We actually touched on the subject of digital sampling a few posts ago, but for those of you that missed it, check it out here.
I grew up listening to awesome hair bands and new wave in the 80's, tranisitioning to alt rock and gansta rap of the 90's. One guilty pleasure I still share with my sometime collaborator is an affinity, well maybe not affinity, but likened pleasure towards new wave bands. Depeche Mode and Erasure were tops, but Pet Shop Boys, Information Society and others were equally nice.
Gangsta rap was right around the corner, and one typical attribute for rap songs that time were to have long drawn out introductions, along with small interludes between tracks on the CD. One stand out was Warren G's "Regulators". I don't know how many times we quoted, "You gotta be handy with the steel, you know what I mean? Earn your keep."
Now what does new wave and gansta rap have in common? Not a whole lot, except for...
Sampling. Yes, that's right. A veritable splendor of specimens to further enhance and contrive the backbone of a song. Growing up, I heard it used aplenty in my new wave music, but didn't think much of it; I was a kid. As my peers began to listen to rap, so did I. I remember those early songs with the long intros, but also hearing a quote from a movie or commercial or something just vaguely familiar. MC Hammer's "U Can't Touch This" was a sample ofRick
James' (of "Cocaine's a hell of a drug" fame) "Superfreak". Many argue that even further back, "Werewolves of London" was ripped off for "Sweet Home Alabama". I wouldn't know. I do know that Kid Rock probably ripped both off for his "All Summer Long".
So what does this mean? Well for starters, creativity isn't quite what it used to be. It's not like to are paying homage to your inspiration; perhaps you're taking their work and saying "Oh, let me change a few words and then it'll be a new song...Yeah!". Not trying to be flippant, but how far off is that?
Now in all fairness, many rappers/DJs/artists use the turntable in an artform called mixing. One memorable line from a long forgotten rap song is "Two turntables and a microphone". There's something to be said about using a fifteen-second hook and rhyming on the fly. Live and in front of an audience. Not just recording and dubbed. Different, but still doesn't counter my prior argument.
In the end, artists are tired of losing revenue to sampling. Yes, there are a TON of hooks out there, but the artists themselves don't want to lose that revenue because they couldn't come up with a decent hook. Most recently, Kanye West's 808s and Heartbreak lacked sampling. A big deal in today's hip hop world. Young Jeezy and T.I. both used four or less samples in their most recent albums. SPIN Magazine wrote a great article about this and can be viewed here.
I think in the end, sampling won't die. And it shouldn't. But artists shouldn't be afraid to create something new. Music is infintismimally limited; it isn't. And as such, artists shouldn't be either. You don't need to pull out a somewhat popular song to make your mediocre song sound better. But what do I know? I sample some poor schmo's quote at the end of each of my posts.
At least I give credit, if nothing else.
Your closing sample: Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower. - Steven Jobs
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4 comments:
"You don't need to pull out a somewhat popular song to make your mediocre song sound better."
But it happens all the time. And depending on how it is done, often it is the cheap way to big dollars. Why reinvent the wheel when you can trample someone else's legacy?
I think what bothers me far more are artists (and I use that term VERY loosely) who don't know the first thing about crafting a song. Example: Britney Spears in an article for Rolling Stone a few years back, discussing a new album, botched the names of a couple of the songs from said new album and couldn't remember some of the others. The interviewer supplied the names of the songs and, thankfully, threw a jab her way for not knowing them.
The questions is why do people fall for such diluted bullshit when there is so much music out there just layered with expression and soul that hardly anyone notices? But perhaps that is a larger question about our culture, or human nature in general. And to be honest, I just don't have the damn energy to think about it right now.
Peace bro. Thanks for thought provoking words.
anyone remember bittersweet symphony? That is sampling, not ripping off a beat. I thought the band "The Verve" was given a bad call on that song. I think to some extent you can sample; as long as you give credit to where credit is due.
http://www.illegal-art.org/audio/historic.html
Rolling Stones v. the Verve
After sampling a few bars of "The Last Time" by the Rolling Stones, the Verve learned the hard way that you can't always get what you want. Though the Verve received permission to use the sample, lengthy negotiations with Stones publisher ABKCO forced the band to cede the song's copyright to ABKCO owner Allan Klein, and to give all royalties to Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.
The sample that started the confusion is only a small piece of the Verve's "Bittersweet Symphony." Verve member Ashcroft explained, "We sampled four bars. That was on one track. Then we did 47 tracks of music beyond that little piece. We've got our own string players, our own percussion on it. Guitars. We're talking about a four-bar sample turning into 'Bitter Sweet Symphony' and they're still claiming it's the same song."Now does anyone else remember Ice, Ice, Baby? That song had a catchy beat, right? But when you listen to David Bowie's Under Pressure,....thats a ripoff, not a sampling.
I forgot about The Verve's battle on that one. I don't know how'd I would take it (were I Richards or Jaggar), but they had permission?
Vanilla Ice's debacle with Bowie was quite blatant; the song pre-dates his To The Extreme fame. In that period, sampling was all the rage and the hook from "Under Pressure" was admittedly used. Van Winkle comes across like an ass during one MTV interview saying the high hat part at the end of hook was different, so the hooks are different. Bowie didn't buy what Van Winkle was selling.
Thank you both for the responses.
I grew up with Hip-hop back before it became fashionable. Sampling is okay, but I think artists went overboard and lost originality along the way.
I remember hearing a rap song that had sampled 'Strangers in the Night' and it was horrible. And that's just an example.
I'm for originality.
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