Since the early 1970’s mechanically reproduction,sampling, of music has been one of the most prominent types of artistic reproduction. In the essay, “Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction," Walter Benjamin, examines how a reproduced piece of art work affects society. He states that as you reproduce a work of art it loses its aura, originality, authenticity and individuality. This concept does not relate to the thousands of songs mechanically reproduced and sampled every day for commercial profit. As musicians mechanically reproduce an old song, listeners of the original piece travel back in time, recalls a feeling or a memory, and the first time listener finds a whole new experience. The music industry has set standards of copyright laws, the process can be complex, and some even question if it’s ethical, if it damages the original songwriter’s reputation and original song. However, today artists constantly enter into agreements and give permission for their previously published song to be included in new recordings. In this essay I will analyze, Fab 5 Freddy’s hit "Changed The Beat" and Macklemore and Ryan Lewis’s Grammy Award winning song "Thrift Shop" and develop a theory validating music sampling; consequently, I posit that mechanically reproducing music is beneficial as it makes it last longer through the generations.
What is Sampling
Sampling is defined as the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a sound recording in a different song. In todays world sampling music primarily occurs in the hip-hop and R&B genres because those types of artists don’t have complex beats or rhythms. Nevertheless, sampling first started in the mid-1970 when the hip-hop scene was first emerging. It blew up in the early 1980’s when hip-hop artists started to take advantage of the sampling space. They quickly learned that if you sample songs you would automatically earn worldwide fame and immediate wealth. Today this is the mainstream, with most song heard on the radio station a copy of a song that was digitally formatted and advanced so that it’s pleasant for current listener’s ears. It’s regularly argued that sampling will lack the creativity and innovation of the original work. However, some producers in the industry think transferring music over generations is revolutionary; it changes music and melds generations by connecting them. For example. Andreena Mill, a rock artist who has worked with multiple famous artists like Drake, said, “Its cool when an artist can bring something back and flip it in a way that is different from the original.” Modern digital technology has definitely enabled, eased and increased the game of mechanically reproducing music with great results.
The Future of Musical Reproduction
I’m the son of a music engineer and my dad is among those who believe that technology forced the industry to new highs and lows. It’s the same technology that made the industry go forward and take several steps back, music is made with a lot less money, no need for big studios and big boards and majority of the songs are tracked in homes. Therefore, anything that helps create jobs should be embraced, including the power of sampling records because the possible versions are endless. Some of the biggest hits have been mechanically reproduced and became a one hit wonder. My father states that as you are sampling music it isn't harmful, but it will even make people remember the past as they hear the beat or lyrics. Music was hit hard because of technology and no one knows the future of the industry. Recreating music is meant to spread love and express the artist’s creativity through melodies and harmonies. Sampling songs shows that music has the power to live through generations. Digital technologies such as Pro Tools or Sound cloud can now technically advance anyone to be a producer or a musician. Music lovers can just run down to Best Buy, purchase a keyboard, and become songwriters in their own bedrooms. We all hear a song and might want to pump it up by developing some loud and fast beats. Today, technology has allowed millions of people to sample a song, post it on a social network site and even become an overnight star.
Background and Endorse Musical Reproduction
According to the BBC website, the most sampled song of all time is “Changed The Beat" by Fab 5 Freddy. This particular song has been featured in nearly 1,300 new compositions, including last year’s Grammy award winning song for Best Rap Song, “Thrift Shop” by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis. Many mainstream artists and performers today like Macklemore have had great commercial success by sampling. “Thrift Shop” proves that when sampled correctly, music makers can mechanically reproduce a song and make it a huge success. Macklemore was unknown before “Thrift Shop,” but became world famous after using Fab 5 Freddy’s rhythm. Some argue that Fab 5 Freddy basically gave Macklemore the beat and rhythm and gave him the power to become a world famous artist and a millionaire. We can understand that opinion, but Macklemore and Ryan Lewis were geniuses because they recreated a song that their fans loved. The new music isn’t about big orchestra band but simple music that has a catchy rhythm and beat. Also, since “Changed The Beat” has been sampled over 1,300 times it shows that Macklemore is just one of the long list of artists in history that have benefited from reproducing this song. Interestingly, sampling this particular song has changed the lives of many well-known artists today, across a mix of genres from Justin Bieber to Herbie Hancock to Eminem. Lastly, listening to “Change the Beat” can truly bring back a music lovers past experience by focusing on their memory and emotional connectivity to a song rather than the popularity and politics behind it. This way music never really expires, it can run endlessly with new generations changing words, mixing sounds and attracting audiences of different ages.
For some, mechanically reproducing, sampling, songs is too easy and wrong. There are complicated side effects when you copy the beat and sample the song for your own use. First, an artist or producer like Macklemore, isn’t making the original song, he’s just trying to make a hit by reassessing sound to match current sounds. As you mechanically reproduce a song you are basically stealing the original artist’s creativity and thought process. According to the Complex website, "Sampling is cheap, easy, and essentially just stealing someone else’s music." Also, sampling can consider an artist to be very lazy because they don’t want to put the time and effort to learn how to create music and learn how to play an instrument. In todays society idea to create music is to revive an older song by taking a piece of it and changing it to fit in the current environment. Nevertheless, the primary argument against mechanically reproducing music is that it destroys the purpose of the original song. The original song gets its due credit but no fame, the artist uses the rhythm and beat, and when a hit gets all the fame. As a result, the artist that is mechanically reproducing the original song destroys the context and turns the song into something totally different. Some people think this is similar to xeroxing, a cut and past technique. It’s about having a trained ear to hear a loop or sound inside a song, cut the little part, paste it into your song and change the tempo, and there you have it, a nice piece of music.
Conclusion
Putting together a mechanically reproduced music will always destroy the purpose of the original piece. Benjamin claims that the, “sphere of authenticity is outside the technical,” which means that the original song will create something unique but the sampler is more or less taking from the source and changing its context. We all agree that an original song will always be independent and artistic but we also have to recognize sampling as another form of creativity. In today’s world sampling songs is the main “art form” in the hip-hop culture. People need to recognize mechanically reproducing a song is really challenging. Yes, new artists will sometimes even use several pieces from original songs, to make up just a small bar in a new piece of music. It’s the modern music; listen to the radio, there’s no musicianship, and it’s exactly how we like our music today. Everything around us promotes self-service, and amazingly that goes for music too. We can sample our own records, record our sounds, and we can become huge artists. It’s important we look at sampling as part of the new form of music. It’s a now form of art and it’s the way that works for us now. Mechanically reproducing new music allows us to go back and forth, take a piece of music from an old lacquer disk or concert hall and put it into fun radio music. Sampling music is a great way to interact between two worlds and it’s absolutely a huge part of the music scene today.
Sampling is defined as the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a sound recording in a different song. In todays world sampling music primarily occurs in the hip-hop and R&B genres because those types of artists don’t have complex beats or rhythms. Nevertheless, sampling first started in the mid-1970 when the hip-hop scene was first emerging. It blew up in the early 1980’s when hip-hop artists started to take advantage of the sampling space. They quickly learned that if you sample songs you would automatically earn worldwide fame and immediate wealth. Today this is the mainstream, with most song heard on the radio station a copy of a song that was digitally formatted and advanced so that it’s pleasant for current listener’s ears. It’s regularly argued that sampling will lack the creativity and innovation of the original work. However, some producers in the industry think transferring music over generations is revolutionary; it changes music and melds generations by connecting them. For example. Andreena Mill, a rock artist who has worked with multiple famous artists like Drake, said, “Its cool when an artist can bring something back and flip it in a way that is different from the original.” Modern digital technology has definitely enabled, eased and increased the game of mechanically reproducing music with great results.
The Future of Musical Reproduction
I’m the son of a music engineer and my dad is among those who believe that technology forced the industry to new highs and lows. It’s the same technology that made the industry go forward and take several steps back, music is made with a lot less money, no need for big studios and big boards and majority of the songs are tracked in homes. Therefore, anything that helps create jobs should be embraced, including the power of sampling records because the possible versions are endless. Some of the biggest hits have been mechanically reproduced and became a one hit wonder. My father states that as you are sampling music it isn't harmful, but it will even make people remember the past as they hear the beat or lyrics. Music was hit hard because of technology and no one knows the future of the industry. Recreating music is meant to spread love and express the artist’s creativity through melodies and harmonies. Sampling songs shows that music has the power to live through generations. Digital technologies such as Pro Tools or Sound cloud can now technically advance anyone to be a producer or a musician. Music lovers can just run down to Best Buy, purchase a keyboard, and become songwriters in their own bedrooms. We all hear a song and might want to pump it up by developing some loud and fast beats. Today, technology has allowed millions of people to sample a song, post it on a social network site and even become an overnight star.
Background and Endorse Musical Reproduction
According to the BBC website, the most sampled song of all time is “Changed The Beat" by Fab 5 Freddy. This particular song has been featured in nearly 1,300 new compositions, including last year’s Grammy award winning song for Best Rap Song, “Thrift Shop” by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis. Many mainstream artists and performers today like Macklemore have had great commercial success by sampling. “Thrift Shop” proves that when sampled correctly, music makers can mechanically reproduce a song and make it a huge success. Macklemore was unknown before “Thrift Shop,” but became world famous after using Fab 5 Freddy’s rhythm. Some argue that Fab 5 Freddy basically gave Macklemore the beat and rhythm and gave him the power to become a world famous artist and a millionaire. We can understand that opinion, but Macklemore and Ryan Lewis were geniuses because they recreated a song that their fans loved. The new music isn’t about big orchestra band but simple music that has a catchy rhythm and beat. Also, since “Changed The Beat” has been sampled over 1,300 times it shows that Macklemore is just one of the long list of artists in history that have benefited from reproducing this song. Interestingly, sampling this particular song has changed the lives of many well-known artists today, across a mix of genres from Justin Bieber to Herbie Hancock to Eminem. Lastly, listening to “Change the Beat” can truly bring back a music lovers past experience by focusing on their memory and emotional connectivity to a song rather than the popularity and politics behind it. This way music never really expires, it can run endlessly with new generations changing words, mixing sounds and attracting audiences of different ages.
For some, mechanically reproducing, sampling, songs is too easy and wrong. There are complicated side effects when you copy the beat and sample the song for your own use. First, an artist or producer like Macklemore, isn’t making the original song, he’s just trying to make a hit by reassessing sound to match current sounds. As you mechanically reproduce a song you are basically stealing the original artist’s creativity and thought process. According to the Complex website, "Sampling is cheap, easy, and essentially just stealing someone else’s music." Also, sampling can consider an artist to be very lazy because they don’t want to put the time and effort to learn how to create music and learn how to play an instrument. In todays society idea to create music is to revive an older song by taking a piece of it and changing it to fit in the current environment. Nevertheless, the primary argument against mechanically reproducing music is that it destroys the purpose of the original song. The original song gets its due credit but no fame, the artist uses the rhythm and beat, and when a hit gets all the fame. As a result, the artist that is mechanically reproducing the original song destroys the context and turns the song into something totally different. Some people think this is similar to xeroxing, a cut and past technique. It’s about having a trained ear to hear a loop or sound inside a song, cut the little part, paste it into your song and change the tempo, and there you have it, a nice piece of music.
Conclusion
Putting together a mechanically reproduced music will always destroy the purpose of the original piece. Benjamin claims that the, “sphere of authenticity is outside the technical,” which means that the original song will create something unique but the sampler is more or less taking from the source and changing its context. We all agree that an original song will always be independent and artistic but we also have to recognize sampling as another form of creativity. In today’s world sampling songs is the main “art form” in the hip-hop culture. People need to recognize mechanically reproducing a song is really challenging. Yes, new artists will sometimes even use several pieces from original songs, to make up just a small bar in a new piece of music. It’s the modern music; listen to the radio, there’s no musicianship, and it’s exactly how we like our music today. Everything around us promotes self-service, and amazingly that goes for music too. We can sample our own records, record our sounds, and we can become huge artists. It’s important we look at sampling as part of the new form of music. It’s a now form of art and it’s the way that works for us now. Mechanically reproducing new music allows us to go back and forth, take a piece of music from an old lacquer disk or concert hall and put it into fun radio music. Sampling music is a great way to interact between two worlds and it’s absolutely a huge part of the music scene today.
Vartan Deranteriassian is a freshman at California State University Northridge who plans on graduating with a degree in Computer Information Technology. He loves to play sports and spend time with his family and friends.