The Strange Magic Of YouTube's '80s Remix Culture
Search the phrase "80s version" and you'll find dozens of present-day hits reworked with vintage synths and sax solos. Embedded in them is an emotional lesson on what's missing from the streaming era.
Whether you thought of the 2000s emo-punk boom as watershed moment or the nadir of modern music, there's one song from that era that's hard to forget. Fall Out Boy's first major hit, "Sugar, We're Goin Down," became an anthem for scrappy underdogs when it arrived in 2005, and its sound is still unmistakable: churning guitars, piano twinkles and Patrick Stump's roller-coaster vocals, kicked off by two bars of tripping-over-your-own-feet drums. The instant it starts, you know what you're hearing.
In early June, a fan-made remix of "Sugar, We're Goin Down" popped up on YouTube. Slower and more wistful, this version wraps Stump's vocal track in gauzy synths, cascading harmonies and a synthetic sax solo —
