Sampling (music)
Encyclopedia
In music
, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample
, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument
or a different sound recording of a song or piece. Sampling was originally developed by experimental music
ians working with musique concrète
and electroacoustic music
, who physically manipulated tape loop
s or vinyl records on a phonograph
. In the late 1960s, the use of tape loop sampling influenced the development of minimalist music
and the production of psychedelic rock
and jazz fusion
. In the 1970s, DJs who experimented with manipulating vinyl on two turntables gave birth to hip hop music
, the first popular music
genre based originally around the art of sampling. The widespread use of sampling in popular music increased with the rise of electronic music
and disco
in the mid 1970s to early 1980s, the development of electronic dance music
and industrial music
in the 1980s, and the worldwide influence of hip hop since the 1980s on genres ranging from contemporary R&B
to indie rock
. Since that time sampling is often done with a sampler
, originally a piece of hardware, but today, more commonly a computer program
. Vinyl emulation software
may also be used, however, and many turntablists continue to sample using traditional methods. The inclusion of sampling tools in modern digital production methods increasingly introduced sampling into many genres of popular music, as well as genres predating the invention of sampling, such as classical music
, jazz
and various forms of traditional music
.
Often "samples" consist of one part of a song, such as a rhythm break
, which is then used to construct the beat for another song. For instance, hip hop music developed from DJs repeating the breaks from songs to enable continuous dancing. The Funky drummer
break and the Amen break
, both brief fragments taken from soul
and funk music recordings of the 1960s, have been among the most common samples used in dance music and hip hop of recent decades, with some entire subgenres like breakbeat
being based largely on complex permutations of a single one of these samples. Samples from rock recordings have also been the basis of new songs; for example, the drum introduction from Led Zeppelin
's "When the Levee Breaks
" was sampled by the Beastie Boys
, Dr. Dre
, Eminem
, Mike Oldfield
, Rob Dougan
, Coldcut
, Depeche Mode
, Erasure
and Nine Inch Nails
, among others. Often, samples are not taken from other music, but from spoken words, including those in non-musical media such as movies, TV shows and advertising. Sampling does not necessarily mean using pre-existing recordings. A number of composers and musicians have constructed pieces or songs by sampling field recordings they made themselves, and others have sampled their own original recordings. The musicians in the trip hop
band Portishead, for example, made some use of existing samples, but also scratched
, manipulated and sampled musical parts they themselves had originally played in order to construct their songs.
The use of sampling is controversial legally and musically. Experimental musicians who pioneered the technique in the 1940s to the 1960s sometimes did not inform or receive permission from the subjects of their field recordings or from copyright owners before constructing a musical piece out of these samples. In the 1970s, when hip hop was confined to local dance parties, it was unnecessary to obtain copyright clearance in order to sample recorded music at these parties. As the genre became a recorded form centred around rapping in the 1980s and subsequently went mainstream, it became necessary to pay to obtain legal clearance for samples, which was difficult for all but the most successful DJs, producers and rappers. As a result, a number of recording artists ran into legal trouble for uncredited samples, while the restrictiveness of current US copyright laws and their global impact on creativity also came under increased scrutiny. The hip hop genre also shifted toward a wider aesthetic in which sampling was only one method of constructing beats, with many producers instead crafting wholly original recordings to serve as backing tracks. Aside from legal issues, sampling has been both championed and criticized. Hip hop DJs today take different approaches to sampling, with some critical of its obvious use. Some critics, particularly those with a rockist
outlook, have expressed the belief all sampling is lacking in creativity, while others say sampling has been innovative and revolutionary. Those whose own work has been sampled have also voiced a wide variety of opinions about the practice, both for and against sampling.
which is created by sampling a phrase played on any kind of instrument. There is software which specializes in creating loops.
s and samplers use samples of musical instruments as the basis of their own sounds, and are capable of playing a sample back at any pitch. Many modern synthesizer
s and drum machine
s also use samples as the basis of their sounds. (See sample-based synthesis
for more information.) Most such samples are created in professional recording studios using world-class instruments played by accomplished musicians. These are usually developed by the manufacturer of the instrument or by a subcontractor who specializes in creating such samples. There are businesses and individuals who create libraries of samples of musical instruments. Of course, a sampler allows anyone to create such samples.
Possibly the earliest equipment used to sample recorded instrument sounds are the Chamberlin
, which was developed in the 1940s, and its better-known cousin, the Mellotron
, marketed in England in the 1960s. Both are tape replay keyboard
s, in which each key pressed triggers a prerecorded tape loop of a single note.
Musicians can reproduce the same samples of break beats like the "Amen" break
which was composed, produced and mastered by the Winston Brothers
in 1960s. Producers in the early 1990s have used the whole 5.66 second sample; but music workstations like the Korg
Electribe Series (EM-1, ES-1; EMX-1 and the ESX-1) have used the "Amen" kick, hi hat and snare in their sound wave libraries for free use. Sampler production companies have managed to use these samples for pitch, attack and decay and DSP effects to each drum sound. These features allow producers to manipulate samples to match other parts of the composition.
Most sample sets consist of multiple samples at different pitches. These are combined into keymaps, that associate each sample with a particular pitch or pitch range. Often, these sample maps may have different layers as well, so that different velocities can trigger a different sample.
Samples used in musical instruments sometimes have a looped component. An instrument with indefinite sustain, such as a pipe organ, does not need to be represented by a very long sample because the sustained portion of the timbre is looped. The sampler (or other sample playback instrument) plays the attack and decay portion of the sample followed by the looped sustain portion for as long as the note is held, then plays the release portion of the sample.
, a workstation may allow the user to sample a layer of sounds (piano, strings, and voices, for example) so they can be played together as one sound instead of three. This leaves more of the instruments' resources available to generate additional sounds.
/David Bowie
's "Under Pressure
" (1981) in Vanilla Ice
's "Ice Ice Baby
" (1990). Some of the earliest examples in popular electronic music were from Yellow Magic Orchestra
, such as "Computer Game / Firecracker" (1978) sampling a Martin Denny
melody and Space Invaders
game sounds, while Technodelic
(1981) was one of the first albums to feature mostly samples and loops.
On MC Hammer
's album Please Hammer, Don't Hurt 'Em, the successful single "U Can't Touch This
" sampled Rick James
' 1981 "Super Freak
". "Have You Seen Her
" was a cover
of the Chi-Lites
and "Pray" sampled Prince
's "When Doves Cry
" as well as Faith No More
's "We Care a Lot
". "Dancin' Machine" sampled The Jackson 5
, "Help the Children" interpolates Marvin Gaye
's "Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)
", and "She's Soft and Wet" also sampled Prince's "Soft and Wet
". Hammer's previous album
and future albums would continue to sample music, although not as notable as this album did.
The Isley Brothers
' song Between The Sheets
is a song heavily sampled by many different artists, most notably Notorious BIG's Big Poppa
, and Gwen Stefani
's Luxurious.
In many cases, artists even join the original artist or receive permission to sample songs such as Coolio
did for "Gangsta's Paradise
". It sampled the chorus and music of the song "Pastime Paradise" by Stevie Wonder
(1976). Wonder performed the song with Coolio and L.V. at the 1995 Billboard Awards. Notably, much of Coolio's album
excessively sampled other artists; including "Too Hot" (contains an interpolation of "Too Hot", originally performed by Kool & The Gang
), Cruisin'" (contains an interpolation of "Cruisin'", originally performed by Smokey Robinson & the Miracles), "Sumpin' New" (which contains samples of both "Thighs High (Grip Your Hips More)" performed by Tom Browne and "Wikka Wrap" performed by The Evasions), "Smilin'" (contains an interpolation of "You Caught Me Smiling", originally performed by Sly & The Family Stone
), "Kinda High, Kinda Drunk" (contains interpolations of "Saturday Night" and "The Boyz in Da Hood"), "For My Sistas" (contains an interpolation of "Make Me Say It Again Girl", originally performed by The Isley Brothers
), "A Thing Goin' On" (contains an interpolation of "Me & Mrs. Jones"), "The Revolution" (contains an interpolation of "Magic Night"), "Get Up, Get Down" (contains an interpolation of "Chameleon
", originally performed by Herbie Hancock
), and the first line of "Gangster's Paradise" is taken from Psalm 23
.
Another example is in 1997, when Sean Combs
collaborated with Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin on the song "Come with Me" for the Godzilla
film. The track sampled the Led Zeppelin
song "Kashmir
" (approved by Jimmy Page
). "I'll Be Missing You
" sampled the melody
and some of the lyrics from The Police's
"Every Breath You Take
" from 1983
. The single also borrows the melody from the well-known American spiritual "I'll Fly Away
." Combs went on to perform it with Sting and Faith Evans
on the MTV Video Music Awards
. By the late 1990s, "Puffy" was receiving criticism for watering down and overly commercializing hip-hop and overusing guest appearances by other artists, samples and interpolations
of past hits in his own hit songs. The Onion
parodied this phenomenon in a 1997 article called "New rap song samples "Billie Jean
" in its entirety, adds nothing."
Artists can often sample their own songs in other songs they have recorded, often in differently-titled remixes. The Chemical Brothers
sampled their own song "The Sunshine Underground" in their later song "We Are the Night
".
infringement. Some sampling artists fought back, claiming their samples were fair use
(a legal doctrine in the USA that is not universal). International sampling is governed by agreements such as the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works
and the WIPO Copyright and Performances and Phonograms Treaties Implementation Act
.
created Collage #1 ("Blue Suede") from samples of Elvis Presley
's recording of the song "Blue Suede Shoes
."
At the time, many artists such as Brion Gysin
and William S. Burroughs
were experimenting with the new technology that was tape-recording by manipulating existing works such as radio broadcasts. Brion Gysin's work tended to favor his permutation poems as the vehicle for cut-ups with spliced repetition of the same series of words rearranged in every conceivable pattern, frequently utilizing snippets of speeches or news broadcasts. Burroughs preferred a much more frantic and disorganized sound that would later spawn similar disjointed collage material from modern groups such as Negativland
. Burroughs would record, for instance, a radio broadcast about military action, then dub parts of the broadcast likely at random often stuttering and distorting the original work far beyond comprehension.
However, before then, the 1956 novelty hit single "The Flying Saucer
", by Buchanan and Goodman
, used segments of the original recordings of 18 different chart hits from 1955–56, intertwined with spoken "news" commentary in the style of Orson Welles
' "War of the Worlds" radio broadcast, to tell the story of a visit from a flying saucer
. After the record was issued, an agreement was reached with music publishing houses for them to take a share of royalties from the records sold. Although his partnership with Buchanan soon ended, Dickie Goodman continued to make similar records through the 1960s and 1970s, one of his biggest hits being "Mr. Jaws
" in 1975.
Simon and Garfunkel
sampled themselves in using a portion of their song "The Sounds of Silence" in "Save the life of my child" from their 1967 "Bookends
" album. The Beatles
also used the technique on a number of popular recordings in the mid to late '60s, including "Yellow Submarine
", "Revolution 9
" and "I Am the Walrus
." John Kongos
is credited in the Guinness World Records
as the first person to sample a song with his single, "He's Gonna Step On You Again
". Timothy Leary
sampled the Beatles and the Rolling Stones
among others on his album You Can Be Anyone This Time Around in 1970.
In the early 1970s, DJ Kool Herc
often looped hard funk break beats at block parties in The Bronx. However, sampling did not truly take off in popular music until the early eighties when pioneering hip hop
producers, such as Grandmaster Flash
, started to produce rap records using sampled break
s rather than live studio bands, which had until then been the norm.
Conventional wisdom would hold that the first popular rap single to feature sampling was "Rapper's Delight" by The Sugarhill Gang
on their own independent Sugar Hill Label in 1979. However, instead of 'sampling' the existing record "Good Times" by Chic
, Sugar Hill employed a house band, called "Positive Force" to record a copy of "Good Times" which was then rapped over. Doug Wimbish
and other session musicians were called upon to play live music on many classic Sugar Hill records. Those sounds are not samples but live musicians.
Earliest examples of this practice include Grandmaster Flash
's - "The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel
" (1981) (which was made by recording vinyl manipulation on a pair of turntables and used the "Apache" break by the Incredible Bongo Bong Band amongst other famous breaks), Brother D and the Collective Effort's "How We Gonna Make The Black Nation Rise" (1984) (which sampled the beat and bass line from Cheryl Lynn
's 1978 hit "Got to be Real") and UTFO's "Roxanne Roxanne" (1984). Bill Holt's Dreamies (1974) is often cited as one of the earliest examples of sampling in popular music. Later examples of sampling include Big Audio Dynamite
and their 1985 album This Is Big Audio Dynamite
and the single E=MC²
which Mick Jones
(formerly of The Clash
) sampled snippets of audio from various films including works by Nicolas Roeg
which make up the Roeg homage E=MC²
. The 1981 album by David Byrne
and Brian Eno
, My Life in the Bush of Ghosts
, used sampling extensively for the songs' vocals.
One of the first major legal cases regarding sampling was with UK dance act MARRS
"Pump Up the Volume". As the record reached the UK top ten, producers Stock Aitken Waterman
obtained an injunction against the record due to the unauthorized use of a sample from their hit single "Roadblock". The dispute was settled out of court, with the injunction being lifted in return for an undertaking that overseas releases would not contain the "Roadblock" sample, and the disc went on to top the UK singles chart. The sample in question had been so distorted as to be virtually unrecognizable, and SAW didn't realize their record had been used until they heard co-producer Dave Dorrell mention it in a radio interview.
In 1987, The JAMs released 1987 (What The Fuck Is Going On?)
1987 was produced using extensive unauthorised samples which plagiarised a wide range of musical works. They were ordered by the Mechanical-Copyright Protection Society
to destroy all unsold copies of the album because of the numerous uncleared samples, after a complaint from ABBA. In response, The JAMs disposed of many copies of 1987 in unorthodox, publicised ways. They also released a version of the album titled "1987 (The JAMs 45 Edits)", stripped of all unauthorised samples to leave periods of protracted silence and so little audible content that it was formally classed as a 12-inch single.
2 Live Crew
, a hip-hop group familiar with controversy, was often in the spotlight for their 'obscene' and sexually explicit lyrics. They sparked many debates about censorship in the music industry. However, it was their 1989 album As Clean as They Wanna Be (a re-tooling of As Nasty As They Wanna Be
) that began the prolonged legal debate over sampling. The album contained a track entitled "Pretty Woman," based on the well-known Roy Orbison
song Oh, Pretty Woman
. 2 Live Crew's version sampled the guitar, bass, and drums from the original, without permission. While the opening lines are the same, the two songs split ways immediately following.
For example:
In addition to this, while the music is identifiable as the Orbison song, there were changes implemented by the group. The new version contained interposed scraper notes, overlays of solos in different keys, and an altered drum beat.
The group was sued by the song's copyright owners Acuff-Rose. The company claimed that 2 Live Crew's unauthorized use of the samples devalued the original, and was thus a case of copyright infringement. The group claimed they were protected under the fair use doctrine. The case of Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music came to the Supreme Court in 1994.
In reviewing the case, the Supreme Court didn't consider previous ruling in which any commercial use (and economic gain) was considered copyright infringement. Instead they re-evaluated the original frame of copyright as set forth in the Constitution. The opinion that resulted from Emerson v. Davies played a major role in the decision.
Perhaps what played a larger role was the result from the Folsom v. Marsh case:
The court ruled that any financial gain 2 Live Crew received from their version did not infringe upon Acuff-Rose because the two songs were targeted at very different audiences. 2 Live Crew's use of copyrighted material was protected under the fair use doctrine, as a parody, even though it was released commercially. While the appellate court had determined that the mere nature of the parody made it inherently unfair, the Supreme Court's ruling reversed this decision, with Justice David Souter writing that the lower court was wrong in determining parody alone to be a sufficient criterion for copyright infringement.
sued MC Hammer
for infringement of copyright
on the track "U Can't Touch This
" (which sampled his 1981 song "Super Freak
"), but the suit was settled out of court when Hammer agreed to credit James as co-composer, effectively cutting James in on the millions of dollars the record was earning. Hammer was also sued by Felton Pilate
(who had worked with the successful vocal group Con Funk Shun
) and by several of his former backers, and faced charges that performance troupe members endured an abusive, militaristic atmosphere.
In 1992, Hammer also admitted in depositions
and court documents to getting the idea for the song "Here Comes The Hammer" from a Christian recording artist
in Dallas, Texas
named Kevin Christian. Christian had filed a 16 million dollar lawsuit
against Hammer for copyright infringement
for his song entitled "Oh-Oh, You Got The Shing". This fact compounded with witness testimony from both Hammer's and Christian's entourages and other evidence including photos brought about a settlement with Capitol Records
in 1994. The terms of the settlement remain sealed. Hammer settled with Christian the following year.
In the early 1990s, Vanilla Ice
sampled the bass
line of the 1981 song "Under Pressure
" by Queen
and David Bowie
for his 1990 single "Ice Ice Baby
". Freddie Mercury
and David Bowie
did not receive credit or royalties for the sample. In a 1990 interview, Rob Van Winkle said the two melodies were slightly different because he had added an additional note. In later interviews, Van Winkle readily admitted he sampled the song and claimed his 1990 statement was a joke; others, however, suggested he had been serious. Van Winkle later paid Mercury and Bowie, who have since been given songwriting credit for the sample.
More dramatically, Biz Markie
's album I Need a Haircut was withdrawn in 1992 following a US federal court ruling, that his use of a sample from Gilbert O'Sullivan
's "Alone Again (Naturally)
" was willful infringement. This case had a powerful effect on the record industry, with record companies becoming very much concerned with the legalities of sampling, and demanding that artists make full declarations of all samples used in their work. On the other hand, the ruling also made it more attractive to artists and record labels to allow others to sample their work, knowing that they would be paid—often handsomely—for their contribution.
A notable case in the early 1990s involved the dispute between the group Negativland
and Casey Kasem
over the band's use of un-aired vocal snippets from Kasem's radio program American Top 40 on the Negativland single "U2".
Another notable case involved British dance music
act Shut Up And Dance
. Shut Up And Dance were a fairly successful Breakbeat Hardcore
and rave
scene outfit who like their contemporaries had liberally used samples in the creation of their music - without clearance from the individuals concerned. Although frowned upon the British music industry usually turned a blind eye to this mainly underground scene, however with rave at its commercial peak in the UK, Shut Up And Dance released the single "Raving I'm Raving" an upbeat breakbeat hardcore record which shot to #2 on the UK Singles Chart
in May 1992. At the core of "Raving" were significant samples of Marc Cohn
's hit single "Walking in Memphis
" with some of the lyrical content changed and sung by Peter Bouncer. Shut Up And Dance hadn't sought clearance from Marc Cohn for the samples they used in "Raving" and Marc Cohn took legal action against Shut Up And Dance for breach of copyright. An out of court settlement was eventually reached between Shut Up And Dance and Cohn which saw "Raving" in its current form banned and the proceeds from the single given to charity. Ironically Shut Up and Dance were later commissioned to produce remixes for Cher
's 1995 cover version of "Walking In Memphis" and were allowed by Cohn to use parts from the deleted "Raving I'm Raving" for this remix.
Undeterred from earlier sampling issues they then went on to have relatively good success in the UK with a cover of Duran Duran
's "Save A Prayer
", entitled "Save it til the mourning after" reaching No. 25 in the UK Singles Chart
in 1995.
The Shut Up And Dance case had major ramifications on the use of samples in the UK and most artists and record labels now seek clearance for samples they use. However there are still cases which involve UK artists using uncleared samples. In October 1996 The Chemical Brothers
released the single Setting Sun
inspired by The Beatles
' Tomorrow Never Knows
and featuring Oasis'
Noel Gallagher
on vocals - a long admirer of The Beatles' work. Setting Sun hit #1 on the UK Singles Chart
on first week of release and the common consensus was The Chemical Brothers had sampled/looped significant parts of Tomorrow Never Knows in the creation of Setting Sun. The three remaining Beatles took legal action against The Chemical Brothers/Virgin Records
for breach of copyright, however a musicologist
proved The Chemical Brothers had independently created Setting Sun - albeit in a similar vein to Tomorrow Never Knows.
In 1997 The Verve
was forced to pay 100% of their royalties from their hit "Bitter Sweet Symphony
" for the use of a licensed sample from an orchestral cover version of The Rolling Stones
' hit "The Last Time". The Rolling Stones' catalogue is one of the most litigiously protected in the world of popular music—to some extent the case mirrored the legal difficulties encountered by Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine when they quoted from the song "Ruby Tuesday" in their song "After the Watershed" some years earlier. In both cases, the issue at stake was not the use of the recording, but the use of the song itself—the section from "The Last Time" used by the Verve was not even part of the original composition, but because it derived from a cover version of it, Mick Jagger
and Keith Richards
were still entitled to royalties and credit on the derivative work. This illustrates an important legal point: even if a sample is used legally, it may open the artist up to other problems.
released her first single from Glitter entitled "Loverboy" which featured a sample of "Firecracker" by Yellow Magic Orchestra
. A month later, Jennifer Lopez
released "I'm Real" with the same "Firecracker" sample. Carey quickly discarded it and replaced it with "Candy" by Cameo
.
In 2001, Armen Boladian
and his company Bridgeport Music Inc. filed over 500 copyright infringement suits against 800 artists using samples from George Clinton
's catalogue.
Public Enemy recorded a track entitled "Psycho of Greed" (2002) for their album Revolverlution
that contained a continuous looping sample from The Beatles
' track "Tomorrow Never Knows
". However, the clearance fee demanded by Capitol Records
and the surviving Beatles was so high that the group decided to pull the track from the album.
Danger Mouse
with the release of The Grey Album
in 2004, which is a remix of The Beatles
' self-titled album
and rapper Jay-Z
's The Black Album
has been embroiled in a similar situation with the record label
EMI
issuing cease and desist
orders over uncleared Beatles samples.
On March 19, 2006, a judge ordered that sales of The Notorious B.I.G.
's album Ready to Die
be halted because the title track sampled a 1972 song by the Ohio Players
, "Singing in the Morning", without permission.
On November 20, 2008, electronic band Kraftwerk
convinced the German Federal Supreme Court that even the smallest shreds of sounds ("Tonfetzen") are "copyrightable" (e.g. protected), and that sampling a few bars of a drum beat can be an infringement.
There has been a second important US case on music sampling involving the Beastie Boys
who sampled the sound recording of a flute track by James Newton
in their song "Pass the Mic." The Beastie Boys properly obtained a license to use the sound recording but did not clear the use of the song (the composition on which the recording is based including any music and lyrics). In Newton v. Diamond and Others 349 F.3d 591 (9th Cir. 2003) the US Appeals Court held that the use of the looped sample of a flute did not constitute copyright infringement as the core of the song itself had not been used.
A June 2006 case involving Ludacris
and Kanye West
held that their use of the phrases "like that" and "straight like that" which had been used on an earlier hip-hop track by another artist was not infringing use.
The New Orleans–based company Cash Money Records
and former rapper Juvenile
were taken to court by local performer DJ Jubilee (signed to Take Fo' Record Label) for using chants from his song titled Back That Ass Up. Both artist had used the same chant in each song, but Juvenile won the case because of the title's name change to Back That Azz Up, which sold 2 million copies. Because of the name change, Jubilee lacked evidence that Juvenile had stolen from him, and Jubilee could not earn Juvenile's income from his song.
Today, most mainstream acts obtain prior authorization to use samples, a process known as "clearing" (gaining permission to use the sample and, usually, paying an up-front fee and/or a cut of the royalties to the original artist). Independent bands, lacking the funds and legal assistance to clear samples, are at a disadvantage - unless they seek the services of a professional sample replay company or producer.
Recently, a movement — started mainly by Lawrence Lessig
— of free culture
has prompted many audio works to be licensed under a Creative Commons
license that allows for legal sampling of the work provided the resulting work(s) are licensed under the same terms.
used samples from interviews with Holocaust survivors as a source for the melodies on the 1988 album Different Trains
, performed by the Kronos Quartet
.
Many genres utilize sampling of spoken word to induce a mood, and Goa trance
often employs samples of people speaking about the use of psychoactives, spirituality
, or science fiction
themes. Industrial is known for samples from horror/sci-fi movies, news broadcasts, propaganda reels, and speeches by political figures. The band Ministry
frequently samples George W. Bush
. Paul Hardcastle
used recordings of a news reporter, as well as a soldier and ambient noise of a protest, in his single "Nineteen," a song about Vietnam war veterans and Posttraumatic stress disorder. The band Negativland
samples from practically every form of popular media, ranging from infomercials to children's records. In the song "Civil War", Guns N' Roses
samples from the 1967 film Cool Hand Luke
, on the album Use Your Illusion II
. Sludge
band Dystopia
make frequent use of samples, including news clips and recordings of junkies to create a bleak and nihilistic atmosphere. Other bands that frequently used samples in their work are noise rock
ers Steel Pole Bath Tub
and death metal
band Skinless
.
. Some common examples include sirens and klaxons, locomotive whistles, natural sounds such as whale song, and cooing babies. It is common in theatrical sound design
to use this type of sampling to store sound effects that can then be triggered from a musical keyboard or other software. This is very useful for high precision or nonlinear requirements.
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample
Sampling (signal processing)
In signal processing, sampling is the reduction of a continuous signal to a discrete signal. A common example is the conversion of a sound wave to a sequence of samples ....
, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument
Musical instrument
A musical instrument is a device created or adapted for the purpose of making musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can serve as a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. The history of musical instruments dates back to the...
or a different sound recording of a song or piece. Sampling was originally developed by experimental music
Experimental music
Experimental music refers, in the English-language literature, to a compositional tradition which arose in the mid-20th century, applied particularly in North America to music composed in such a way that its outcome is unforeseeable. Its most famous and influential exponent was John Cage...
ians working with musique concrète
Musique concrète
Musique concrète is a form of electroacoustic music that utilises acousmatic sound as a compositional resource. The compositional material is not restricted to the inclusion of sounds derived from musical instruments or voices, nor to elements traditionally thought of as "musical"...
and electroacoustic music
Electroacoustic music
Electroacoustic music originated in Western art music during its modern era following the incorporation of electric sound production into compositional practice. The initial developments in electroacoustic music composition during the mid-20th century are associated with the activities of composers...
, who physically manipulated tape loop
Tape loop
In music, tape loops are loops of prerecorded magnetic tape used to create repetitive, rhythmic musical patterns or dense layers of sound. Contemporary composers such as Steve Reich and Karlheinz Stockhausen used tape loops to create phase patterns and rhythms...
s or vinyl records on a phonograph
Phonograph
The phonograph record player, or gramophone is a device introduced in 1877 that has had continued common use for reproducing sound recordings, although when first developed, the phonograph was used to both record and reproduce sounds...
. In the late 1960s, the use of tape loop sampling influenced the development of minimalist music
Minimalist music
Minimal music is a style of music associated with the work of American composers La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Steve Reich, and Philip Glass. It originated in the New York Downtown scene of the 1960s and was initially viewed as a form of experimental music called the New York Hypnotic School....
and the production of psychedelic rock
Psychedelic rock
Psychedelic rock is a style of rock music that is inspired or influenced by psychedelic culture and attempts to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid 1960s among folk rock and blues rock bands in United States and the United Kingdom...
and jazz fusion
Jazz fusion
Jazz fusion is a musical fusion genre that developed from mixing funk and R&B rhythms and the amplification and electronic effects of rock, complex time signatures derived from non-Western music and extended, typically instrumental compositions with a jazz approach to lengthy group improvisations,...
. In the 1970s, DJs who experimented with manipulating vinyl on two turntables gave birth to hip hop music
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
, the first popular music
Popular music
Popular music belongs to any of a number of musical genres "having wide appeal" and is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. It stands in contrast to both art music and traditional music, which are typically disseminated academically or orally to smaller, local...
genre based originally around the art of sampling. The widespread use of sampling in popular music increased with the rise of electronic music
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
and disco
Disco
Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...
in the mid 1970s to early 1980s, the development of electronic dance music
Electronic dance music
Electronic dance music is electronic music produced primarily for the purposes of use within a nightclub setting, or in an environment that is centered upon dance-based entertainment...
and industrial music
Industrial music
Industrial music is a style of experimental music that draws on transgressive and provocative themes. The term was coined in the mid-1970s with the founding of Industrial Records by the band Throbbing Gristle, and the creation of the slogan "industrial music for industrial people". In general, the...
in the 1980s, and the worldwide influence of hip hop since the 1980s on genres ranging from contemporary R&B
Contemporary R&B
Contemporary R&B is a music genre that combines elements of hip hop, soul, R&B and funk.Although the abbreviation “R&B” originates from traditional rhythm and blues music, today the term R&B is most often used to describe a style of African American music originating after the demise of disco in...
to indie rock
Indie rock
Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s. Indie rock is extremely diverse, with sub-genres that include lo-fi, post-rock, math rock, indie pop, dream pop, noise rock, space rock, sadcore, riot grrrl and emo, among others...
. Since that time sampling is often done with a sampler
Sampler (musical instrument)
A sampler is an electronic musical instrument similar in some respects to a synthesizer but, instead of generating sounds, it uses recordings of sounds that are loaded or recorded into it by the user and then played back by means of a keyboard, sequencer or other triggering device to perform or...
, originally a piece of hardware, but today, more commonly a computer program
Computer software
Computer software, or just software, is a collection of computer programs and related data that provide the instructions for telling a computer what to do and how to do it....
. Vinyl emulation software
Vinyl Emulation Software
Vinyl emulation software allows the user to physically manipulate the playback of digital audio files on a computer using the turntables as an interface, thus preserving the hands-on feel of deejaying with vinyl while allowing playback of audio recordings not available in phonograph form...
may also be used, however, and many turntablists continue to sample using traditional methods. The inclusion of sampling tools in modern digital production methods increasingly introduced sampling into many genres of popular music, as well as genres predating the invention of sampling, such as classical music
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
, jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
and various forms of traditional music
Traditional music
Traditional music is the term increasingly used for folk music that is not contemporary folk music. More on this is at the terminology section of the World music article...
.
Often "samples" consist of one part of a song, such as a rhythm break
Break (music)
In popular music, a break is an instrumental or percussion section or interlude during a song derived from or related to stop-time – being a "break" from the main parts of the song or piece....
, which is then used to construct the beat for another song. For instance, hip hop music developed from DJs repeating the breaks from songs to enable continuous dancing. The Funky drummer
Funky drummer
"Funky Drummer" is a funk song recorded by James Brown and his band. The recording's drum break, performed by drummer Clyde Stubblefield, is one of the most frequently sampled rhythmic breaks in hip hop and popular music; indeed, it lays a strong claim to being the most sampled recording ever,...
break and the Amen break
Amen break
The Amen break is a brief drum solo performed in 1969 by Gregory Cylvester "G. C." Coleman in the song "Amen, Brother" performed by the 1960s funk and soul outfit The Winstons...
, both brief fragments taken from soul
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
and funk music recordings of the 1960s, have been among the most common samples used in dance music and hip hop of recent decades, with some entire subgenres like breakbeat
Breakbeat
In 1992, a new style called "jungalistic hardcore" emerged, and for many ravers it was too funky to dance to. Josh Lawford of Ravescene prophesied that the breakbeat was "the death-knell of rave" because the ever changing drumbeat patterns of breakbeat music didn't allow for the same zoned out,...
being based largely on complex permutations of a single one of these samples. Samples from rock recordings have also been the basis of new songs; for example, the drum introduction from Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin were an English rock band, active in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Formed in 1968, they consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham...
's "When the Levee Breaks
When the Levee Breaks
"When the Levee Breaks" is a blues song written and first recorded by husband and wife Kansas Joe McCoy and Memphis Minnie in 1929. The song is in reaction to the upheaval caused by the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927....
" was sampled by the Beastie Boys
Beastie Boys
Beastie Boys are an American hip hop trio from New York City. The group consists of Mike D who plays the drums, MCA who plays the bass, and Ad-Rock who plays the guitar....
, Dr. Dre
Dr. Dre
Andre Romelle Young , primarily known by his stage name Dr. Dre, is an American record producer, rapper, record executive, entrepreneur, and occasional actor. He is the founder and current CEO of Aftermath Entertainment and a former co-owner and artist of Death Row Records...
, Eminem
Eminem
Marshall Bruce Mathers III , better known by his stage name Eminem or his alter ego Slim Shady, is an American rapper, record producer, songwriter and actor. Eminem's popularity brought his group project, D12, to mainstream recognition...
, Mike Oldfield
Mike Oldfield
Michael Gordon Oldfield is an English multi-instrumentalist musician and composer, working a style that blends progressive rock, folk, ethnic or world music, classical music, electronic music, New Age, and more recently, dance. His music is often elaborate and complex in nature...
, Rob Dougan
Rob Dougan
Rob Dougan, also known as Rob D , is a genre-blending music composer. Mixing elements of orchestral music, trip hop, and bluesy vocals, his work is tangentially relatable to electronic music. He was known primarily for his breakthrough 1995 single "Clubbed to Death ", further popularised by 1999's...
, Coldcut
Coldcut
Coldcut are an English dance music duo, comprising Matt Black and Jonathan More. Their signature style is electronic dance music, featuring cut up samples of hip hop, breaks, jazz, spoken word and various other types of music, as well as video and multimedia.-1980s:In 1986, computer programmer Matt...
, Depeche Mode
Depeche Mode
Depeche Mode are an English electronic music band formed in 1980 in Basildon, Essex. The group's original line-up consisted of Dave Gahan , Martin Gore , Andy Fletcher and Vince Clarke...
, Erasure
Erasure
Erasure are an English synthpop duo, consisting of songwriter and keyboardist Vince Clarke and singer Andy Bell. Erasure entered the music scene in 1985 with their debut single "Who Needs Love Like That"...
and Nine Inch Nails
Nine Inch Nails
Nine Inch Nails is an American industrial rock project, founded in 1988 by Trent Reznor in Cleveland, Ohio. As its main producer, singer, songwriter, and instrumentalist, Reznor is the only official member of Nine Inch Nails and remains solely responsible for its direction...
, among others. Often, samples are not taken from other music, but from spoken words, including those in non-musical media such as movies, TV shows and advertising. Sampling does not necessarily mean using pre-existing recordings. A number of composers and musicians have constructed pieces or songs by sampling field recordings they made themselves, and others have sampled their own original recordings. The musicians in the trip hop
Trip hop
Trip hop is a music genre consisting of downtempo electronic music which originated in the early 1990s in England, especially Bristol. Deriving from "post"-acid house, the term was first used by the British music media and press as a way to describe the more experimental variant of breakbeat which...
band Portishead, for example, made some use of existing samples, but also scratched
Scratching
Scratching is a DJ or turntablist technique used to produce distinctive sounds by moving a vinyl record back and forth on a turntable while optionally manipulating the crossfader on a DJ mixer. While scratching is most commonly associated with hip hop music, since the late 1980s, it has been used...
, manipulated and sampled musical parts they themselves had originally played in order to construct their songs.
The use of sampling is controversial legally and musically. Experimental musicians who pioneered the technique in the 1940s to the 1960s sometimes did not inform or receive permission from the subjects of their field recordings or from copyright owners before constructing a musical piece out of these samples. In the 1970s, when hip hop was confined to local dance parties, it was unnecessary to obtain copyright clearance in order to sample recorded music at these parties. As the genre became a recorded form centred around rapping in the 1980s and subsequently went mainstream, it became necessary to pay to obtain legal clearance for samples, which was difficult for all but the most successful DJs, producers and rappers. As a result, a number of recording artists ran into legal trouble for uncredited samples, while the restrictiveness of current US copyright laws and their global impact on creativity also came under increased scrutiny. The hip hop genre also shifted toward a wider aesthetic in which sampling was only one method of constructing beats, with many producers instead crafting wholly original recordings to serve as backing tracks. Aside from legal issues, sampling has been both championed and criticized. Hip hop DJs today take different approaches to sampling, with some critical of its obvious use. Some critics, particularly those with a rockist
Rockism
Rockism is a derogatory term referring to perceived biases in popular music criticism. It was popularized by New York Times critic Kelefa Sennneh in 2004 in an influential article. The term was coined by Pete Wylie with a variant meaning and used by "one or two" critics in the British music press...
outlook, have expressed the belief all sampling is lacking in creativity, while others say sampling has been innovative and revolutionary. Those whose own work has been sampled have also voiced a wide variety of opinions about the practice, both for and against sampling.
Types
Once recorded, samples can be edited, played back, or looped (i.e. played back continuously). Types of samples include:Loops
The drums and percussion parts of many modern recordings are really a variety of short samples of beats strung together. Many libraries of such beats exist and are licensed so that the user incorporating the samples can distribute their recording without paying royalties. Such libraries can be loaded into samplers. Though percussion is a typical application of looping, many kinds of samples can be looped. A piece of music may have an ostinatoOstinato
In music, an ostinato is a motif or phrase, which is persistently repeated in the same musical voice. An ostinato is always a succession of equal sounds, wherein each note always has the same weight or stress. The repeating idea may be a rhythmic pattern, part of a tune, or a complete melody in...
which is created by sampling a phrase played on any kind of instrument. There is software which specializes in creating loops.
Musical instruments
Whereas loops are usually a phrase played on a musical instrument, this type of sample is usually a single note. Music workstationMusic workstation
A music workstation is an electronic musical instrument providing the facilities of:*a sound module,*a music sequencer and* a musical keyboard.It enables a musician to compose electronic music using just one piece of equipment.-History:...
s and samplers use samples of musical instruments as the basis of their own sounds, and are capable of playing a sample back at any pitch. Many modern synthesizer
Synthesizer
A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...
s and drum machine
Drum machine
A drum machine is an electronic musical instrument designed to imitate the sound of drums or other percussion instruments. They are used in a variety of musical genres, not just purely electronic music...
s also use samples as the basis of their sounds. (See sample-based synthesis
Sample-based synthesis
Sample-based synthesis is a form of audio synthesis that can be contrasted to either subtractive synthesis or additive synthesis. The principal difference with sample-based synthesis is that the seed waveforms are sampled sounds or instruments instead of fundamental waveforms such as the saw waves...
for more information.) Most such samples are created in professional recording studios using world-class instruments played by accomplished musicians. These are usually developed by the manufacturer of the instrument or by a subcontractor who specializes in creating such samples. There are businesses and individuals who create libraries of samples of musical instruments. Of course, a sampler allows anyone to create such samples.
Possibly the earliest equipment used to sample recorded instrument sounds are the Chamberlin
Chamberlin
The Chamberlin is an electro-mechanical keyboard instrument that was a precursor to the Mellotron. It was developed and patented by Iowa, Wisconsin inventor Harry Chamberlin from 1949 to 1956, when the first model was introduced. Various models and versions of these Chamberlin music instruments...
, which was developed in the 1940s, and its better-known cousin, the Mellotron
Mellotron
The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical, polyphonic tape replay keyboard originally developed and built in Birmingham, England in the early 1960s. It superseded the Chamberlin Music Master, which was the world's first sample-playback keyboard intended for music...
, marketed in England in the 1960s. Both are tape replay keyboard
Tape replay keyboard
A tape replay keyboard is a musical instrument that uses pre-recorded analog tapes to produce sound when a key is pressed. Examples of tape replay keyboards include the Chamberlin, the Mellotron, and the Birotron....
s, in which each key pressed triggers a prerecorded tape loop of a single note.
Musicians can reproduce the same samples of break beats like the "Amen" break
Amen break
The Amen break is a brief drum solo performed in 1969 by Gregory Cylvester "G. C." Coleman in the song "Amen, Brother" performed by the 1960s funk and soul outfit The Winstons...
which was composed, produced and mastered by the Winston Brothers
The Winstons
The Winstons were a 1960s funk and soul music group, based in Washington, D.C.. They are known for their 1969 recording of an EP featuring a song entitled "Color Him Father" on the A-side, and a song entitled "Amen, Brother" on the B-side. Half-way into "Amen, Brother", there is a drum solo The...
in 1960s. Producers in the early 1990s have used the whole 5.66 second sample; but music workstations like the Korg
Korg
is a Japanese multinational corporation that manufactures electronic musical instruments, audio processors and guitar pedals, recording equipment, and electronic tuners...
Electribe Series (EM-1, ES-1; EMX-1 and the ESX-1) have used the "Amen" kick, hi hat and snare in their sound wave libraries for free use. Sampler production companies have managed to use these samples for pitch, attack and decay and DSP effects to each drum sound. These features allow producers to manipulate samples to match other parts of the composition.
Most sample sets consist of multiple samples at different pitches. These are combined into keymaps, that associate each sample with a particular pitch or pitch range. Often, these sample maps may have different layers as well, so that different velocities can trigger a different sample.
Samples used in musical instruments sometimes have a looped component. An instrument with indefinite sustain, such as a pipe organ, does not need to be represented by a very long sample because the sustained portion of the timbre is looped. The sampler (or other sample playback instrument) plays the attack and decay portion of the sample followed by the looped sustain portion for as long as the note is held, then plays the release portion of the sample.
Resampled layers of sounds generated by a music workstation
To conserve polyphonyPolyphony (instrument)
Polyphony Instruments that are not capable of polyphony are monophonic.-Synthesizer:Most of early synthesizers were monophonic musical instruments which can play only one note at a time, and are often called monosynth as opposed to polysynth...
, a workstation may allow the user to sample a layer of sounds (piano, strings, and voices, for example) so they can be played together as one sound instead of three. This leaves more of the instruments' resources available to generate additional sounds.
Recordings and popular examples
There are several genres of music in which it is commonplace for an artist to sample a phrase of a well-known recording and use it as an element in a new composition. A well-known example includes the sample of QueenQueen (band)
Queen are a British rock band formed in London in 1971, originally consisting of Freddie Mercury , Brian May , John Deacon , and Roger Taylor...
/David Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
's "Under Pressure
Under Pressure
"Under Pressure" is a 1981 song recorded by Queen and David Bowie. It marked Bowie's first released collaboration with another recording artist as a performer, and is featured on Queen's 1982 album Hot Space. The song reached #1 on the UK Singles Chart. It was also number 31 on VH1's 100 Greatest...
" (1981) in Vanilla Ice
Vanilla Ice
Robert Matthew Van Winkle , best known by his stage name Vanilla Ice, is an American rapper, extreme athlete and home improvement television personality...
's "Ice Ice Baby
Ice Ice Baby
"Ice Ice Baby" is a hip hop song written by American rapper Vanilla Ice and DJ Earthquake. The song samples the bassline of "Under Pressure" by Queen and David Bowie, who did not initially receive songwriting credit or royalties until after it had become a hit...
" (1990). Some of the earliest examples in popular electronic music were from Yellow Magic Orchestra
Yellow Magic Orchestra
Sakamoto first worked with Hosono as a member of his live band in 1976, while Takahashi recruited Sakamoto to produce his debut solo recording in 1977 following the split of the Sadistic Mika Band...
, such as "Computer Game / Firecracker" (1978) sampling a Martin Denny
Martin Denny
Martin Denny was an American piano-player and composer best known as the "father of exotica." In a long career that saw him performing well into his 80s, he toured the world popularizing his brand of lounge music which included exotic percussion, imaginative rearrangements of popular songs, and...
melody and Space Invaders
Space Invaders
is an arcade video game designed by Tomohiro Nishikado, and released in 1978. It was originally manufactured and sold by Taito in Japan, and was later licensed for production in the United States by the Midway division of Bally. Space Invaders is one of the earliest shooting games and the aim is to...
game sounds, while Technodelic
Technodelic
-Personnel:*Ryuichi Sakamoto: keyboards, vocals*Yukihiro Takahashi: drums, vocals*Haruomi Hosono: Bass, keyboards, vocals*Peter Barakan: Lyrics *Hideki Matsutake: Technical assistance...
(1981) was one of the first albums to feature mostly samples and loops.
On MC Hammer
MC Hammer
Stanley Kirk Burrell , better known by his stage name MC Hammer , is an American rapper, entertainer, business entrepreneur, dancer and actor. He had his greatest commercial success and popularity from the late 1980s until the mid-1990s...
's album Please Hammer, Don't Hurt 'Em, the successful single "U Can't Touch This
U Can't Touch This
"U Can't Touch This" is MC Hammer's 1990 super hit signature song, from his album Please Hammer, Don't Hurt 'Em. The album sold more than 10 million copies, due primarily to this single, and gaining multi-platinum certifications from the RIAA, and other Recording Industries.Rick James sued Hammer...
" sampled Rick James
Rick James
James Ambrose Johnson, Jr. , better known by his stage name Rick James, was an American singer, songwriter, musician and record producer. James was a popular performer in the late 1970s and 1980s, scoring four number-one hits on the U.S. R&B charts performing in the genres of funk and R&B...
' 1981 "Super Freak
Super Freak
"Super Freak" is a 1981 hit single produced and performed by Rick James. The song, co-written by James and Alonzo Miller, was first released on James' album Street Songs and became one of James' signature songs. It features background vocals from Motown labelmates The Temptations, in which the bass...
". "Have You Seen Her
Have You Seen Her
"Have You Seen Her" is a song recorded by the soul vocal group, The Chi-Lites, and released on Brunswick Records in 1971. Composed by the lead singer Eugene Record and Barbara Acklin, the song was included on the group's 1971 album Give More Power to the People.-Song:The Chi-Lites recorded "Have...
" was a cover
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
of the Chi-Lites
The Chi-Lites
The Chi-Lites are a Chicago-based smooth soul vocal quartet from the early 1970s, one of the few from the period not to come from Memphis or Philadelphia...
and "Pray" sampled Prince
Prince (musician)
Prince Rogers Nelson , often known simply as Prince, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Prince has produced ten platinum albums and thirty Top 40 singles during his career. Prince founded his own recording studio and label; writing, self-producing and playing most, or all, of...
's "When Doves Cry
When Doves Cry
A hit cover version by R&B singer Ginuwine was produced by Timbaland in 1996 for Ginuwine's The Bachelor album, Ginuwine's cover uses actual dove sound effects as texture for its jungle music-inspired instrumental track.-Charts:-Other cover versions:...
" as well as Faith No More
Faith No More
Faith No More is an American rock band from San Francisco, California, formed originally as Faith No Man in 1981 by bassist Billy Gould, keyboardist Wade Worthington, vocalist Michael Morris and drummer Mike Bordin. A year later when Worthington was replaced by keyboardist Roddy Bottum, and Mike...
's "We Care a Lot
We Care a Lot
We Care a Lot is the debut studio album by American rock band Faith No More, originally released in 1985 and distributed through San Francisco-based label Mordam Records. On the original vinyl release, the band is credited as "Faith...
". "Dancin' Machine" sampled The Jackson 5
The Jackson 5
The Jackson 5 , later known as The Jacksons, were an American popular music family group from Gary, Indiana...
, "Help the Children" interpolates Marvin Gaye
Marvin Gaye
Marvin Pentz Gay, Jr. , better known by his stage name Marvin Gaye, was an American singer-songwriter and musician with a three-octave vocal range....
's "Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)
Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)
"Mercy Mercy Me " was the second single from Marvin Gaye's 1971 album, What's Going On. Following the breakthrough of the title track's success, the song, written solely by Gaye, became one of his most poignant anthems of sorrow regarding the environment...
", and "She's Soft and Wet" also sampled Prince's "Soft and Wet
Soft and Wet
"Soft and Wet" is a song written by Prince. It was his first single, released in 1978 from his debut album, For You. The track is in the funk-disco vein, comprising drums, bass guitar and synthesizers....
". Hammer's previous album
Let's Get It Started (album)
Let's Get It Started is the second album released by pop rap emcee M.C. Hammer. The album went double platinum with "Pump It Up", "Let's Get It Started", "Turn This Mutha Out" and "They Put Me in the Mix" as the most popular tracks from this album. Music videos were also produced for all of these...
and future albums would continue to sample music, although not as notable as this album did.
The Isley Brothers
The Isley Brothers
The Isley Brothers are a highly influential, successful and long-running American music group consisting of different line-ups of six brothers, and a brother-in-law, Chris Jasper...
' song Between The Sheets
Between the Sheets (song)
"Between the Sheets" is a quiet storm funk song released by American R&B/soul/funk band The Isley Brothers in 1983 off their album of the same name on the T-Neck imprint.-History:...
is a song heavily sampled by many different artists, most notably Notorious BIG's Big Poppa
Big Poppa
"Big Poppa" is the Grammy nominated and Billboard Award winning second single off The Notorious B.I.G.'s Ready to Die released in 1994 and the single was released in 1995. The song was his first Top 10 hit, peaking at number 6 in the US. It features a sample of the song "Between the Sheets"...
, and Gwen Stefani
Gwen Stefani
Gwen Renée Stefani is an American singer-songwriter and fashion designer. Stefani is the lead vocalist for the rock and ska band No Doubt. Stefani recorded her first solo album Love. Angel. Music. Baby. in 2004. The album was inspired by music of the 1980s, and was a success with sales of over...
's Luxurious.
In many cases, artists even join the original artist or receive permission to sample songs such as Coolio
Coolio
Artis Leon Ivey Jr. , better known by the stage name Coolio, is an American musician, rapper, actor and record producer.-Late 80s:He recorded two singles in the late 80s, titled "Watcha Gonna Do" and "You're Gonna Miss Me"...
did for "Gangsta's Paradise
Gangsta's Paradise (song)
"Gangsta's Paradise" is a rap song by Coolio featuring L.V.. The song was released on the Coolio album Gangsta's Paradise, as well as the Dangerous Minds soundtrack in 1995. Coolio was awarded a Grammy for the song/album...
". It sampled the chorus and music of the song "Pastime Paradise" by Stevie Wonder
Stevie Wonder
Stevland Hardaway Morris , better known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and activist...
(1976). Wonder performed the song with Coolio and L.V. at the 1995 Billboard Awards. Notably, much of Coolio's album
Gangsta's Paradise
Gangsta's Paradise is the second album by rapper Coolio, released on November 21, 1995. The album contained three hits: "Gangsta's Paradise", which reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, "1, 2, 3, 4 ", which reached #5, and "Too Hot," which peaked at #24.-Track listing:-Samples and...
excessively sampled other artists; including "Too Hot" (contains an interpolation of "Too Hot", originally performed by Kool & The Gang
Kool & the Gang
Kool & the Gang are an American jazz, R&B, soul, and funk group, originally formed as the Jazziacs in Jersey City, New Jersey in 1964.They went through several musical phases during the course of their recording career, starting out with a purist jazz sound, then becoming practitioners of R&B and...
), Cruisin'" (contains an interpolation of "Cruisin'", originally performed by Smokey Robinson & the Miracles), "Sumpin' New" (which contains samples of both "Thighs High (Grip Your Hips More)" performed by Tom Browne and "Wikka Wrap" performed by The Evasions), "Smilin'" (contains an interpolation of "You Caught Me Smiling", originally performed by Sly & The Family Stone
Sly & the Family Stone
Sly and the Family Stone were an American rock, funk, and soul band from San Francisco, California. Active from 1966 to 1983, the band was pivotal in the development of soul, funk, and psychedelic music...
), "Kinda High, Kinda Drunk" (contains interpolations of "Saturday Night" and "The Boyz in Da Hood"), "For My Sistas" (contains an interpolation of "Make Me Say It Again Girl", originally performed by The Isley Brothers
The Isley Brothers
The Isley Brothers are a highly influential, successful and long-running American music group consisting of different line-ups of six brothers, and a brother-in-law, Chris Jasper...
), "A Thing Goin' On" (contains an interpolation of "Me & Mrs. Jones"), "The Revolution" (contains an interpolation of "Magic Night"), "Get Up, Get Down" (contains an interpolation of "Chameleon
Chameleon (composition)
"Chameleon" is a jazz standard composed by Herbie Hancock in collaboration with Bennie Maupin, Paul Jackson and Harvey Mason, all of whom also performed the original 15'44" version on the 1973 landmark album Head Hunters featuring solos by Hancock and Maupin....
", originally performed by Herbie Hancock
Herbie Hancock
Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is an American pianist, bandleader and composer. As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet," Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound...
), and the first line of "Gangster's Paradise" is taken from Psalm 23
Psalm 23
In the 23rd Psalm in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, the writer describes God as his Shepherd. The text, beloved by Jews and Christians alike, is often alluded to in popular media and has been set to music....
.
Another example is in 1997, when Sean Combs
Sean Combs
Sean John Combs , also known by his stage names Diddy and P. Diddy, is an American rapper, singer, record producer, actor, and entrepreneur. He has won three Grammy Awards and two MTV Video Music Awards, and his clothing line earned a Council of Fashion Designers of America award. He was originally...
collaborated with Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin on the song "Come with Me" for the Godzilla
Godzilla (1998 film)
Godzilla is a 1998 science fiction monster disaster film film co-written and directed by Roland Emmerich. It is a loose remake of the 1954 giant monster classic Godzilla. The storyline was conceived from a screenplay written by Emmerich and Dean Devlin. The film relates a tale of a nuclear incident...
film. The track sampled the Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin were an English rock band, active in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Formed in 1968, they consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham...
song "Kashmir
Kashmir (song)
"Kashmir" is a song by the English rock band Led Zeppelin from their sixth album Physical Graffiti, released in 1975. It was written by Jimmy Page and Robert Plant over a period of three years, with the lyrics dating back to 1973.-Overview:The song centres around a signature chord progression...
" (approved by Jimmy Page
Jimmy Page
James Patrick "Jimmy" Page, OBE is an English multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and record producer. He began his career as a studio session guitarist in London and was subsequently a member of The Yardbirds from 1966 to 1968, after which he founded the English rock band Led Zeppelin.Jimmy Page...
). "I'll Be Missing You
I'll Be Missing You
"I'll Be Missing You" is a Grammy Award-winning song and hit single recorded by Puff Daddy, Faith Evans and 112, in memory of fellow Bad Boy Records artist Christopher "Notorious B.I.G" Wallace who was murdered on March 9, 1997...
" sampled the melody
Melody
A melody , also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones which is perceived as a single entity...
and some of the lyrics from The Police's
The Police
The Police were an English rock band formed in London in 1977. For the vast majority of their history, the band consisted of Sting , Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland...
"Every Breath You Take
Every Breath You Take
"Every Breath You Take" is a song by The Police on the band's 1983 album Synchronicity, written by Sting and Andy Summers . The single was one of the biggest hits of 1983, topping the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for eight weeks and the UK Singles Chart for four weeks. It also topped the...
" from 1983
1983 in music
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1983.-January-April:*January – ZTT Records is founded.*January 8 – The UK singles chart is tabulated from this week forward by The Gallup Organization...
. The single also borrows the melody from the well-known American spiritual "I'll Fly Away
I'll Fly Away (hymn)
"I'll Fly Away", is a hymn written in 1929 by Albert E. Brumley and published in 1932 by the Hartford Music company in a collection titled Wonderful Message...
." Combs went on to perform it with Sting and Faith Evans
Faith Evans
Faith Renée Evans is an American singer-songwriter, recording artist, record producer, actress and author. Born in Florida and raised in New Jersey, Evans relocated to Los Angeles during 1993 for a career with the music business. After working as a backing vocalist for Al B...
on the MTV Video Music Awards
MTV Video Music Awards
An MTV Video Music Award , is an award presented by the cable channel MTV to honor the best in music videos...
. By the late 1990s, "Puffy" was receiving criticism for watering down and overly commercializing hip-hop and overusing guest appearances by other artists, samples and interpolations
Interpolation (music)
Interpolation in music refers to an abrupt change in musical elements from the main theme.-In classical music:In music and musical composition, especially 20th century and later, interpolation is an abrupt change of elements, with continuation of the first idea...
of past hits in his own hit songs. The Onion
The Onion
The Onion is an American news satire organization. It is an entertainment newspaper and a website featuring satirical articles reporting on international, national, and local news, in addition to a non-satirical entertainment section known as The A.V. Club...
parodied this phenomenon in a 1997 article called "New rap song samples "Billie Jean
Billie Jean
"Billie Jean" is a dance-pop/R&B song by American recording artist Michael Jackson. It was written, composed, and co-produced by Jackson, and produced by Quincy Jones from the singer's sixth album, Thriller . Originally disliked by Jones, the track was almost removed from the album after he and...
" in its entirety, adds nothing."
Artists can often sample their own songs in other songs they have recorded, often in differently-titled remixes. The Chemical Brothers
The Chemical Brothers
The Chemical Brothers are a British electronic music duo comprising Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons. Originating in Manchester in 1991, along with The Prodigy, Fatboy Slim, The Crystal Method, and fellow acts, they were pioneers at bringing the big beat genre to the forefront of pop culture.- Background...
sampled their own song "The Sunshine Underground" in their later song "We Are the Night
We Are the Night
We Are the Night is the sixth studio album by English big beat duo The Chemical Brothers, released on 27 June 2007. The record entered the UK Albums Chart at number 1 and debuted at number 65 on the Billboard 200...
".
Legal issues
Sampling has been an area of contention from a legal perspective. Early sampling artists simply used portions of other artists' recordings, without permission; once rap and other music incorporating samples began to make significant money, the original artists began to take legal action, claiming copyrightCopyright
Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...
infringement. Some sampling artists fought back, claiming their samples were fair use
Fair use
Fair use is a limitation and exception to the exclusive right granted by copyright law to the author of a creative work. In United States copyright law, fair use is a doctrine that permits limited use of copyrighted material without acquiring permission from the rights holders...
(a legal doctrine in the USA that is not universal). International sampling is governed by agreements such as the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works
Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works
The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, usually known as the Berne Convention, is an international agreement governing copyright, which was first accepted in Berne, Switzerland in 1886.- Content :...
and the WIPO Copyright and Performances and Phonograms Treaties Implementation Act
WIPO Copyright and Performances and Phonograms Treaties Implementation Act
The WIPO Copyright and Performances and Phonograms Treaties Implementation Act, is a part of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act , a 1998 U.S. law...
.
Early cases
Sampling existing (copyrighted) recordings using manipulation with tape recorders goes back at least as far as 1961, when James TenneyJames Tenney
James Tenney was an American composer and influential music theorist.-Biography:Tenney was born in Silver City, New Mexico, and grew up in Arizona and Colorado. He attended the University of Denver, the Juilliard School of Music, Bennington College and the University of Illinois...
created Collage #1 ("Blue Suede") from samples of Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
's recording of the song "Blue Suede Shoes
Blue Suede Shoes
"Blue Suede Shoes" is a rock and roll standard written and first recorded by Carl Perkins in 1955 and is considered one of the first rockabilly records and incorporated elements of blues, country and pop music of the time...
."
At the time, many artists such as Brion Gysin
Brion Gysin
Brion Gysin was a painter, writer, sound poet, and performance artist born in Taplow, Buckinghamshire.He is best known for his discovery of the cut-up technique, used by his friend, the novelist William S. Burroughs...
and William S. Burroughs
William S. Burroughs
William Seward Burroughs II was an American novelist, poet, essayist and spoken word performer. A primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodernist author, he is considered to be "one of the most politically trenchant, culturally influential, and innovative artists of the 20th...
were experimenting with the new technology that was tape-recording by manipulating existing works such as radio broadcasts. Brion Gysin's work tended to favor his permutation poems as the vehicle for cut-ups with spliced repetition of the same series of words rearranged in every conceivable pattern, frequently utilizing snippets of speeches or news broadcasts. Burroughs preferred a much more frantic and disorganized sound that would later spawn similar disjointed collage material from modern groups such as Negativland
Negativland
Negativland is an experimental music and sound collage band which originated in the San Francisco Bay Area in the late 1970s. They took their name from a Neu! song, while their record label is named after another Neu! song...
. Burroughs would record, for instance, a radio broadcast about military action, then dub parts of the broadcast likely at random often stuttering and distorting the original work far beyond comprehension.
However, before then, the 1956 novelty hit single "The Flying Saucer
The Flying Saucer (song)
The Flying Saucer is a novelty record released by Bill Buchanan and Dickie Goodman which hit #3 in 1956...
", by Buchanan and Goodman
Dickie Goodman
Richard Dorian "Dickie" Goodman was an American music producer.-Career:In June 1956 Goodman created his first record, "The Flying Saucer", which he co-wrote with his partner Bill Buchanan, and featured a four-minute rewriting of Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds radio show...
, used segments of the original recordings of 18 different chart hits from 1955–56, intertwined with spoken "news" commentary in the style of Orson Welles
Orson Welles
George Orson Welles , best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio...
' "War of the Worlds" radio broadcast, to tell the story of a visit from a flying saucer
Flying saucer
A flying saucer is a type of unidentified flying object sometimes believed to be of alien origin with a disc or saucer-shaped body, usually described as silver or metallic, occasionally reported as covered with running lights or surrounded with a glowing light, hovering or moving rapidly either...
. After the record was issued, an agreement was reached with music publishing houses for them to take a share of royalties from the records sold. Although his partnership with Buchanan soon ended, Dickie Goodman continued to make similar records through the 1960s and 1970s, one of his biggest hits being "Mr. Jaws
Mr. Jaws
Mr. Jaws is a novelty song by Dickie Goodman released on Cash Records in 1975.This record is a parody of the 1975 summer blockbuster film Jaws, with Goodman interviewing the shark , as well as the film's main characters, Brody, Hooper, and Quint...
" in 1975.
Simon and Garfunkel
Simon and Garfunkel
Simon & Garfunkel are an American duo consisting of singer-songwriter Paul Simon and singer Art Garfunkel. They formed the group Tom & Jerry in 1957 and had their first success with the minor hit "Hey, Schoolgirl". As Simon & Garfunkel, the duo rose to fame in 1965, largely on the strength of the...
sampled themselves in using a portion of their song "The Sounds of Silence" in "Save the life of my child" from their 1967 "Bookends
Bookends
-Charts:-Personnel:*Paul Simon - Vocals, Guitar, Producer*Art Garfunkel - Vocals, Producer*Hal Blaine - Drums, Percussion*Joe Osborn - Bass*Larry Knechtel - Piano, Keyboards*John Simon - Production Assistant...
" album. The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
also used the technique on a number of popular recordings in the mid to late '60s, including "Yellow Submarine
Yellow Submarine (song)
"Yellow Submarine" is a 1966 song by The Beatles, written by Paul McCartney , with lead vocals by Ringo Starr. It was included on the Revolver album and issued as a single, coupled with "Eleanor Rigby". The single went to number 1 on every major British chart, remained at number 1 for four weeks...
", "Revolution 9
Revolution 9
"Revolution 9" is a recorded composition that appeared on The Beatles' 1968 self-titled LP release . The sound collage, credited to Lennon–McCartney, was created primarily by John Lennon with assistance from George Harrison and Yoko Ono. Lennon said he was trying to paint a picture of a revolution...
" and "I Am the Walrus
I Am the Walrus
"I Am the Walrus" is a 1967 song by The Beatles, written by John Lennon and credited to Lennon–McCartney. Lennon claimed he wrote the first two lines on separate acid trips. The song was in the Beatles' 1967 television film and album Magical Mystery Tour, and was the B-side to the #1 hit "Hello,...
." John Kongos
John Kongos
John Kongos is a singer-songwriter. He is best known for his 1971 Top 10 hit single, "He's Gonna Step On You Again".-Career:...
is credited in the Guinness World Records
Guinness World Records
Guinness World Records, known until 2000 as The Guinness Book of Records , is a reference book published annually, containing a collection of world records, both human achievements and the extremes of the natural world...
as the first person to sample a song with his single, "He's Gonna Step On You Again
He's Gonna Step On You Again
"He's Gonna Step On You Again" was a hit single, co-written by Christos Demetriou and performed by John Kongos in 1971.It is cited in the Guinness Book of Records as being the first song to have used a sample, however, according to the sleeve note of the CD reissue of the Kongos album, it is...
". Timothy Leary
Timothy Leary
Timothy Francis Leary was an American psychologist and writer, known for his advocacy of psychedelic drugs. During a time when drugs like LSD and psilocybin were legal, Leary conducted experiments at Harvard University under the Harvard Psilocybin Project, resulting in the Concord Prison...
sampled the Beatles and the Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...
among others on his album You Can Be Anyone This Time Around in 1970.
In the early 1970s, DJ Kool Herc
DJ Kool Herc
Clive Campbell , also known as Kool Herc, DJ Kool Herc and Kool DJ Herc, is a Jamaican-born DJ who is credited with originating hip hop music, in The Bronx, New York City...
often looped hard funk break beats at block parties in The Bronx. However, sampling did not truly take off in popular music until the early eighties when pioneering hip hop
Hip hop
Hip hop is a form of musical expression and artistic culture that originated in African-American and Latino communities during the 1970s in New York City, specifically the Bronx. DJ Afrika Bambaataa outlined the four pillars of hip hop culture: MCing, DJing, breaking and graffiti writing...
producers, such as Grandmaster Flash
Grandmaster Flash
Joseph Saddler better known as King Grandmaster Flash, is an American hip hop musician and DJ; one of the pioneers of hip-hop DJing, cutting, and mixing....
, started to produce rap records using sampled break
Break (music)
In popular music, a break is an instrumental or percussion section or interlude during a song derived from or related to stop-time – being a "break" from the main parts of the song or piece....
s rather than live studio bands, which had until then been the norm.
Conventional wisdom would hold that the first popular rap single to feature sampling was "Rapper's Delight" by The Sugarhill Gang
The Sugarhill Gang
The Sugarhill Gang is an American hip hop group, known mostly for their 1979 hit, "Rapper's Delight", the first hip hop single to become a Top 40 hit. The song uses the instrumental track from the classic hit "Good Times" by Chic as its foundation....
on their own independent Sugar Hill Label in 1979. However, instead of 'sampling' the existing record "Good Times" by Chic
Chic (band)
Chic was an African American disco and R&B band that was organized during 1976 by guitarist Nile Rodgers and bassist Bernard Edwards. It is known best for its commercially successful disco songs, including "Dance, Dance, Dance " , "Everybody Dance" , "Le Freak" , "I Want Your Love" , "Good Times"...
, Sugar Hill employed a house band, called "Positive Force" to record a copy of "Good Times" which was then rapped over. Doug Wimbish
Doug Wimbish
Doug Wimbish is a bass player, primarily known for his studio work for the rap/hip hop label Sugarhill Records and his membership of the funk metal band Living Colour. He has played for a vast range of artists, including Jeff Beck, Mick Jagger, Madonna, George Clinton, Paula Cole, Bomb the Bass,...
and other session musicians were called upon to play live music on many classic Sugar Hill records. Those sounds are not samples but live musicians.
Earliest examples of this practice include Grandmaster Flash
Grandmaster Flash
Joseph Saddler better known as King Grandmaster Flash, is an American hip hop musician and DJ; one of the pioneers of hip-hop DJing, cutting, and mixing....
's - "The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel
The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel
"The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel" is a single released by Grandmaster Flash in 1981. It is a live DJ mix recording of Flash scratching and mixing records from various groups using three turntables...
" (1981) (which was made by recording vinyl manipulation on a pair of turntables and used the "Apache" break by the Incredible Bongo Bong Band amongst other famous breaks), Brother D and the Collective Effort's "How We Gonna Make The Black Nation Rise" (1984) (which sampled the beat and bass line from Cheryl Lynn
Cheryl Lynn
Lynda Cheryl Smith , known better by her professional name Cheryl Lynn, is a female African-American disco, R&B and soul singer known best for her 1978 disco song, "Got to Be Real".-Early career:...
's 1978 hit "Got to be Real") and UTFO's "Roxanne Roxanne" (1984). Bill Holt's Dreamies (1974) is often cited as one of the earliest examples of sampling in popular music. Later examples of sampling include Big Audio Dynamite
Big Audio Dynamite
Big Audio Dynamite are a British musical group formed in 1984 by the ex-guitarist and singer of the Clash, Mick Jones. The group are noted for their effective mixture of varied musical styles, incorporating elements of punk rock, dance music, hip hop, reggae, and funk...
and their 1985 album This Is Big Audio Dynamite
This Is Big Audio Dynamite
-Personnel:* Mick Jones - vocals, guitar* Don Letts - sound effects, vocals* Dan Donovan - keyboards, photos* Leo Williams - bass, vocals* Greg Roberts - drums, vocals-Samples used on the album:Medicine Show...
and the single E=MC²
E=MC² (song)
"E=MC2" is a 1985 single by Big Audio Dynamite, released as the second single from their debut album This is Big Audio Dynamite. The song was the group's first Top 40 hit on the UK Singles Chart and peaked at #11. Additionally, it peaked at #37 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart in the...
which Mick Jones
Mick Jones (The Clash)
Michael Geoffrey "Mick" Jones is the former lead guitarist, secondary vocalist and co-founder for the British punk rock band The Clash until his dismissal in 1983. He went on to form the band Big Audio Dynamite with Don Letts before line-up changes led to the formation of Big Audio Dynamite II and...
(formerly of The Clash
The Clash
The Clash were an English punk rock band that formed in 1976 as part of the original wave of British punk. Along with punk, their music incorporated elements of reggae, ska, dub, funk, rap, dance, and rockabilly...
) sampled snippets of audio from various films including works by Nicolas Roeg
Nicolas Roeg
Nicolas Jack Roeg, CBE, BSC is an English film director and cinematographer.-Life and career:Roeg was born in London, the son of Mabel Gertrude and Jack Nicolas Roeg...
which make up the Roeg homage E=MC²
E=MC² (song)
"E=MC2" is a 1985 single by Big Audio Dynamite, released as the second single from their debut album This is Big Audio Dynamite. The song was the group's first Top 40 hit on the UK Singles Chart and peaked at #11. Additionally, it peaked at #37 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart in the...
. The 1981 album by David Byrne
David Byrne (musician)
David Byrne is a musician and artist, best known as a founding member and principal songwriter of the American new wave band Talking Heads, which was active between 1975 and 1991. Since then, Byrne has released his own solo recordings and worked with various media including film, photography,...
and Brian Eno
Brian Eno
Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno , commonly known as Brian Eno or simply as Eno , is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.Eno studied at Colchester Institute art school in Essex,...
, My Life in the Bush of Ghosts
My Life in the Bush of Ghosts (album)
The album was recorded entirely with analogue technology, before the advent of digital sequencing and MIDI. The sampled voices were synchronized with the instrumental tracks via trial and error, a practice that was often frustrating, but which also produced several happy accidents.Also according to...
, used sampling extensively for the songs' vocals.
One of the first major legal cases regarding sampling was with UK dance act MARRS
MARRS
MARRS was a 1987 one-off recording act formed by the groups A.R. Kane and Colourbox which only released one commercial disc...
"Pump Up the Volume". As the record reached the UK top ten, producers Stock Aitken Waterman
Stock Aitken Waterman
Stock Aitken Waterman, sometimes known as SAW, were a UK songwriting and record producing trio consisting of Mike Stock, Matt Aitken and Pete Waterman. They had great success during the mid to late 1980s and early 1990s...
obtained an injunction against the record due to the unauthorized use of a sample from their hit single "Roadblock". The dispute was settled out of court, with the injunction being lifted in return for an undertaking that overseas releases would not contain the "Roadblock" sample, and the disc went on to top the UK singles chart. The sample in question had been so distorted as to be virtually unrecognizable, and SAW didn't realize their record had been used until they heard co-producer Dave Dorrell mention it in a radio interview.
In 1987, The JAMs released 1987 (What The Fuck Is Going On?)
1987 (What the Fuck Is Going On?)
1987 is the debut album of The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu . 1987 was produced using extensive unauthorised samples which plagiarised a wide range of musical works, continuing a theme begun in The JAMs' debut single "All You Need Is Love"...
1987 was produced using extensive unauthorised samples which plagiarised a wide range of musical works. They were ordered by the Mechanical-Copyright Protection Society
Mechanical-Copyright Protection Society
The Mechanical-Copyright Protection Society is an organisation that pay royalties to composers, songwriters and music publishers when a composition is manufactured into any format. This includes copies of the music alone such as CDs and downloads, and also products that use the music as a part of...
to destroy all unsold copies of the album because of the numerous uncleared samples, after a complaint from ABBA. In response, The JAMs disposed of many copies of 1987 in unorthodox, publicised ways. They also released a version of the album titled "1987 (The JAMs 45 Edits)", stripped of all unauthorised samples to leave periods of protracted silence and so little audible content that it was formally classed as a 12-inch single.
2 Live Crew
2 Live Crew
2 Live Crew was a hip hop group from Miami, Florida. They caused considerable controversy with the sexual themes in their work, particularly on their 1989 album As Nasty As They Wanna Be.- Early career :...
, a hip-hop group familiar with controversy, was often in the spotlight for their 'obscene' and sexually explicit lyrics. They sparked many debates about censorship in the music industry. However, it was their 1989 album As Clean as They Wanna Be (a re-tooling of As Nasty As They Wanna Be
As Nasty As They Wanna Be
As Nasty As They Wanna Be is the third album by Miami rap group 2 Live Crew. It was released in 1989, and became their largest seller, going 2x Platinum. In 1990, United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida ruled that the album was legally obscene; this ruling was later...
) that began the prolonged legal debate over sampling. The album contained a track entitled "Pretty Woman," based on the well-known Roy Orbison
Roy Orbison
Roy Kelton Orbison was an American singer-songwriter, well known for his distinctive, powerful voice, complex compositions, and dark emotional ballads. Orbison grew up in Texas and began singing in a rockabilly/country & western band in high school until he was signed by Sun Records in Memphis...
song Oh, Pretty Woman
Oh, Pretty Woman
"Oh, Pretty Woman" is a song, released in August 1964, which was a worldwide success for Roy Orbison. Recorded on the Monument Records label in Nashville, Tennessee, it was written by Roy Orbison and Bill Dees. The song spent three weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100...
. 2 Live Crew's version sampled the guitar, bass, and drums from the original, without permission. While the opening lines are the same, the two songs split ways immediately following.
For example:
Roy Orbison's version – "Pretty woman, walking down the street/ Pretty woman, the kind I'd like to meet."
2 Live Crew's version – "Big hairy woman, all that hair ain't legit,/ Cause you look like Cousin IttCousin IttCousin Itt is a member of the fictional Addams Family. Unlike the other characters, Cousin Itt was not originally created by cartoonist Charles Addams, but by producer David Levy, though he did appear as an unnamed character in Addams's cartoons.- Character :...
."
In addition to this, while the music is identifiable as the Orbison song, there were changes implemented by the group. The new version contained interposed scraper notes, overlays of solos in different keys, and an altered drum beat.
The group was sued by the song's copyright owners Acuff-Rose. The company claimed that 2 Live Crew's unauthorized use of the samples devalued the original, and was thus a case of copyright infringement. The group claimed they were protected under the fair use doctrine. The case of Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music came to the Supreme Court in 1994.
In reviewing the case, the Supreme Court didn't consider previous ruling in which any commercial use (and economic gain) was considered copyright infringement. Instead they re-evaluated the original frame of copyright as set forth in the Constitution. The opinion that resulted from Emerson v. Davies played a major role in the decision.
"[In] truth, in literature, in science and in art, there are, and can be, few, if any, things, which in an abstract sense, are strictly new and original throughout. Every book in literature, science and art, borrows, and must necessarily borrow, and use much which was well known and used before." Emerson v. Davies,8 F.Cas. 615, 619 (No. 4,436) (CCD Mass. 1845)
Perhaps what played a larger role was the result from the Folsom v. Marsh case:
"look to the nature and objects of the selections made, the quantity and value of the materials used, and the degree in which the use may prejudice the sale, or diminish the profits, or supersede the objects, of the original work." Folsom v. Marsh, 9 F.Cas. 342, 348 (No. 4,901) (CCD Mass. 1841)
The court ruled that any financial gain 2 Live Crew received from their version did not infringe upon Acuff-Rose because the two songs were targeted at very different audiences. 2 Live Crew's use of copyrighted material was protected under the fair use doctrine, as a parody, even though it was released commercially. While the appellate court had determined that the mere nature of the parody made it inherently unfair, the Supreme Court's ruling reversed this decision, with Justice David Souter writing that the lower court was wrong in determining parody alone to be a sufficient criterion for copyright infringement.
1990s
Rick JamesRick James
James Ambrose Johnson, Jr. , better known by his stage name Rick James, was an American singer, songwriter, musician and record producer. James was a popular performer in the late 1970s and 1980s, scoring four number-one hits on the U.S. R&B charts performing in the genres of funk and R&B...
sued MC Hammer
MC Hammer
Stanley Kirk Burrell , better known by his stage name MC Hammer , is an American rapper, entertainer, business entrepreneur, dancer and actor. He had his greatest commercial success and popularity from the late 1980s until the mid-1990s...
for infringement of copyright
Copyright infringement
Copyright infringement is the unauthorized or prohibited use of works under copyright, infringing the copyright holder's exclusive rights, such as the right to reproduce or perform the copyrighted work, or to make derivative works.- "Piracy" :...
on the track "U Can't Touch This
U Can't Touch This
"U Can't Touch This" is MC Hammer's 1990 super hit signature song, from his album Please Hammer, Don't Hurt 'Em. The album sold more than 10 million copies, due primarily to this single, and gaining multi-platinum certifications from the RIAA, and other Recording Industries.Rick James sued Hammer...
" (which sampled his 1981 song "Super Freak
Super Freak
"Super Freak" is a 1981 hit single produced and performed by Rick James. The song, co-written by James and Alonzo Miller, was first released on James' album Street Songs and became one of James' signature songs. It features background vocals from Motown labelmates The Temptations, in which the bass...
"), but the suit was settled out of court when Hammer agreed to credit James as co-composer, effectively cutting James in on the millions of dollars the record was earning. Hammer was also sued by Felton Pilate
Felton Pilate
Felton C. Pilate II is an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer known as a member of the 1970s and 1980s funk/R&B band Con Funk Shun, and as a collaborator with rapper MC Hammer...
(who had worked with the successful vocal group Con Funk Shun
Con Funk Shun
Con Funk Shun is an American R&B and funk band popular in the 1970s and 1980s. Influences include James Brown and Sly & the Family Stone.-History:...
) and by several of his former backers, and faced charges that performance troupe members endured an abusive, militaristic atmosphere.
In 1992, Hammer also admitted in depositions
Deposition (law)
In the law of the United States, a deposition is the out-of-court oral testimony of a witness that is reduced to writing for later use in court or for discovery purposes. It is commonly used in litigation in the United States and Canada and is almost always conducted outside of court by the...
and court documents to getting the idea for the song "Here Comes The Hammer" from a Christian recording artist
Contemporary Christian music
Contemporary Christian music is a genre of modern popular music which is lyrically focused on matters concerned with the Christian faith...
in Dallas, Texas
Dallas, Texas
Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...
named Kevin Christian. Christian had filed a 16 million dollar lawsuit
Lawsuit
A lawsuit or "suit in law" is a civil action brought in a court of law in which a plaintiff, a party who claims to have incurred loss as a result of a defendant's actions, demands a legal or equitable remedy. The defendant is required to respond to the plaintiff's complaint...
against Hammer for copyright infringement
Copyright infringement
Copyright infringement is the unauthorized or prohibited use of works under copyright, infringing the copyright holder's exclusive rights, such as the right to reproduce or perform the copyrighted work, or to make derivative works.- "Piracy" :...
for his song entitled "Oh-Oh, You Got The Shing". This fact compounded with witness testimony from both Hammer's and Christian's entourages and other evidence including photos brought about a settlement with Capitol Records
Capitol Records
Capitol Records is a major United States based record label, formerly located in Los Angeles, but operating in New York City as part of Capitol Music Group. Its former headquarters building, the Capitol Tower, is a major landmark near the corner of Hollywood and Vine...
in 1994. The terms of the settlement remain sealed. Hammer settled with Christian the following year.
In the early 1990s, Vanilla Ice
Vanilla Ice
Robert Matthew Van Winkle , best known by his stage name Vanilla Ice, is an American rapper, extreme athlete and home improvement television personality...
sampled the bass
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
line of the 1981 song "Under Pressure
Under Pressure
"Under Pressure" is a 1981 song recorded by Queen and David Bowie. It marked Bowie's first released collaboration with another recording artist as a performer, and is featured on Queen's 1982 album Hot Space. The song reached #1 on the UK Singles Chart. It was also number 31 on VH1's 100 Greatest...
" by Queen
Queen (band)
Queen are a British rock band formed in London in 1971, originally consisting of Freddie Mercury , Brian May , John Deacon , and Roger Taylor...
and David Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
for his 1990 single "Ice Ice Baby
Ice Ice Baby
"Ice Ice Baby" is a hip hop song written by American rapper Vanilla Ice and DJ Earthquake. The song samples the bassline of "Under Pressure" by Queen and David Bowie, who did not initially receive songwriting credit or royalties until after it had become a hit...
". Freddie Mercury
Freddie Mercury
Freddie Mercury was a British musician, singer and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist of the rock band Queen. As a performer, he was known for his flamboyant stage persona and powerful vocals over a four-octave range...
and David Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
did not receive credit or royalties for the sample. In a 1990 interview, Rob Van Winkle said the two melodies were slightly different because he had added an additional note. In later interviews, Van Winkle readily admitted he sampled the song and claimed his 1990 statement was a joke; others, however, suggested he had been serious. Van Winkle later paid Mercury and Bowie, who have since been given songwriting credit for the sample.
More dramatically, Biz Markie
Biz Markie
Marcel Theo Hall better known by his stage name, Biz Markie, is an American rapper, beatboxer, DJ, comedian, singer, reality television personality, and commercial spokesperson. He is best known for his single "Just a Friend", an American Top 10 hit in 1989...
's album I Need a Haircut was withdrawn in 1992 following a US federal court ruling, that his use of a sample from Gilbert O'Sullivan
Gilbert O'Sullivan
Gilbert O'Sullivan is an Irish-English singer-songwriter, best known for his early 1970s hits "Alone Again ", "Clair" and "Get Down". The music magazine, Record Mirror, voted him the No...
's "Alone Again (Naturally)
Alone Again (Naturally)
"Alone Again " is a song by Irish singer–songwriter Gilbert O'Sullivan. It was released in 1972, and in total spent six weeks, non-consecutively, at #1 on the United States Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. In Casey Kasem's American 'Top 40 of the 1970s', "Alone Again " ranked as the fifth...
" was willful infringement. This case had a powerful effect on the record industry, with record companies becoming very much concerned with the legalities of sampling, and demanding that artists make full declarations of all samples used in their work. On the other hand, the ruling also made it more attractive to artists and record labels to allow others to sample their work, knowing that they would be paid—often handsomely—for their contribution.
A notable case in the early 1990s involved the dispute between the group Negativland
Negativland
Negativland is an experimental music and sound collage band which originated in the San Francisco Bay Area in the late 1970s. They took their name from a Neu! song, while their record label is named after another Neu! song...
and Casey Kasem
Casey Kasem
Kemal Amin "Casey" Kasem is an American radio personality and voice actor who is best known for being the host of the nationally syndicated Top 40 countdown show American Top 40, and for voicing Shaggy in the popular Saturday morning cartoon franchise Scooby-Doo.Kasem, along with Don Bustany and...
over the band's use of un-aired vocal snippets from Kasem's radio program American Top 40 on the Negativland single "U2".
Another notable case involved British dance music
Electronic dance music
Electronic dance music is electronic music produced primarily for the purposes of use within a nightclub setting, or in an environment that is centered upon dance-based entertainment...
act Shut Up And Dance
Shut Up And Dance
Shut Up and Dance are an English music duo that fused hip hop, house and hardcore, and are best known for their single "Raving I'm Raving", which reached No. 2 in the UK Singles Chart in May 1992.-Career:...
. Shut Up And Dance were a fairly successful Breakbeat Hardcore
Breakbeat hardcore
Breakbeat hardcore is a derivative of the acid house and techno, of the late 1980s and early 1990s, that combines four-to-the-floor rhythms with breakbeats, and is associated with the UK rave scene.-The rave scene:...
and rave
Rave music
Rave music may either refer the late 1980s genre or any genre of electronic dance music that may be played at an electronic dance party such as a rave. Very rarely, the term is used to refer to less electronic related genres glam, powerpop, psychedelic rock and dub music parties...
scene outfit who like their contemporaries had liberally used samples in the creation of their music - without clearance from the individuals concerned. Although frowned upon the British music industry usually turned a blind eye to this mainly underground scene, however with rave at its commercial peak in the UK, Shut Up And Dance released the single "Raving I'm Raving" an upbeat breakbeat hardcore record which shot to #2 on the UK Singles Chart
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
in May 1992. At the core of "Raving" were significant samples of Marc Cohn
Marc Cohn
Marc Craig Cohn is an American folk rock singer-songwriter and musician.- Personal life :Cohn was born in Cleveland, Ohio. He graduated from Beachwood High School in Beachwood, a Cleveland suburb. He then attended Oberlin College....
's hit single "Walking in Memphis
Walking in Memphis
-Cher version:"Walking in Memphis" is the first European single by American singer-actress Cher from her twenty-second studio album, It's a Man's World. It was released in the end of 1995 by WEA. The song was performed in some shows in Europe, and in her tours since the Do You Believe? Tour.-Song...
" with some of the lyrical content changed and sung by Peter Bouncer. Shut Up And Dance hadn't sought clearance from Marc Cohn for the samples they used in "Raving" and Marc Cohn took legal action against Shut Up And Dance for breach of copyright. An out of court settlement was eventually reached between Shut Up And Dance and Cohn which saw "Raving" in its current form banned and the proceeds from the single given to charity. Ironically Shut Up and Dance were later commissioned to produce remixes for Cher
Cher
Cher is an American recording artist, television personality, actress, director, record producer and philanthropist. Referred to as the Goddess of Pop, she has won an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award, three Golden Globes and a Cannes Film Festival Award among others for her work in...
's 1995 cover version of "Walking In Memphis" and were allowed by Cohn to use parts from the deleted "Raving I'm Raving" for this remix.
Undeterred from earlier sampling issues they then went on to have relatively good success in the UK with a cover of Duran Duran
Duran Duran
Duran Duran are an English band, formed in Birmingham in 1978. They were one of the most successful bands of the 1980s and a leading band in the MTV-driven "Second British Invasion" of the United States...
's "Save A Prayer
Save A Prayer
"Save a Prayer" is the sixth single by Duran Duran, released on 9 August 1982.The song was the third single from the band's second album Rio...
", entitled "Save it til the mourning after" reaching No. 25 in the UK Singles Chart
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
in 1995.
The Shut Up And Dance case had major ramifications on the use of samples in the UK and most artists and record labels now seek clearance for samples they use. However there are still cases which involve UK artists using uncleared samples. In October 1996 The Chemical Brothers
The Chemical Brothers
The Chemical Brothers are a British electronic music duo comprising Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons. Originating in Manchester in 1991, along with The Prodigy, Fatboy Slim, The Crystal Method, and fellow acts, they were pioneers at bringing the big beat genre to the forefront of pop culture.- Background...
released the single Setting Sun
Setting Sun
"Setting Sun" is a song by The Chemical Brothers, released as a single in 1996 from their second album Dig Your Own Hole. With vocals by Noel Gallagher, it reached number 1 on the UK Singles Chart and number 80 on the US Billboard Hot 100, their highest position there so far. The song sampled The...
inspired by The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
' Tomorrow Never Knows
Tomorrow Never Knows
"Tomorrow Never Knows" is the final track of The Beatles' 1966 studio album Revolver but the first to be recorded. Credited as a Lennon–McCartney song, it was written primarily by John Lennon...
and featuring Oasis'
Oasis (band)
Oasis were an English rock band formed in Manchester in 1991. Originally known as The Rain, the group was formed by Liam Gallagher , Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs , Paul "Guigsy" McGuigan and Tony McCarroll , who were soon joined by Liam's older brother Noel Gallagher...
Noel Gallagher
Noel Gallagher
Noel Thomas David Gallagher is an English musician and singer-songwriter, formerly the lead guitarist, backing vocalist and principal songwriter of the English rock band Oasis. He is currently fronting his solo project, Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds.Raised in Burnage, Manchester with his...
on vocals - a long admirer of The Beatles' work. Setting Sun hit #1 on the UK Singles Chart
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
on first week of release and the common consensus was The Chemical Brothers had sampled/looped significant parts of Tomorrow Never Knows in the creation of Setting Sun. The three remaining Beatles took legal action against The Chemical Brothers/Virgin Records
Virgin Records
Virgin Records is a British record label founded by English entrepreneur Richard Branson, Simon Draper, and Nik Powell in 1972. The company grew to be a worldwide music phenomenon, with platinum performers such as Roy Orbison, Devo, Genesis, Keith Richards, Janet Jackson, Culture Club, Lenny...
for breach of copyright, however a musicologist
Musicology
Musicology is the scholarly study of music. The word is used in narrow, broad and intermediate senses. In the narrow sense, musicology is confined to the music history of Western culture...
proved The Chemical Brothers had independently created Setting Sun - albeit in a similar vein to Tomorrow Never Knows.
In 1997 The Verve
The Verve
The Verve were an English rock band formed in 1989 in Wigan by lead vocalist Richard Ashcroft, guitarist Nick McCabe, bassist Simon Jones, and drummer Peter Salisbury. Guitarist and keyboardist Simon Tong later became a member. Beginning with a psychedelic sound indebted to shoegazing and space...
was forced to pay 100% of their royalties from their hit "Bitter Sweet Symphony
Bitter Sweet Symphony
"Bitter Sweet Symphony" is a song by English alternative rock band The Verve, the lead track on their third album, Urban Hymns. It is based on music from an Andrew Loog Oldham adaptation of a Rolling Stones song, "The Last Time". It was released on 16 June 1997 by Hut Recordings as the first single...
" for the use of a licensed sample from an orchestral cover version of The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...
' hit "The Last Time". The Rolling Stones' catalogue is one of the most litigiously protected in the world of popular music—to some extent the case mirrored the legal difficulties encountered by Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine when they quoted from the song "Ruby Tuesday" in their song "After the Watershed" some years earlier. In both cases, the issue at stake was not the use of the recording, but the use of the song itself—the section from "The Last Time" used by the Verve was not even part of the original composition, but because it derived from a cover version of it, Mick Jagger
Mick Jagger
Sir Michael Philip "Mick" Jagger is an English musician, singer and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist and a founding member of The Rolling Stones....
and Keith Richards
Keith Richards
Keith Richards is an English musician, songwriter, and founding member of the Rolling Stones. Rolling Stone magazine said Richards had created "rock's greatest single body of riffs", and placed him as the "10th greatest guitarist of all time." Fourteen songs written by Richards and songwriting...
were still entitled to royalties and credit on the derivative work. This illustrates an important legal point: even if a sample is used legally, it may open the artist up to other problems.
2000s
In the summer of 2001, Mariah CareyMariah Carey
Mariah Carey is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress. She made her recording debut with the release of her eponymous studio album in 1990, under the guidance of Columbia Records executive Tommy Mottola, whom she later married in 1993...
released her first single from Glitter entitled "Loverboy" which featured a sample of "Firecracker" by Yellow Magic Orchestra
Yellow Magic Orchestra
Sakamoto first worked with Hosono as a member of his live band in 1976, while Takahashi recruited Sakamoto to produce his debut solo recording in 1977 following the split of the Sadistic Mika Band...
. A month later, Jennifer Lopez
Jennifer Lopez
Jennifer Lynn Lopez is an American actress, singer, record producer, dancer, television personality, and fashion designer. Lopez began her career as a dancer on the television comedy program In Living Color. Subsequently venturing into acting, she gained recognition in the 1995 action-thriller...
released "I'm Real" with the same "Firecracker" sample. Carey quickly discarded it and replaced it with "Candy" by Cameo
Cameo (band)
Cameo is an American soul-influenced funk group that formed in the early 1970s. Cameo was initially a 13-member group known as the New York City Players; this name was later changed to Cameo to avoid a lawsuit from Ohio Players, another group from that era. Since then, Cameo has recorded several...
.
In 2001, Armen Boladian
Armen Boladian
Armen Boladian is a former record producer, founder of Detroit-based Westbound Records in 1970.Boladian is currently the head of Bridgeport Music Inc. , a catalogue company in possession of most of George Clinton's catalogue...
and his company Bridgeport Music Inc. filed over 500 copyright infringement suits against 800 artists using samples from George Clinton
George Clinton (musician)
George Clinton is an American singer, songwriter, bandleader, and music producer and the principal architect of P-Funk. He was the mastermind of the bands Parliament and Funkadelic during the 1970s and early 1980s, and launched a solo career in 1981. He has been cited as one of the foremost...
's catalogue.
Public Enemy recorded a track entitled "Psycho of Greed" (2002) for their album Revolverlution
Revolverlution
Revolverlution is the eighth studio album by American hip hop group Public Enemy, released July 23, 2002 on Koch Records in the United States. The album debuted at number 110 on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart...
that contained a continuous looping sample from The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
' track "Tomorrow Never Knows
Tomorrow Never Knows
"Tomorrow Never Knows" is the final track of The Beatles' 1966 studio album Revolver but the first to be recorded. Credited as a Lennon–McCartney song, it was written primarily by John Lennon...
". However, the clearance fee demanded by Capitol Records
Capitol Records
Capitol Records is a major United States based record label, formerly located in Los Angeles, but operating in New York City as part of Capitol Music Group. Its former headquarters building, the Capitol Tower, is a major landmark near the corner of Hollywood and Vine...
and the surviving Beatles was so high that the group decided to pull the track from the album.
Danger Mouse
Danger Mouse
Brian Joseph Burton , better known by his stage name Danger Mouse, is an American musician, songwriter and producer. He came to prominence in 2004 when he released The Grey Album, which combined vocal performances from Jay-Z's The Black Album with instrumentals from The Beatles' White Album.He...
with the release of The Grey Album
The Grey Album
The Grey Album is a mashup album by Danger Mouse, released in 2004. It uses an a cappella version of rapper Jay-Z's The Black Album and couples it with instrumentals created from a multitude of unauthorized samples from The Beatles' LP The Beatles...
in 2004, which is a remix of The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
' self-titled album
The Beatles (album)
The Beatles is the ninth official album by the English rock group The Beatles, a double album released in 1968. It is also commonly known as "The White Album" as it has no graphics or text other than the band's name embossed on its plain white sleeve.The album was written and recorded during a...
and rapper Jay-Z
Jay-Z
Shawn Corey Carter , better known by his stage name Jay-Z, is an American rapper, record producer, entrepreneur, and occasional actor. He is one of the most financially successful hip hop artists and entrepreneurs in America, having a net worth of over $450 million as of 2010...
's The Black Album
The Black Album (Jay-Z album)
The Black Album is the eighth studio album by American rapper Jay-Z, released November 14, 2003, on Roc-A-Fella Records. It was promoted as his final studio album, which serves as a recurring theme, although Jay-Z returned to solo recording with Kingdom Come in 2006.The album debuted at number one...
has been embroiled in a similar situation with the record label
Record label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
EMI
EMI
The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
issuing cease and desist
Cease and desist
A cease and desist is an order or request to halt an activity and not to take it up again later or else face legal action. The recipient of the cease-and-desist may be an individual or an organization....
orders over uncleared Beatles samples.
On March 19, 2006, a judge ordered that sales of The Notorious B.I.G.
The Notorious B.I.G.
Christopher George Latore Wallace , best known as The Notorious B.I.G., was an American rapper. He was also known as Biggie Smalls , Big Poppa, and The Black Frank White .Wallace was raised in the Brooklyn borough...
's album Ready to Die
Ready to Die
Ready to Die is the debut album of American rapper The Notorious B.I.G., released September 13, 1994 on Bad Boy Records. The first release on the label, it features production by record producer and Bad Boy founder Sean "Puffy" Combs, Easy Mo Bee, Chucky Thompson, DJ Premier, and Lord Finesse,...
be halted because the title track sampled a 1972 song by the Ohio Players
Ohio Players
The Ohio Players were an American funk and R&B band, most popular in the 1970s. They are best known for their double #1 hit songs "Fire" and "Love Rollercoaster".- Biography :...
, "Singing in the Morning", without permission.
On November 20, 2008, electronic band Kraftwerk
Kraftwerk
Kraftwerk is an influential electronic music band from Düsseldorf, Germany. The group was formed by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider in 1970, and was fronted by them until Schneider's departure in 2008...
convinced the German Federal Supreme Court that even the smallest shreds of sounds ("Tonfetzen") are "copyrightable" (e.g. protected), and that sampling a few bars of a drum beat can be an infringement.
Legal issues in practice
The most recent significant copyright case involving sampling held that even sampling three notes could constitute copyright infringement. Bridgeport Music Inc. v. Dimension Films, 410 F.3d 792 (6th Cir. 2005). This case was roundly criticised by many in the music industry, including the RIAA.There has been a second important US case on music sampling involving the Beastie Boys
Beastie Boys
Beastie Boys are an American hip hop trio from New York City. The group consists of Mike D who plays the drums, MCA who plays the bass, and Ad-Rock who plays the guitar....
who sampled the sound recording of a flute track by James Newton
James Newton
James W. Newton is an American jazz flautist, composer, and conductor.-Biography:From his earliest years, James Newton grew up immersed in the sounds of African American music, including urban blues, rhythm and blues, and gospel. In his early teens he played electric bass guitar, alto saxophone,...
in their song "Pass the Mic." The Beastie Boys properly obtained a license to use the sound recording but did not clear the use of the song (the composition on which the recording is based including any music and lyrics). In Newton v. Diamond and Others 349 F.3d 591 (9th Cir. 2003) the US Appeals Court held that the use of the looped sample of a flute did not constitute copyright infringement as the core of the song itself had not been used.
A June 2006 case involving Ludacris
Ludacris
Christopher Brian Bridges , better known by his stage name Ludacris, is an American rapper and actor. Along with his manager, Chaka Zulu, Ludacris is the co-founder of Disturbing tha Peace, an imprint distributed by Def Jam Recordings...
and Kanye West
Kanye West
Kanye Omari West is an American rapper, singer, and record producer. West first rose to fame as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records, where he eventually achieved recognition for his work on Jay-Z's album The Blueprint, as well as hit singles for musical artists including Alicia Keys, Ludacris, and...
held that their use of the phrases "like that" and "straight like that" which had been used on an earlier hip-hop track by another artist was not infringing use.
The New Orleans–based company Cash Money Records
Cash Money Records
Cash Money Records is a record label founded by brothers Bryan "Birdman" Williams and Ronald "Slim" Williams. Today it operates as a subsidiary of Universal Music Group, and is distributed by Universal Republic Records as of 2011...
and former rapper Juvenile
Juvenile (rapper)
Terius Gray, better known by his stage name Juvenile, is an American rapper, He is also a former member of hip-hop group the Hot Boys . At the age of 19, he began recording raps, releasing his debut album Being Myself in 1995...
were taken to court by local performer DJ Jubilee (signed to Take Fo' Record Label) for using chants from his song titled Back That Ass Up. Both artist had used the same chant in each song, but Juvenile won the case because of the title's name change to Back That Azz Up, which sold 2 million copies. Because of the name change, Jubilee lacked evidence that Juvenile had stolen from him, and Jubilee could not earn Juvenile's income from his song.
Today, most mainstream acts obtain prior authorization to use samples, a process known as "clearing" (gaining permission to use the sample and, usually, paying an up-front fee and/or a cut of the royalties to the original artist). Independent bands, lacking the funds and legal assistance to clear samples, are at a disadvantage - unless they seek the services of a professional sample replay company or producer.
Recently, a movement — started mainly by Lawrence Lessig
Lawrence Lessig
Lawrence "Larry" Lessig is an American academic and political activist. He is best known as a proponent of reduced legal restrictions on copyright, trademark, and radio frequency spectrum, particularly in technology applications, and he has called for state-based activism to promote substantive...
— of free culture
Free Culture movement
The free culture movement is a social movement that promotes the freedom to distribute and modify creative works in the form of free content by using the Internet and other forms of media....
has prompted many audio works to be licensed under a Creative Commons
Creative Commons
Creative Commons is a non-profit organization headquartered in Mountain View, California, United States devoted to expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has released several copyright-licenses known as Creative Commons...
license that allows for legal sampling of the work provided the resulting work(s) are licensed under the same terms.
Spoken word
Usually taken from movies, television, or other non-musical media, spoken word samples are often used to create atmosphere, to set a mood, or even comic effect. The American composer Steve ReichSteve Reich
Stephen Michael "Steve" Reich is an American composer who together with La Monte Young, Terry Riley, and Philip Glass is a pioneering composer of minimal music...
used samples from interviews with Holocaust survivors as a source for the melodies on the 1988 album Different Trains
Different Trains
Different Trains is a three-movement piece for string quartet and tape written by Steve Reich in 1988. It won a Grammy Award in 1990 for Best Contemporary Classical Composition.The work's three movements have the following titles:...
, performed by the Kronos Quartet
Kronos Quartet
Kronos Quartet is a string quartet founded by violinist David Harrington in 1973 in Seattle, Washington. Since 1978, the quartet has been based in San Francisco, California. The longest-running combination of performers had Harrington and John Sherba on violin, Hank Dutt on viola, and Joan...
.
Many genres utilize sampling of spoken word to induce a mood, and Goa trance
Goa trance
Goa trance is a form of electronic music that originated during the late 1980s in Goa, India.-History:The music has its roots in the popularity of Goa in the late 1960s and early 1970s as a hippie capital, and although musical developments were incorporating elements of industrial music and EBM...
often employs samples of people speaking about the use of psychoactives, spirituality
Spirituality
Spirituality can refer to an ultimate or an alleged immaterial reality; an inner path enabling a person to discover the essence of his/her being; or the “deepest values and meanings by which people live.” Spiritual practices, including meditation, prayer and contemplation, are intended to develop...
, or science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
themes. Industrial is known for samples from horror/sci-fi movies, news broadcasts, propaganda reels, and speeches by political figures. The band Ministry
Ministry (band)
Ministry is an American industrial metal band founded by lead singer Al Jourgensen in 1981. Originally a synthpop outfit, Ministry changed its style to industrial metal in the late 1980s. Ministry found mainstream success in the early 1990s with its most successful album Psalm 69: The Way to...
frequently samples George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
. Paul Hardcastle
Paul Hardcastle
Paul Hardcastle is an English composer and musician, specialising in the synthesizer.-Discography:In the early 1980s, Hardcastle played the keyboards on several singles on the Oval record label by the dance music groups Direct Drive and First Light, before going solo.He achieved some acclaim for...
used recordings of a news reporter, as well as a soldier and ambient noise of a protest, in his single "Nineteen," a song about Vietnam war veterans and Posttraumatic stress disorder. The band Negativland
Negativland
Negativland is an experimental music and sound collage band which originated in the San Francisco Bay Area in the late 1970s. They took their name from a Neu! song, while their record label is named after another Neu! song...
samples from practically every form of popular media, ranging from infomercials to children's records. In the song "Civil War", Guns N' Roses
Guns N' Roses
Guns N' Roses is an American hard rock band, formed in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, in 1985. The band has released six studio albums, three EPs, and one live album...
samples from the 1967 film Cool Hand Luke
Cool Hand Luke
Cool Hand Luke is a 1967 American prison drama film directed by Stuart Rosenberg and starring Paul Newman. The screenplay was adapted by Donn Pearce and Frank Pierson from Pearce's 1965 novel of the same name. The film features George Kennedy, Strother Martin, J.D...
, on the album Use Your Illusion II
Use Your Illusion II
Use Your Illusion II is the fourth studio album by the American rock band Guns N' Roses. It was one of two albums released in conjunction with the Use Your Illusion Tour, and as a result the two albums are sometimes considered a double album...
. Sludge
Sludge
Sludge refers to the residual, semi-solid material left from industrial wastewater, or sewage treatment processes. It can also refer to the settled suspension obtained from conventional drinking water treatment, and numerous other industrial processes...
band Dystopia
Dystopia (band)
Formed in Orange County, California in 1991, Dystopia was a sludge metal band, popular in both the heavy metal and crust punk scenes, due in large part to their bleak, misanthropic imagery...
make frequent use of samples, including news clips and recordings of junkies to create a bleak and nihilistic atmosphere. Other bands that frequently used samples in their work are noise rock
Noise rock
Noise rock describes a style of post-punk rock music that became prominent in the 1980s. Noise rock makes use of the traditional instrumentation and iconography of rock, but incorporates atonality and especially dissonance, and also frequently discards usual songwriting conventions.-Style:Noise...
ers Steel Pole Bath Tub
Steel Pole Bath Tub
Steel Pole Bath Tub was a hardcore punk/noise rock band, formed in 1986 in Bozeman, Montana by Mike Morasky and Dale Flattum .- Band history :...
and death metal
Death metal
Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal. It typically employs heavily distorted guitars, tremolo picking, deep growling vocals, blast beat drumming, minor keys or atonality, and complex song structures with multiple tempo changes....
band Skinless
Skinless
Skinless is a death metal band that was formed in 1992 and disbanded in 2011.-History:Skinless was formed by Ryan Wade and Noah Carpenter in the town of South Glens Falls, New York...
.
Unconventional sounds
These are not musical in the conventional sense - that is, neither percussive nor melodic - but which are musically useful for their interesting timbres or emotional associations, in the spirit of musique concrèteMusique concrète
Musique concrète is a form of electroacoustic music that utilises acousmatic sound as a compositional resource. The compositional material is not restricted to the inclusion of sounds derived from musical instruments or voices, nor to elements traditionally thought of as "musical"...
. Some common examples include sirens and klaxons, locomotive whistles, natural sounds such as whale song, and cooing babies. It is common in theatrical sound design
Sound design
Sound design is the process of specifying, acquiring, manipulating or generating audio elements. It is employed in a variety of disciplines including filmmaking, television production, theatre, sound recording and reproduction, live performance, sound art, post-production and video game software...
to use this type of sampling to store sound effects that can then be triggered from a musical keyboard or other software. This is very useful for high precision or nonlinear requirements.
See also
- Amen Brother - one of the most sampled tracks of all time
- Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic WorksBerne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic WorksThe Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, usually known as the Berne Convention, is an international agreement governing copyright, which was first accepted in Berne, Switzerland in 1886.- Content :...
- Compulsory Sampling LicenseCompulsory licenseA compulsory license, also known as statutory license or mandatory collective management, provides that the owner of a patent or copyright licenses the use of their rights against payment either set by law or determined through some form of arbitration.- Copyright law :In a number of countries...
- would allow artists to freely sample without copyright owner's permission - Cover versionCover versionIn popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
- Hip hop productionHip hop productionHip hop production is the creation of hip hop music. Though the term encompasses all aspects of hip hop music, it's most commonly used to refer to the instrumental, non-lyrical aspects of hip hop. This means that hip hop producers are the instrumentalists involved in a work...
- InterpolationInterpolation (music)Interpolation in music refers to an abrupt change in musical elements from the main theme.-In classical music:In music and musical composition, especially 20th century and later, interpolation is an abrupt change of elements, with continuation of the first idea...
- mashupMashup (music)A mashup or bootleg is a song or composition created by blending two or more pre-recorded songs, usually by overlaying the vocal track of one song seamlessly over the instrumental track of another...
- extensive page illuminating current practices of extensive sampling and their precedents - Musical montage - is a technique where sound objects or compositions are created from collage.
- Music loopMusic loopIn electroacoustic music, a loop is a repeating section of sound material. Short sections of material can be repeated to create ostinato patterns...
- Musique concrèteMusique concrèteMusique concrète is a form of electroacoustic music that utilises acousmatic sound as a compositional resource. The compositional material is not restricted to the inclusion of sounds derived from musical instruments or voices, nor to elements traditionally thought of as "musical"...
- early development of fundamental importance in using recorded sound - PlunderphonicsPlunderphonicsPlunderphonics is a term coined by composer John Oswald in 1985 in his essay Plunderphonics, or Audio Piracy as a Compositional Prerogative. It has since been applied to any music made by taking one or more existing audio recordings and altering them in some way to make a new composition...
- in which samples are the sole source of sound for new compositions - RemixRemixA remix is an alternative version of a recorded song, made from an original version. This term is also used for any alterations of media other than song ....
- Sampler (musical instrument)Sampler (musical instrument)A sampler is an electronic musical instrument similar in some respects to a synthesizer but, instead of generating sounds, it uses recordings of sounds that are loaded or recorded into it by the user and then played back by means of a keyboard, sequencer or other triggering device to perform or...
- hardware and software platforms - Sampling (signal processing)Sampling (signal processing)In signal processing, sampling is the reduction of a continuous signal to a discrete signal. A common example is the conversion of a sound wave to a sequence of samples ....
- Basic PCM theory - Sound collageSound collageIn music, montage or sound collage is a technique where sound objects or compositions, including songs, are created from collage, also known as montage, the use of portions of previous recordings or scores...
- production of new sound material using portions, or samples, of previously made recordings. - WIPO Copyright and Performances and Phonograms Treaties Implementation ActWIPO Copyright and Performances and Phonograms Treaties Implementation ActThe WIPO Copyright and Performances and Phonograms Treaties Implementation Act, is a part of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act , a 1998 U.S. law...
Sampling in other contexts
- Appropriation (art)Appropriation (art)Appropriation is a fundamental aspect in the history of the arts . Appropriation can be understood as "the use of borrowed elements in the creation of a new work."...
- (Visual arts) often refers to the use of borrowed elements in the creation of new work. - CollageCollageA collage is a work of formal art, primarily in the visual arts, made from an assemblage of different forms, thus creating a new whole....
- a work of visual arts made from an assemblage of different forms, thus creating a new whole. - Cut-up techniqueCut-up techniqueThe cut-up technique is an aleatory literary technique in which a text is cut up and rearranged to create a new text. Most commonly, cut-ups are used to offer a non-linear alternative to traditional reading and writing....
- an aleatory literary technique or genre in which a writingWritingWriting is the representation of language in a textual medium through the use of a set of signs or symbols . It is distinguished from illustration, such as cave drawing and painting, and non-symbolic preservation of language via non-textual media, such as magnetic tape audio.Writing most likely...
is cut up at random and rearranged to create a new text. - Found footageFound footageFound footage is a filmmaking term which describes a method of compiling films partly or entirely of footage which has not been created by the filmmaker, and changing its meaning by placing it in a new context. It should not be mistaken for documentary or compilation films. It is also not to be...
- a method of compiling films partly or entirely of footage which has not been created by the filmmaker. - Papier colléPapier colléPapier collé is a painting technique and type of collage. With papier collé the artist pastes pieces of flat material into a painting in much in the same way as a collage, except the shape of the pasted pieces are objects themselves...
- a painting technique and type of collage. - Assemblage (composition)Assemblage (composition)Assemblage refers to a text "built primarily and explicitly from existing texts in order to solve a writing or communication problem in a new context". The concept was first proposed by Johndan Johnson-Eilola and Stuart Selber in the journal, Computers & Composition, in 2007...
- a method for creating texts by explicitly using existing texts.
Further reading
- Katz, Mark. "Music in 1s and 0s: The Art and Politics of Digital Sampling." In Capturing Sound: How Technology has Changed Music (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004), 137-57. ISBN 0-520-24380-3
- McKenna, Tyrone B. (2000) "Where Digital Music Technology and Law Collide - Contemporary Issues of Digital Sampling, Appropriation and Copyright Law" Journal of Information, Law & Technology. Available online at:
- http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/law/elj/jilt/2000_1/mckenna/?textOnly=true
- http://www.musiclawupdates.com/index_main.htm Challis, B (2003) The Song Remains The Same - A Review of the Legalities of Music Sampling
External links
- the-breaks AKA The (Rap) Sample FAQ, samples and their sources in all forms of music
- WhoSampled - a user-generated database of sampled music where all samples can be listened to side-by-side
- The Sample Clearance Fund: A proposal a 1998 article about an attempt to legalize sampling; predates Creative Commons Sampling licenses of several years
- SCORCCiO Sample Replays - Professional sample replay producers; samples recreated to accurately replace any uncleared sample usage.
- samplefaq.net - an interactive Hip Hop Sample community