Contextual incongruity and musical congruity: the aesthetics and humour of mash-ups

Br�vig-Hanssen, Ragnhild; Harkins, Paul

Abstract

The academic literature on mash-ups has been dominated by discussions about issues relating to
their illegal nature and infringement of copyright. We aim to appraise this musical style with a
socio-musicological approach to focus on its aesthetics. We argue that mash-ups are characterised
by two underlying principles, namely contextual incongruity of recognisable samples and musical
congruity between the mashed tracks. Through our close analyses of The Evolution Control
Committee’s ‘The Whipped Cream Mixes’ and Danger Mouse’s The Grey Album, we describe
how contextual incongruity often creates a humorous effect, which explains why many listeners
react with smiles and laughter when hearing a new mash-up. In successful mash-ups, the combination
of musical congruity and contextual incongruity results in the paradoxical response: ‘these
two songs should definitely not work together . . . but they do.

Citation

Brøvig-Hanssen, R., & Harkins, P. (2012). Contextual incongruity and musical congruity: the aesthetics and humour of mash-ups. Popular Music, 31, 87-104. https://doi.org/10.1017/S026114301100047X

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: 2012
• Deposit Date: Apr 17, 2014
• Print ISSN: 0261-1430
• Electronic ISSN: 1474-0095
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 31
• Pages: 87-104
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S026114301100047X
• Keywords: mash-ups; musical congruity; contextual incongruity; musical copyright
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/id/eprint/6832
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S026114301100047X