It’s officially the end of the year: DJ Earworm has released his “United State of Pop” video for 2016, the epic annual mashup of all the year’s biggest songs and videos. Featuring samples from 25 different tracks, the four-minute mashup kicks off with The Weeknd’s latest hit “Starboy” before folding in Justin Bieber, Twenty One Pilots, The Chainsmokers, ZAYN and more.
It’s DJ Earworm’s trademark to tap into pop’s zeitgeist and deliver us this cultural artifact, a quick walk through everything that dominated the airwaves over the calendar year. As usual, he finds a through-line in matched rhythms that cut across hits, from “Work” to “Love Yourself.” (In listening to this mashup, it’s especially easy to identify the similarities in so much of our mainstream music.) Subtitled “Into Pieces,” this year’s track has a melancholy current, despite working in Justin Timberlake’s saccharine “Can’t Stop the Feeling” and Flo Rida’s upbeat “My House.” Twenty One Pilots take the prize for most songs sampled, with three of their hits in the mix.
There are two artists, however, who are distinctly missing from this year’s lineup. One is Beyoncé—none of the songs from Lemonade found their way into this cut. And the other is Kanye West, whose Life of Pablo raps are also absent. But that comes down to math, not favoritism: DJ Earworm only uses the 25 top-selling songs in the U.S. of the past year, so despite the popularity of those two albums, they didn’t surface singles that hit Earworm’s high bar.
Take a listen and feel the 2016 nostalgia already.
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