If you’re looking for this year’s best pop-song mashup, you can stop now. Daniel Kim’s “Pop Danthology 2012” is so good, no other effort comes close.
From Adele’s “Set Fire to the Rain” to Zedd (featuring Matthew Koma)’s “Spectrum,” the Canadian DJ has cut and pasted together 55 of the year’s biggest pop hits to create an eight-minute aural opus that’s impressive, intricate, and just plain fun to listen to.
Also making appearances are samples from some of the Internet’s favorite musicians, including Carly Rae Jepsen, Gotye, and Psy.
The video, which was first uploaded to YouTube on Dec. 2, has already amassed more than 500,000 views, more than doubling the view count of the song’s 2011 edition. “Pop Danthology 2012” also enjoyed popularity on social news site Reddit, receiving more than 2,000 karma points.
The track took the talented DJ over three months to complete. The first month was devoted entirely to collecting the songs, the second to breaking them down and categorizing them by key and tempo, and the third to arranging and mixing them.
So why spend so much time creating a track and video that won’t make him any money?
“I do it simply because I can,” he writes. “That is what I believe separates us passionate artists from the rest of the world.”
Though elaborate, the mashup does exclude some of 2012’s favorites.
“I extracted some of the audio parts of [Taylor Swift’s] ‘We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together’ and really wanted to use it,” Kim explains. “Unfortunately, the tempo of the song is too different from the tempo of the section of my mashup that is in G major (the key that Taylor Swift’s song is in).”
You can currently download the track at Kim’s Facebook page.
For those looking for a tracklist of all 55 songs sampled, the DJ has helpfully included it in the description section of the video, republished below:
1. Adele – “Set Fire to the Rain”
2. Adele – “Skyfall”
3. Alex Clare – “Too Close”
4. Calvin Harris feat. Ne-Yo – “Let’s Go”
5. Carly Rae Jepson – “Call Me Maybe”
6. Cher Lloyd – “Want U Back”
7. Chris Brown – “Don’t Wake Me Up”
8. Chris Brown – “Turn Up the Music”
9. Christina Aguilera – “Your Body”
10. David Guetta feat. Chris Brown & Lil Wayne – “I Can Only Imagine”
11. David Guetta feat. Nicky Minaj – “Turn Me On”
12. David Guetta feat. Sia – “Titanium”
13. Demi Lovato – “Give Your Heart A Break”
14. Ellie Goulding – “Lights”
15. Enrique Iglesias feat. Sammy Adams – “Finally Found You”
16. Far East Movement feat. Justin Bieber – “Live My Life”
17. Flo Rida – “Whistle”
18. Flo Rida feat. Sia – “Wild Ones”
19. Fun. – “Some Nights”
20. Fun. feat. Janelle Monáe – “We Are Young”
21. Gotye feat. Kimbra – “Somebody That I Used To Know”
22. Gym Class Heroes feat. Neon Hitch – “Ass Back Home”
23. Jennifer Lopez feat. Pitbull – “Dance Again”
24. Jessie J – “Domino”
25. Justin Bieber feat. Big Sean – “As Long As You Love Me”
26. Justin Bieber – “Boyfriend”
27. Karmin – “Brokenhearted”
28. Katy Perry – “Part Of Me”
29. Katy Perry – “Wide Awake”
30. Kelly Clarkson – “Stronger”
31. Ke$ha – “Die Young”
32. LMFAO – “Sorry For Party Rocking”
33. Madonna feat. M.I.A. & Nicky Minaj – “Give Me All Your Luvin'”
34. Maroon 5 – “One More Night”
35. Maroon 5 feat. Wiz Khalifa – “Payphone”
36. Nelly Furtado – “Big Hoops (Bigger the Better)”
37. Ne-Yo – “Let Me Love You (Until You Learn to Love Yourself)”
38. Nicky Minaj – “Pound The Alarm”
39. Nicky Minaj – “Starships”
40. One Direction – “Live While We’re Young”
41. One Direction – “What Makes You Beautiful”
42. Owl City & Carly Rae Jepsen – “Good Time”
43. P!nk – “Blow Me (One Last Kiss)”
44. Pitbull feat. Chris Brown – “International Love”
45. PSY – “Gangnam Style”
46. Rihanna – “Diamonds”
47. Rihanna – “Where Have You Been”
48. Rita Ora – “How We Do (Party)”
49. Swedish House Mafia – “Don’t You Worry Child”
50. Tyga – “Rack City”
51. Usher – “Climax”
52. Usher – “Scream”
53. The Wanted – “Glad You Came”
54. Will.I.Am feat. Eva Simons – “This Is Love”
55. Zedd feat. Matthew Koma – “Spectrum”
Photo via kimaginati0n/YouTube