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Top Five Most Overused Samples

There are a couple samples that I hear way to much in mashups and I’m sick of it. I’m going to list my top five in hopes that upcoming artists will see this and thus shy away from using them. Here we go:

5. Juicy – Notorious B.I.G.
Great song, don’t get me wrong…doesn’t mean it can’t be overused though. He’s blown up like the World Trade, now give him a break.

4. Any acapella by Lady Gaga
Unless you can nail pitch shifting an instrumental so it actually is in key with the acapella, then don’t use the acapella. This applies for all (non-rap) acapellas, but with Lady Gaga, people seem to think its OK to just throw it into any old instrumental like it’s not a song in a certain key…well it is.

3. Viva La Vida – Coldplay
This song is perhaps the definition of overused. That’s it. Stop using it. I don’t want to hear it.

2. Kids – MGMT
Even MGMT doesn’t like this song anymore.

1. Sweet Child O’ Mine – Guns N’ Roses
I don’t even understand why this is used so much in the first place…would anyone care to explain? Sure it’s a nice little riff, but I don’t see its place in mashups. I’ve heard it in about every key and tempo and it’s never impressed me once. Lately I’ll just stop listening to a mashup if I hear this sample used.

So those are what I think the top five most overused samples are. Did I miss one? Is there a song you just loathe that isn’t on this list?  Let everyone know in the comments.

comments (19)

  • DJBAHLER

    Hahah nice list, but you can’t forget about Tipsy.

  • befliac

    I hear Eminem – Without Me in sooooo many mashups

  • What about vanilla ice – ice ice baby! That is waaay overdone. And I think california gurls goes under the lady gaga catergory. The instrumental is fine (great actually) but don’t use the acapella in the wrong key!

  • DrManhattan747

    Everyday im hustlin and i’d rather

  • A Milli. Definitely.

  • Part of this is that it is just difficult to find a solid- quality acapella track. Mashup djs are all drawing studio acapellas from the same samplepack of a couple hundred- Myself included. It’s usually easy to chop up a song and create an instrumental track, but not easy to create a clean DIY acapella using a filter. If you take 10 or 20 random albums from this site there is bound to be an excessive overlapping of vocal tracks and a better variety in the way of instrumentals.

    • not really. there are thousands and thousand of studio acapellas floating around. a lot of them simply arent that popular though, and mashup DJs stick to the popular. this isnt a necessary requirement though.

  • awellnew

    Definitely: Party in the USA. I’ll instantly turn off the mashup if I hear it.
    If you insist on using it, don’t use a long section, and please try to alter it in someway.

  • GHETTO COWBOY

    Definitely A milli. i mean cmon i can name so many artists that have that used that.

  • DjFergieFerg

    The Who – Baba O’Reilly
    Drum Beat from Jay-Z Empire State of Mind

  • Tstarr27

    bittersweet symphony, everyone uses it

  • The “Sexy Can I” acapella is fairly overused. Also, Ghosts ‘n’ Stuff by Deadmau5 is pretty popular and becoming overused as well.

    The thing about the vast number of overused acapellas is that finding acapellas can be tricky, and the ones that are easy to find and tend to work well also tend to become overused. If acapellas, instrumentals, etc were more readily available I’m sure we would hear much more original mashups.

  • Bittersweet Symphony.

    • El Paco

      While I agree with the list and agree that Bittersweet Symphony is overused, I think it works so well with many mashups that I still haven’t gotten sick of hearing it

  • Nanomii

    A Milli is one that I keep hearing to.
    I like the one on MDA & Blackasaurus Rex. =]

  • onenine

    I’d Rather. Hands down, no contest.

  • fallingup

    Or this is a challenge: prize goes to the DJ who can make the best mash with these five songs in a way I haven’t heard them used before

  • jakobthesnakob

    I cant believe no one has said My Neck, My Back… Every. Single. Mashup. So sick of it. Also the two songs about getting head, but both those are amusing so I don’t complain lol.



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