Back in 2004, a Nickelback MP3 made the rounds of the webinets. This was not your typical Nickelback MP3 – or perhaps it was doubly typical. With one Nickelback song in the left channel, and another in the right channel, it mashed into itself beautifully. It was an indictment against formulaic pop music, presented simply and plainly. As Ryan at Dead Parrot Society [wrote](http://www.deadparrots.net/archives/music/0406this_is_how_you_remind_me_how_bad_your_music_sucks.html):
> The mesh is freakishly, almost unbelievably, perfect.
It was referred to at least once as “musical incest”. The idea of doing such a mashup has never left my brain.
Today, I was listening to [Year Zero](http://yearzero.nin.com), the latest Nine Inch Nails album. I haven’t listened to the album enough to have formed a complete opinion on it, so I’m still in the “feeling it out” stage. While I’ve started having a few songs grow on me, something felt off, and I tried to put my finger on what. And then I realized that I was having a hard time telling two songs apart.
Twenty minutes in Live made the point even more defined than I could imagine.
This isn’t a finished bootleg – I don’t know if I’ll complete it, to be honest. It’s also not as straightforward as the Nickelback mash was – some instrumental sections are looped to start the vocals at the same point, and there’s a little bit of an edit going into the chorus. Still, I think it gets the point across pretty well.
On the left channel: Nine Inch Nails’ “The Good Soldier”.
On the right channel: Nine Inch Nails’ “God Given”.
Constructed in Live 6, BPM set to 100.
Pop on some headphones and enjoy.
**Download**: Nine Inch Nails vs. Nine Inch Nails – Good God Given (Conceptual Edit)
