I've recently started listening to old R&B, a lot of stuff on local Majic 102, etc.. Great stuff! Anyway, I keep hearing songs that I never hear before but recognize the hooks for. Then it would hit me, oh yea, that's the one song by Nelly, so on and so forth. I grew up on rock n' roll, and my personal opinion when I heard a riff or bass line that closely resembles another song, I would point it out, and the song wouldn't seem so fantastic to me. I've always felt like originality in music was part of what made music for me. Of course, others will disagree. If it sounds good, then it sounds good. However, after a few weeks of discovering all of this great older R&B, it seems as though for the newer hip-hop artists, it's a standard formula. Get a hook from an old song, repeat it and add your own little quirks to it. Of course, there's an art to it, of course it's not that simple. But to me, it kind of deflates some of the 'whoa, <said artist> is a freakin' genuis, this hook is amazing.' When I was growing up listening to various rock n' roll, rarely, and I can't recall any, I never heard sampling. I'm sure it occurs, I'm just not aware of any. How do you guys feel about the sampling of music? The artist I find most guilty of this is Diddy.
Keep in mind that sampling is a relatively new thing. Techologically, it wasn't really even possible to sample before the late 1980's and it didn't become commonplace until around 1990. Even then, sound quality and editing were issues. I think it definitely has a place. All the great musicians stood on the backs of those who came before them. And, in R&B music, there is a great tradition of not just sampling, but covering previous artists. Numerous artists on the Motown label, for example, would do the exact same song. Usually one version would attain popularity, but it didn't only one person would cover it. In fact, Get Ready was a hit for both the Temptations and Rare Earth. Then there's jazz, where probably 50 percent of the music made by an artist is a cover of another composer. The percentage in classical is even higher. The point being is that it is the interpretation that makes the art, not just a composition. Oftentimes, I'd rather hear a really great cover of a song or a new song created from a sample than a bad song by the original artist.
I love R&B too. There is a good mp3 blog that posts some lesser played stuff I visit. hxxp://soul-sides.com/ - A very good selection pops up there. I see sampling as an extension of collage art. It's just a recycling of older culture mixed up and remade to create new culture. I know I am in the minority on this. I see just as much creativity in the creation of a work using samples as I do on an original comosition. The legal ramifications of sampling have really put a hurt on people who do it though. There is a great collection of sampled works that have been sued due to copyright infringment at - hxxp://www.illegal-art.org/audio/index.html I really like what they have to say on the liner notes for STAY FREE'S ILLEGAL ART COMPILATION CD To tell the truth - I would much rather hear Beatles or Led Zeppelin samples in a song, than hear full songs being used to sell Cadilacs.
I just hate the wholesale sample where they basically wipe the words off and rap over it [See EVERY BREATH YOU TAKE BY P-Diddy] that IMO lacks creativity But a nice sample.. . .Hell nothing beats a sample that is so obscure that hardly anyone knows it or so chopped and reprocessed that you can barely tell the original Rocket River
yeah, he does it lot. what Kanye does is actually pretty creative. like what he did on "over night celebrity". "girl you know I I I I I" can't think of the name of that song, but everyone knows it, "and I watched T.V. till the T.V. went off, and I played my records till just wouldn't play anymore"
