Girltalk Mashes PG with XXX dance music

DJ Girltalk, famous for his mashup remixes and live shows, recently graced the stage at John Paul Jones Arena with a highly anticipated performance. The show was free for all U.Va. undergraduate students and was relatively well attended even though the 16,000 seat arena was far from packed. Girltalk performed on stage and largely relegated his movements to remain behind his equipment table. Nonetheless, the show was high energy, particularly for the several hundred concert goers who were lucky enough to receive wrist bands granting them admission to the dance floor. The rest of the guests had to watch the dance floor party from stadium seats. I got to experience the show from both perspectives. On the dance floor, I was in the front row where I could see the performer’s expressions and reactions to the crowd. Girltalk invited students up on stage and tossed them rolls of crepe paper while dancing around behind his DJ table. The floor certainly felt much more connected and intimate to the performance compared with the isolated seats a hundred feet away.

The crowd was made up entirely of U.Va. undergraduates who were, from my observations, mostly white. The guests were relatively well acquainted with each other--many people came with friends and bumped into people they knew throughout the show, giving the performance an unusual atmosphere of camaraderie. Males and females made it up on stage to dance with the DJ in equal numbers, which surprised me. I was expecting females to be preferred over males, especially considering the sexually explicit lyrics prevalent in many of the songs Girltalk played.

Even though Girltalk is a mashup artist, he did very little live “mashing” or creating new songs by mixing several old songs together. Girltalk performed live versions of a lot of his songs from his most recent album, Feed the Animal. Most of the songs mixed familiar melodies from Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith and Radiohead with sexually explicit rap songs. For example “No Pause” got the crowd excited with the catchy tune from Andrea True Connection’s “More, More, More” leading into Missy Elliott’s explicit “Work It” and Spank Rock’s “Put that Pussy on Me.” One of the most exhilarating songs I watched him mix from the dance floor was “In Step.” The song’s backbone began with Roy Orbison’s “You Got It” before launching into Salt-n-Pepa’s “Push It” and Nirvana’s “Lithium.” Throughout the night, Girltalk’s music seemed to explore the tension created in juxtaposing “PG” pop and classic rock with rough, indecent rap and hip-hop.

Although his music is difficult to not dance to, Girltalk’s stage presence was not the most electrifying. He seemed entranced with his computer equipment and did not spend much time connecting with the crowd. He did interact with fans by gesturing or making brief eye contact every so often. Girltalk was certainly high energy—he never stopped moving throughout the entire night, but his energy did not always translate into relating with the crowd.

Students’ impressions of Girltalk’s performance were mixed and largely dependent on where they were standing for the show. Guests on the floor or the stage left the concert on a high, soaked from sweating in the writhing dance crowd for several hours, raving about Girltalk’s crazy dance moves that incorporated his mixing equipment. Those who were not lucky enough to get a wristband felt isolated from the show. The arena’s floor looked far from full but due to safety restrictions only a limited number of people were allowed on the floor at one time. As a result, those who were stuck in the seats bolted to the floor felt cramped and disconnected, unable to see Girltalk’s moves or interact with him on stage. One such concert-goer said she felt like she was watching the party, not part of the party. Many others commented that they felt like they could have had the same experience by just playing Girltalk’s new album, which is available for free download online.

Even though his live performance was hit-or-miss, Girltalk’s music still represents an interesting intersection between music genres. His mashups push the boundaries of genre and challenge social comfort zones between “clean” and “dirty” dance music.