So why is the Jersey Shore Soundtrack on this best 1,000 albums ever thing?
Okay, hear me out on this one.
If you’ve been following along on this long, wacky journey through the best 1,000 albums ever, it might be natural to take a step back here and ask, “You’re talking about the reality show with Snooki and JWoww and Pauly D and that Situation guy and the fist pumping stuff?”
You are correct, I’m talking about the soundtrack that accompanies the MTV reality show phenomenon that popularized such terminology as gorilla juice heads, GTL (Gym Tan Laundry), and cabs are here!*
* Check out Pop Thruster’s coverage of Jersey Shore the TV show, and you may also be surprised, delightfully or otherwise, by Jersey Shore’s inclusion in The Best 100 TV Shows Ever.
In short: this is the single greatest compilation of electro house music I’ve ever heard.
Case in point are my two favorite tracks on the Jersey Shore Soundtrack, which run back-to-back in the middle of the album: “I’m in the House,” by Steve Aoki and [[[zuper blahq]]] (dig those brackets!), followed by an incredible transition into “Come On,” by Tiësto and Diplo.
Let’s start with that transition into “Come On” for a second. I’m convinced that the first six seconds of the track, leading up to the first shouted, “Come on!” would make extraordinary musical accompaniment for a TV show’s opening credits. I’ve listened to it countless times, and the rest of the song is just as good.
Dialing back to “I’m in the House,” it’s everything I want in a workout song, a pump up song, an exciting song. I’m in no way a fist pump at the club guy, but if I was, I’d want to pump my fists (one, two, or both) at the club to “I’m in the House.”
The entirety of the Jersey Shore Soundtrack is almost nearly as good. Not only do we get hit songs by the likes of deadmau5 (“Ghosts N Stuff,” with Rob Swine co-credited), and the now iconic “Get Crazy, by LMFAO (which accompanies the Jersey Shore opening credits sequence), but there’s a host of other fantastic selections as well.*
* Full disclosure: there’s one single weak spot on the album, and it’s Jersey Shore’s own DJ Pauly D’s contribution, “Beat Dat Beat (It’s Time To).” Pauly’s doing just fine these days, but I do want to offer my apologies as I find him to be one of the more entertaining and likable figures in reality TV show history.
I’m a particular fan of the manic energy that “I Like That” (Richard Vission, Static Revenger, and Luciana) brings, and “Disco Pogo,” by Die Atzen is both ridiculous and ridiculously appealing.
And that leads me to call out our old friend/nemesis Stephen Thomas Erlewine over at All Music, whose musical pretensions and highbrow snark make him the worst possible person to feel the legitimate magic that the Jersey Shore Soundtrack delivers. His take that the album pumps out “garish neon club beats at a relentless pace” cuts both ways though.
Now join me in pumping the fist of your choice, my friends.
Join us for the revolution that is always beating that beat back at the Jersey Shore.
Some stats & info about the Jersey Shore Soundtrack
- What kind of musical stylings does this album represent? Dance Music, Electro House, Electronic Music, Compilations, TV Soundtracks
- Rolling Stone’s greatest 500 albums ranking – not ranked!
- All Music’s rating – 2 out of 5 stars (!?)
- When was the Jersey Shore Soundtrack released? 2010
- My ranking, the one you’re reading right now – #187 out of 1,000
The Jersey Shore Soundtrack on Spotify
A lyrical snippet from the Jersey Shore Soundtrack that’s evocative of the album in some way, maybe
I’m in the house.
What does the “best 1,000 albums ever” mean and why are you doing this?
Yeah, I know it’s audacious, a little crazy (okay, maybe a lot cray cray), bordering on criminal nerdery.
But here’s what it’s NOT: a definitive list of the Greatest Albums of All-Time. This is 100% my own personal super biased, incredibly subjective review of what my top 1,000 albums are, ranked in painstaking order over the course of doing research for nearly a year, Rob from High Fidelity style. Find out more about why I embarked on a best 1,000 albums ever project.