Author: Michael Darling
I was chatting with some pals when somehow the topic of music sampling came up. There was a bit of debate over whether or not it could be constituted as musicianship. Some said it was a legitimate musical technique. Others said it was a mark of unoriginality. I thought about it, and realized that I’ve come to appreciate the use of samples in songs.
First of all, what is sampling? For those unfamiliar with the process, it’s when a musician takes an element from an existing song or sound recording and uses it in a new song. This can be anything from a beat to a vocal part, or even a couple of notes. This practice has been around since the late ’70s when Sugar Hill Gang rapped over a sample of the Chic song “Good Times.” However, it wasn’t until the early ’90s that sampling reached mainstream prominence.
Perhaps the first of such sampling controversies occurred when Vanilla Ice sampled Queen and David Bowie’s “Under Pressure” for his song “Ice Ice Baby.” Not only did he not give the original artists credit for the use of their record, but Ice claimed that it was an original bass riff that differed by one note. Here, we can see the roots of the dislike of sampling. Had sampling made its first major emergence in popular culture through an artist who gave full credit to those whose material he used, perhaps this debate wouldn’t exist. However, instead, history saw fit to make a flash-in-the-pan hack like Vanilla Ice the poster boy for sampling.
Sampling has been around for ages, though not exactly in its modern form. Bo Diddley had a signature beat on many of his recordings. This beat has since been re-recorded and used by artists such as Bruce Springsteen, U2, David Bowie and The White Stripes. Sampling is really just a modern take on this tradition.
It has become the stock in trade of many amazing DJs. RJD2 frequently uses sound bites from films in his work. Besides, how many of you have music from Girl Talk on your iPod? Even if you aren’t a hip-hop or electronica fan, you’ve probably encountered sampling. Guns ‘N’ Roses sampled a line from “Cool Hand Luke” in their song “Civil War” and The Verve’s legendary “Bittersweet Symphony” is based around a sample of an orchestral version of the Rolling Stones’ “The Last Time.”
Sampling is just another part of a long-standing musical tradition of borrowing the ideas of others and trying them out in new ways. When credit is given, I would say sampling is actually more honest than techniques of the past, as there is no hiding who was responsible for the original creation. In the mainstream, as exhibited by Flo Rida’s sampling of Dead or Alive’s “Right Round,” sampling hasn’t really changed much from the days of Vanilla Ice. But maybe in the future, sampling will move beyond just reusing an already popular song and become a new art form for musicians. Maybe then it will get the respect it deserves. Who knows what creations we’ll see if sampling is fully embraced as a legitimate musical creation.
Michael Darling is a senior History major. He can be reached at mdarling@oxy.edu.
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