillis, aka Girl Talk, can now take up his throne as the king of the ADD generation with the release of Feed the Animals, another album of mash-ups and samplings that will surely be playing at every hipster’s dance party for the next year. Whatever personal feelings people hold toward the mash-up genre, it must be admitted that Girl Talk is a truly unique entity unto itself. Gillis is a pop-music junkman, rummaging through all the garbage in today’s music world to find the hidden gems--even if these gems are 30-second clips from a Rich Boy song.  

What Gillis does best is turn pop songs, rock songs, hip-hop songs--all types of songs--into great dance music. The opening track of Feed the Animals, “Play Your Part, Pt. 1”, begins with Pimp C of UGK rapping his verse off last year’s hit “International Players Anthem” over The Spencer Davis Group’s “Gimme Some Lovin’ ”. It’s music to get moving to, and the track keeps going with 23 different songs sampled from a variety of artists ranging from Jay-Z to Temple of the Dog to Sinead O’Connor. 

At its most basic level, Girl Talk is a product of the times. Gillis uses modern technology to create music that is a reflection of the mainstream of today. In that respect, Gillis is entirely dependent on the musicians he samples. Without the Lil Waynes, Soulja Boys and Fergies of the world putting out their hits, Gillis would just be another kid sampling old soul and rock songs. There is the immediate familiarity of hearing something you know well mixed with the feeling of hearing something new for the first time.  It’s the Salt-n-Pepa “Push It” over Nirvana’s “Lithium” or The Band’s “The Weight” mixed together with House of Pain’s “Jump Around”. 

Some argue that there is no artistry in mash-ups, but the argument is whether you would be able to think of putting “Crank That (Soulja Boy)” over Thin Lizzy’s “Jailbreak”. Maybe you could, but you didn’t and Gillis did.  And he most likely will continue as long as the artists of MTV and pop radio continue to churn out singles.