A Sampler of Samples

Many have expressed frustration over the lack of originality in Hollywood lately, a trend that has been echoed to some degree by the music industry. The good folks at Universal, Sony, and Warner have been rehashing the same hit singles longer than ‘NSync patriarch Chris Kirkpatrick has been around (the old one, not the Fatone).  Their cyclical hit-peddling can be owed in large part to the use of sampling.

For those of you who haven't listened to any music released after the mid-1970's, a sample is "an excerpt from a musical recording that is used in another artist's recording" ("sample"). In the 1960's, bands such as The Beatles pioneered the use of tape loops (rhythmic or textural parts pre-recorded onto magnetic tape), setting off the psychedelic era of rock music ("Tape Loop"). Within a decade, DJs began manipulating vinyl on two turntables—an experiment in sampling that led to the proliferation of the electronic and disco music, profoundly influencing the sound of current pop & hip hop music.

Thanks, sampling.

Since vinyl exists mostly for hipsters and old people nowadays, most sampling is performed using computer programs. Rhythm breaks from existing songs are traditionally used to construct beats for new songs (see: James Brown’s “Funky Drummer,” sampled by the Beastie Boys, Dr. Dre, Sublime, and others), while melodic loops are utilized in more conspicuous ways (see: “Under Pressure vs. “Ice Ice Baby”).

Predictably, the use of sampling has prompted both legal and artistic controversy (most recently, over the similarities between Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines” & Marvin Gaye’s 1977 classic “Got To Give It Up”).

While I’ll leave the moral and creative aspects of sampling to your own judgment, I will say that works prominently featuring sampled recordings can act as a gateway into the historical catalogue of music.

I promise you, his song is better.

The essence of History lies in viewing the past through the lens of the present, which sampled music allows us to do on a fundamental level. The following recordings are reconfigurations of past music that are analogous to modern historians’ interpretations of past events.

 M.I.A.- "Paper Planes" (Sampling "Straight to Hell," by The Clash)

 The Sugar Hill Gang- "Rapper's Delight"(Sampling "Good Times," by Chic)

Notorious B.I.G.- "Big Poppa" (Sampling "Between the Sheets," by The Isley Brothers)

  

_________________________________________________________________________________

"Sample." Def. 3. 2013. Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. Web. <http://www.merriam- webster.com/dictionary/sample>.

"Tape Loop." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 29 Aug. 2013. Web. 08 Sept. 2013. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tape_loop>.