Has sampling helped or hindered music?

Subject: Has sampling helped or hindered music?
From: Hyperabid
Date: 29 Feb 00 - 06:44 AM

Sampling / MIDI / Cubase - It's all here now and it's dictating the pace and shape of modern music.

Much modern album music will use sampling techniques to produce the final studio sound and an entire industyr has sprung up sub-licensing original music keeping old rockers in royalties.

Honest examples include Gabriel's - "Rise" and the Verve's - "Bitter Sweet Symphony", but all those drum hooks on other tracks sound so familiar because their often lifted from James Brown or other classic artists.

Is this helping or hindering music?

Subject: RE: Has sampling helped or hindered music?
From: Troll
Date: 29 Feb 00 - 07:11 AM

I don't know if it's helping but I can't see where it hinders. It is a known fact that Brahms used bits of themes written by other composers as a kind of tribute and ,apparently it was a common practice.As Kipling wrote: "When "Omer smote 'is bloomin' lyre,

"e'ed 'eard men sing by land and sea,

And what 'e thought 'e might require,

'E went and took. The same as me."

It takes talent to put a song together regardless of how you do it.What difference if the drum hook was lifted or if a drummer learned it and played it? The end result is the same,e.g. a "new" piece of music.

I know that others may not agree with me but hey, my opinion, ill-informed though it may be, is just as valid as any other. *BG*

troll

Subject: RE: Has sampling helped or hindered music?
From: Hyperabid
Date: 29 Feb 00 - 07:32 AM

On the whole I agree troll..

The technology has also given music one or two new genres. Where my concerns lie is in dumbing down. Current Phrase/Sample based recording technology, (of which I am an avid user), seems to be contributing to a highly formulaic approach in mainstream pop.

If you are familiar with the technology you can alomost see the computer screen in your mind's eye and see why they have made musical decisions based on the technology's design.

This does worry me....

Hyp

Subject: RE: Has sampling helped or hindered music?
From: Grab
Date: 29 Feb 00 - 08:01 AM

The source of the music does tend to dictate the style of the music. Sampling can definitely create new songs (vis PM Dawn, Vanilla Ice in the early 90s), but as Hyperabid says, the trick is to make the sampling part of the song, rather than basing a song round sampling. For example, Lloyd Webber all sounds a particular way bcos he writes on the piano, and that limits him to a particular range of expression when he's writing.

Sampling's just another musical tool. Didn't everyone forecast the death of real instruments when synths came out? And aren't there still plenty of musicians out there?

Grab.

Subject: RE: Has sampling helped or hindered music?
From: Troll
Date: 29 Feb 00 - 08:07 AM

Hey,Hyp. Pop music survived disco and Barry Manilow so I wouldn't worry too much. Your point, however, is well taken. If formula becomes all and creativity takes a back seat, then we've got problems. The first guys to do it were innovators, the next group were exploring a new field, and the rest are simply riding the bandwagon. as soon as it shows signs of slowing down -and it will- they will be the first to jump off and creative forces will once more come to the fore.

troll