ok, first let's look a what the word means.

sam.ple, (verb):
A portion, piece, or segment that is representative of a whole

its one thing for an artists to use a piece of an older work. i'd wish for more creative juices and something more original but if an artist can take a sample of something old and combine it with something new, i think its cool. more and more, however, i'm hearing "new" songs that use old music for the entire track. other than the lyrics, there's nothing new. its not a sample, its a copy. i think there's a difference.

i just saw SOS from rhiannah (is that her name?) and its just so pathetic. there is absolutely no creative ethic; there's no shame in having nothing to add. what's worse is kids love this shit. hey, look, i'm not that old - haven't even hit 30 yet. there is a lot of current music i love so its not a matter of being stuck in any particular era or genre. sadly, most of the new music i'm into is indie/underground. this is not because i'm some kind of pretentious prick who gets off on knowing bands you don't; today's top 40 pop music lacks character.

i didn't have a problem when janet sampled stuff for rhythm nation (or janet. or velvet rope or most of her other stuff - though someone to call my lover is guilty of this sampling abuse). i have no problem with madonna's use of sampling - it also brings something new to the table. prince samples himself so i don't even know if that counts, lol!

it just seems like creative pop music is a thing of the past or, at best, a rare and endangered species in the music ecosystem. i hope this is just a phase and things change for the better. sadly, i've been hoping for that for too many years now, meanwhile things just seem to get worse.

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[Edited 4/8/06 0:35am]

Can we get Kanye West up on official charges?

Where you watching MuchMusic, sassy?
Cuz I just saw that shit too.

My reaction was here.

This is why mostly i don't care for hip jop

Im not terribly against sampling as long as it's subtle or complements the song. When Madonna samples, it's not overtly obvious(unless you listened to "Hung Up" being an ABBA fan). Kanye's another good example. Yea he samples alot, but it greatly complements his sound. And while Janet has used some samples that are too obvious (Someone To Call My Lover, Son of a Gun), she's also used samples that either flow good with the song(the Joni Mitchell sample on Got Till Its Gone)or are not blatantly obvious(The Herbie Hancock sample on All Nite).

However, I draw the line when sampling is used to fully carry the song and lacks subtleness. "SOS" is a good example. It uses the beat for "Tainted Love" throughout the song. That's just plain lazy and uncreative. And dont even get me started on Diddy(I liked Been Around The World when I was in middle school...Then I heard "Let's Dance by David Bowie).

Does sampling automatically mean you lack a creative bone? Of course not. If used as as tool to add on to the song, it's great. But when it's used as the main sound of a song, and it's a really obvious song at that, it's just terribly tacky

A good litmus test for creative usage is imagining the song without the main musical loop and seeing what's left.

CinisterCee said:

i saw it on vh1. it just made me shake my head and feel bad for kids today. what is there to get amped about? there's just nothing there to make someone think, "wow, that shit is unlike anything i've ever heard before!" and if you do think that about something, its generally only a matter of time before you find out it was done already. that's kinda sad, dontcha think?

sallysassalot said:

I don't think it's sad. I bet a lot of the underground bands we like discovered old genres by hearing the originals plundered in the mainstream.

Great take sallysassalot.

CC (CinisterCee) and I have waltzed ( or did we occasionally do The Bump) around this issue from time to time.

Sean Combs "productions" , was where I initially noticed this flagrant behavior.
Now he's currently involved in a lawsuit over the use of Ohio Players material on BIG's Ready to Die album.
(Though now that I think about it, Rapper's Delight/Good Times was probably my 1st actual notice.)

From a creative perspective, my opinion has softened when more obscure smaller samples are used as part of a larger original composition.
But when complete tracks or grooves from songs are utilized as the exclusive musical content and passed off as new material, to me that's just tired. And when permission to use isn't granted and credit isn't given, straight up theft.

For those armed with slings and arrows for this position...



..."At my command, unleash hell!"


tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

I like Touch The Sky's usage of Move On Up.

No , i think it's a total waste of a briliant song

newskin69 said:

That's the worst one. It's the WHOLE song. That and Pleasure on 'Free Xone'. WTF? That song uses about 5 samples and it's just a basic mash-up of a couple of them with nothing added to it.