Pop Is Not The Enemy: Mashed POP-tato #6

This week we bring together a squeaky-clean pop princess and the reigning king of commercial dance music, our musical mashup marriage this week is Carly Rae Jepsen and Calvin Harris.

Carly is (yet another) product of TV talent shows, in this instance 'Canadian Idol' and, unless you've been in a coma for the past few years you will know her from her earworm of a breakthrough single 'Call Me Maybe' which nearly blew up the planet itself it was that popular! Since that huge smash of a record her careers have weaved through genres in attempt to replicate the initial success, she's flirted with dancier material on 'Good Time' (a duet with Owl City) and 'Tonight I'm Getting Over You', and more MOR material, such as 'Curiosity', to varying degrees of success. However, she has recently made a return to the upper echelons of pop with the catchy, 80's-influenced 'I Really Like You' (I'm not sure I've ever hear so many uses of the word 'really' in one chorus before!).

Calvin Harris has come a long way since being born Adam Wiles in Dumfries, Scotland, he's been the world's highest paid DJ for the last two years, has released 4 massive hit albums and worked with some of pops biggest names. He holds the record for the most UK top 10 singles from one album, an incredible 9 from the album '18 Months' (including the epic 'Bounce' featuring Kelis and 'I Need Your Love' featuring Ellie Goulding) and has had 3 #1 dance hits in the USA.

The two tracks in our featured mashup this week are the aforementioned international smash 'I Really Like You' and Harris' 'Outside' (originally featuring Ellie Goulding again). The synths and flamenoc guitars of Calvin's production work really well with the sweetness of Carly's voice and as THAT chorus kicks in the dance quota starts to rise and the perfectly timed drop at the end of the chorus emphasises the burst of euphoric synths that gatecrash your ears a second later.