History of Sampling :
The practice of copying music traces back to the dawn of man and folk
music. Almost every culture passed down melodies and musical story-telling
devices to their heirs. Often times musical themes and note structures
perpetuate the very genre of music. For example, blues music traditionally
uses the same three chords. The practice of copying music is documented
most notably in classical music, whereby composers commonly created new
works upon the musical themes of earlier composers.
Using prior recordings to create new music is not a new concept. Each new musical era has paid homage to its predecessors by "quoting" the previous era's musical stylings in its own music.
Musical "quotation" is the analog corollary to digital sampling. A musical "quote" is the taking of a distinctive and recognizable portion of another era's or composer's music and using it in a new context. See Guy Garcia, Play It Again, Sampler; A Revolutionary Device Turns Pop on its Ear by Enabling Musicians to Beg, Borrow and Steal Sounds From All Over, TIME Magazine, June 3, 1991, at 69. "The arts have a long tradition of allusion and quotation, often with resonant effects."
In the early 1940s, musique concrete composers, such as Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry, cut, spliced, and manipulated pre-recorded tapes in creating their music. In the 1950s, renegade artists, such as William S. Burroughs and Brion Gysin, employed their "cut-up method" to rearrange musical works into random collage. There are sample-esque elements in The Beatles' songs "Revolution Number 9" and "Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite!".
"In the early twentieth century, Igor Stravinsky made an art form out of the neoclassical tradition of 'borrowing' from previous materials. In his 1920 ballet, 'Pulcinella,' Stravinsky so completely reworked music written by the eighteenth-century composer Pergolesi that Stravinsky's entire ballet was composed of portions of Pergolesi's music. As Stravinsky explained, his use of previous works represented his 'discovery of the past.' Stravinsky eventually 'discovered' nearly every period of Western musical history.
"Other twentieth-century composers also used previous material in their music. Charles Ives created entire vocal lines out of fragments of other people's songs. In his 1960 opera, 'Die Soldaten', Bernd Alois Zimmermann directly quoted a Bach fugue, a Gregorian Chant, and conventional jazz figures. Peter Maxwell Davies based almost all of his work on borrowed music from the pre-Baroque era.
"Many famous rock and roll musicians also have used sounds and songs created by others for their songs. For example, the Beach Boys relied so heavily on Chuck Berry's 'Sweet Little Sixteen' for their song 'Surfing U.S.A.' that Chuck Berry was credited as a co-author of the latter. David Byrne of the Talking Heads used sounds from preachers and radio programs on his 1981 solo album, 'My Life in the Bush.' Further, the Chiffons successfully sued George Harrison, claiming that he copied the melody from their song 'He's So Fine' for his early 1970s hit 'My Sweet Lord'." Exerpted from Randy S. Kravis', Does A Song By Any Other Name Still Sound as Sweet?: Digital Sampling and Its Copyright Implications, 43 Am. U.L. Rev. 231, 257 (1993).
Dub:
Musical Innovation in Jamaica
Sampling and turntablism can trace their modern roots back to the 1960s
when Jamaican DJs experimented with a form of music called dub.
Etymologically, "dub" emerged from the old French word adober,
which meant "arrange or repair." John Ayto, Arcade Dictionary
of Word Origins 187 (Little, Brown Co. 1990). These DJs mixed reggae albums
with other albums into single works. Often, they would rap over the records,
scatting improvised lyrics. These early techniques made their way to American
shores in the early 70s. With the help of Jamaican-born DJ Kool Herc,
who relocated to the Bronx, dub, the optimistic precursor to hip-hop,
single-handedly created modern-day DJing and sampling technique. Keep
in mind, early DJs did not have the technological luxury of samplers.
Rap
Invades, Pervades, and Changes American Culture
By the late 1970s, the stylings of Herc spread from the West Bronx all
over New York City. Like any art form, dub adapted to its environment.
Instead of reggae, disco and funk music, the popular urban music of the
day, were mixed together. New Yorkers were scatting their own brand of
rhyme and dub was soon called "rap". The popularity of rap spread like
wildfire because it appealed to numerous sensibilities of African-American
society.
By the mid-1980s, rap music was burgeoning and samplers were very inexpensive. An extensive search of periodical archives reveals that the media only caught on to sampling around 1986/1987. Billboard Magazine reported om 1986 that some New York stores were selling Casio SK-1 sampling micro-keyboards for just $98. See Steven Dupler, Digital Sampling Prices, BILLBOARD, August 2, 1986, at 74. Click here for excerpts from earlier articles on digital sampling. Today, rap and hip-hop culture is more popular than ever and continues to grow in popularity. At this writing, of the top fifteen best-selling albums of the week on the Billboard chart, all genres of music included, seven are rap records.
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Footnotes:
Quoting:
Musical "quotation" is the analog corollary to digital sampling.
A musical "quote" is the taking of a distinctive and recognizable
portion of another era's or composer's music and using it in a new context.
See Guy Garcia, Play It Again, Sampler; A Revolutionary Device Turns
Pop on its Ear by Enabling Musicians to Beg, Borrow and Steal Sounds From
All Over, TIME Magazine, June 3, 1991, at 69. "The arts have
a long tradition of allusion and quotation, often with resonant effects."
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Related Links :
Wikipedia: Rap History
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