What is mood improving music ?

I like to improve the mood of people using music. There, I have said it. I do this in three ways.

1. Mood improving lyrics. For occasions like a wedding, a funeral, the death of a pet, retirement, new job I like to provide an existing song with a lyric that is relevant to the situation. I understand Dutch, English and German songs good enough to do this. But I have to know and understand the person and the situation for a good match. I think more people should do this for their friends, families and colleagues, especially in cases where your own words seem to fail to help them feel better. And sometimes just an instrumental melody or a funny or touching video accompanying the music is a good solution.Of course you can also be the guy or gal that puts on exactly the right song at a party to heighten the atmosphere. To improve the mood, that original mood can be happy already and become ecstatic because of you.
2. Mega mixtapes. In some cases, one song is not enough because of the gravity of the situation. Or because of the many aspects involved. Or you like the person really, really well (and not as just a friend...). In these instances I make a mixtape for them or for a group of them. DJ's that influenced me are Ben Liebrand, with his minimixes combining two or three songs, megamixes of an hour of current songs, and grandmixes that cover the songs of a specific year. And Ferry Maat who in his Soul Show on Dutch radio introduced me to segues and medleys and the "Bond van Doorstarters" (League of Home Mixers). And also DJ Pool, a Danish mixer who made an eight hour megamix covering almost every popular song of the 80's and 90's (and a lot of 70's as well). I like to create, but within boundaries, for instance using only German Schlager songs, or beginner dance level songs for West Coast Swing, all mixes of "Blurred Lines" by Robin Thicke or all songs that fit with "Let Me Blow Your Mind", by Eve and Gwen Stefani. These mixtapes will be put on dropbox and I will provide a link on this site.
3. Merry mashups. I can appreciate a good, timely chop-mix. For instance from "I Will Survive" to "Freak Out", using Gloria's "Oooh" (in the break) and leaving out Chic's. But most of the time, the longer the overlap between two (or more) songs in a mix, the better it sounds. This liking brought me to mashups, or bootlegs, booties, hybrid pop, bastard pop and so on. If you are reading this blog, you probably know that mashups combine two or more songs, often from different genres, and usually made by combining the acapella (so just the vocals) of song A with the music (or a repeated part of it) of song B. I have found that a lot of vocals, rap included improve (for me) by putting a reggae riddim under them. The harshness of a lot of rap lyrics can be softened by using more commercial music as backing. But the beats of the same rap and hiphop records (Hello Dr. Dre!!) are very usable to put under the vocals of current hits of (girl) singers or old time classics like the Beegees and the Commodores. The main idea is to improve the accessability or dancability of songs from different genres. I like all kinds of music, but am still getting used to death metal and klezmer. The mashups I have made (about 270 since 2014) are or will be published on the following website: https://sowndhaus.audio/profile/corvanspaendonck 

At the moment (end of march 2018) I have put up about 75 mashups on sowndhaus; there will be more, so revisit there often if you like them. I also joined mashstix.com to improve my musical mixing skills with the feedback of other users of that forum. When I make the Frontpage there, some of my future / improved mashups will be published there as well.