On a new Hit Parade: Billboard cried foul when J.Lo called a new song a “remix.” But it was Katy Perry and Lil Nas X who weaponized it.
, what do you picture? A club DJ packing the dancefloor with a 12-inch disco bop? A house or hip-hop beat thrown onto a pop song? A rapper teamed up with a singer to give her some “edge”? Maybe even a totally new song with the same name as the old song—and not much else?has come to mean all of these things: Rethinks. Reboots. Reinventions. Re-recordings. When Sean “Diddy” Combs titled an album, he was saying a remix can be virtually anything, and anything goes.
Join Chris Molanphy as he explains how we got here: “The Sound of Silence.” “The Reflex.” “Tom’s Diner.” “I’m Real.” “Despacito.” “Old Town Road.” All remixes that scaled the charts by flipping the script and throwing out the rule book.