Music Sampling: Concept and History Research Paper

Introduction

Music sampling in the contemporary society involves digitalization of music bits of different genres in a single context. When a producer comes up with a bit, the musician tries to see if the lyrics correlate with the formulated bits. A music producer has the ability to control the pitch and the sounds in various ways. Sampling mostly occurs when producers reconstruct music from contemporary dance-oriented music and the traditional beat-oriented pieces. When sampling music, there is a need to record the bits to make it easy for connection with a different genre of music. The main intention is to create an acoustic mix from a re-contextualized structure chosen by a producer.

While the producer uses a sound track to establish the best music genres to combine, the sampler, which is the machine records, keeps, controls, and rewinds music.¹ Though audio systems exist, computerized techniques are the latest techniques of music sampling in the 21^st century. Many artists have a history with music sampling with the Beattles recording sampled music in the 1960s. It was until the 1980s when rap artists explored music sampling completely. This paper intends to explain the history of sampling, its current application, and its future in the world of music.

History of Sampling

In the late 18^th century until the beginning of the 19^th century, rap artists began sampling. By the beginning of the 20^th century, almost all music producers incorporated the art enabling them to blend different genres of music. As this happened, the copyright association of America became very strict about sampling because it became a huge source of music piracy. According to the producers of the sampled music, the outcome of their work had a significant difference even though the violated parties had financial interests that influenced their decisions to file lawsuits.² Sampling continued to become an art through which a section of the public could express themselves musically. John Oswald among different artists had to part with money in order to settle court bonds over issues of music sampling in the 19990s.

Sampling also promoted the originality of artists by providing room for individual expression through re-contextualization of modern hip-hop and traditional folk songs.³ Through digitalization, prominent musicians including Charles Ives were able to share classical music on audio systems. He was capable of manipulating the beats to sound contemporary. Through the years, the audiences of music keep transforming with people requiring complex compositions. This explains a blend of traditions and contemporary beats during sampling. This explains the role of technology in changing music sampling radically since its inception.

Changes in production brought about by sampling

Sound restructure

Sampling brought about many changes in music production including the ability to restructure beats. For instance, producers use samplers to extract pieces of lyrics from songs and combine them with beats initially not known to work for the song. This normally happens to major hits across different countries enabling people to listen to a mix of diverse genres. Ives restricted music by creating waves, recording the right frequencies and determining which classical music would best suit the sampled wavelength. During this period, the producers experience noises such as the ones used for whale music.

In the 1990s, most people completely used the lyrics for whale sounds, but in the contemporary world, there is an ardent need to incorporate nature and composed music.⁴ This explains why sampled music uses different structures depending on the targeted beats that the music would use in the end. Restructuring mostly depends on the occasion, the message of the music, and the type of audience. Restructuring occurs before and amidst music production because it influenced the entire composition. This explains the minimal cases of music piracy recorded in the 1990s that resulted in violation of copyright laws. In essence, technology improves the restructuring process making it almost impossible for complainants to make a correlation between the sampled music and the original song.

Deconstruction of music and creation meaning across cultures

Composition of music is not the only thing that a producer and a musician should achieve especially during sampling. A song has to generate meaning by providing room for deconstruction. Through digitalization, it is possible for samplers and producers to present music from different cultures while enabling people to understand the message they put across. Digitalization is a tool of deconstruction because people from different cultures can raid the content of music while the song plays.

The target population can also understand the sampled music through digitalized translation. In the 1990s, there were concerns about listening to Nepal music because of the difficulty to understand the Asian language. Through sampling, the producers were able to create English music based on the Nepalese beats. Sampling is about cultural blending in a unique manner that creates understanding and unity amongst listeners. In adopting the same, many music producers are able to blend West African music with western music to create a unique and acoustic touch to the art. Since then, producers are able to revive 1974 music commonly characterized by jazz, rock, rhythms and blues, soul, and funk amongst others. This creates a connection between the past and the present enabling people to share the unique culture of the past worlds.

Efficiency and cost-effectiveness

Another radical transition in music production is the introduction of digital audio workstations for contemporary music. This created a link between drum machines and samplers. Digital audio workstations are capable of multitasking and this promotes their efficiency and ability to save resources. They produce electronic sounds composed by different disk jockeys and music producers. This enables the involved parties to generate income from such activities because the producers create unique and original sounds that competitors within the same market lack. Sounds fitted into the electronic devices come from interaction with the natural environment and communication.

Computerized systems are cost-effective because they increase production within a short period.⁵ With such speeds, there is need to increase the cost of sampling because the demand for quick services is high. In addition, the producer does not have to spend a lot of time on drums in order to generate sounds while he or she can achieve the same through electronic means. Experts mention that digital devices have a similar effect as electronic publishing, which ensures high rates of production within a limited period. Digitalized services remain to be the greatest transition in music sampling made by various companies in the 20^th century. Through improvement following the introduction of cloud connectivity, which supports both Android and iOS applications, the music sampling process is equally changing.

Sound generation

Current music sampling techniques led to the emergence of digital sound tracks that can be of assistance in different areas. There are sounds that are difficult to create because they need serene and overly expensive environments to capture. To solving this situation, a sampler provides different pitches while the producer manipulates voices to come up with the ideal sound. In essence, a musician does not have to be in the studio for sampling to occur. This gave rise to karaoke since many people took interest in sound generation and creation of unique voices even from imitated music pieces. This rapid change equally recognized the significance of digitalizing analog sounds. It involves setting up a digital system and an analog hardware and connecting the input and output devices to enable conversion of sounds easily.

In essence, through digitalization, sampling became easy and manageable enabling many people to take interest in the art. It expanded the regions covered by the subject not limiting it entirely to rap music. The music producers manipulate sounds by using various elements of the sampler including the mixer, the amplifier, the editing software, and the rewinding buttons. It takes the expert successive periods of listening to the song to determine the perfect pitch to use for the song. In the 21^st century, it is undoubtedly correct that audiences concentrate more on quality as opposed to pricing. This explains why sampling keeps improving in order to provide a perfect result for the target population.

Job creation and diversity appreciation

Initially, most people used music purely for entertainment purposes while ignoring its significance as an element of job creation. Following the emergence of sampling in the 1980s it became obvious that music could achieve different effects to the target population and it would provide financial returns to the production team. With knowledge of various computer languages and software such as LINUX, Windows, MYSQL, and Mac among others, music producers can sample flexibly without any duress. Creativity enables a section of producers in the society to receive accolade for their good work and this increases the number of clients that seek their services.

When this happens, the music producers that carry out some of the best sampling practices are likely to be some of the richest in the music industry. Music became a source of income when people from diverse socio-cultural backgrounds began to appreciate the diversity. This enabled people to share different things across cultures and to develop a global sampling culture. Producers share ideas across the internet and social media. The internet is also a source of learning new things because globalization provides room for learning new things in music. Through innovation diffusion and high speeds internet brought about by cloud connectivity, there are high chances that producers share their sampling techniques across international borders.

Difference between sampling and traditional production techniques

Sampling is a result of creativity, which composes beats from an initially developed musical piece. It takes a long time and thought processes to come up with a song that a group of the society would use for sampling purposes.⁶ Occasionally, the music producers take a section of an original; composition and fuse it to a formulated beat before recording. The outcome is completely different from the originally formed music even though it has a quality sound. This mostly happens to traditional music that undergoes digitalization. As opposed to traditional production techniques, sampling recognizes that fusion of different cultures creates unique betas.

Sampling is equally simple after a producer learns different computer packages that have the ability to generate requisite sounds. Another difference is in the use of instruments. In traditional music production practices, most producers used drums, guitars, and pianos. Some of these instruments underwent digitalization enabling them to perform the functions of electroacoustic devices. As opposed to traditional techniques of music production, sampling enables producers to develop many genres of music to accommodate the growing needs of the target population. Besides indie rock, classical music, jazz, and conventional music, producers have the ability to generate music genres from blending such musical pieces. Through computer programs, sampling music producers are able to generate music that suits the target audience enabling them to participate in music production. This contradicts traditional approaches to music production in which the music composer and the producer are the only people involved in the process.

Ethical issues

Sampling is unethical because this method of production in the contemporary world enables music producers to take a part of another artists work in order to promote his or her sampled music. From an ethical point of view, this refers to theft of intellectual property. Ethics are inherent to humanity and some people have to learn ethical values in order to exercise the same. A producer has the duty to judge whether the action of sampling is ethical or not.

The producer will generate a completely different beat, which fails to recognize the original producer of the first beat while giving credit to the sampling producer. This leads to inequality in appreciation because people are likely to enjoy remixed music or others that tend to borrow from traditional contexts. When mixing tradition and contemporary music, the producers come up with a unique acoustic sound that makes it difficult for audiences to listen to the original song. Ethics often support non-discrimination and equal payment of different players within professional fields.

In the 21^st century, music is a professional field that has codes of ethics to govern the characters of different artists. From a moral perspective, it is wrong to take the original work of another person and to use it without giving credit to the composer of the first piece. In summary, ethics deal with issues that the society considers inhumane while stipulating the moral principles that a society should follow.

Legal implications

Ethics might only apply to a section of the society that follows moral principles preset within the target environment. However, legal factors bound the entire society providing them with an opportunity to defend themselves from criminals.⁷

The copyright society of America is very categorical when dealing with the music industry because there are many cases of piracy in the industry. When people copy materials from a music composer and use the same to make their own music, they claim that this is creativity even though they do not attribute the source of the selected piece. Collecting samples from different musicians leads to the violation of copyright laws and this might lead to the conviction of the offenders. As this happens, most music producers lose ideas about sampling because it is very difficult to create new music samples daily. Creativity is principal in music sampling even though the legal authorities are equally cautious about tax evasion in the industry.⁸

When creating music, few producers treat this as other carriers because they deal in the manufacture of services. Most producers establish studios in the basement of their homes in order to evade taxation related to setting up a store. Traditionally, legal authorities apprehended people who sold music labels that had such issues. In the 1970s, Philip Branson had issues with the authorities for selling pirated music labels. This forced the family to remortgage their house in order to settle the legal problem. Besides bonds, people face jail terms, reputation damage, and lawsuits when faced with such problems.

Public perception and political issues

Music experts mention that traditional music is rich and it leaves a person with some level of curiosity about its composition. This explains why many people refer to the music as an orchestration of life. Political issues arise when people believe that conventional music should remain very significant to the society while others feel that electroacoustic instruments should replace the traditional instruments. Such political sentiments create a drift between traditional music composers and contemporary music samplers. Sampling also creates a political debate about the origins of various music pieces including jazz and hip-hop. According to the society, the two music pieces emerged from Africa during the Atlantic world. Political issues arising from sampling make the problem both legally and musically incorrect.

Such political critics question the roles played by rappers and producers who use songs from their predecessors to get publicity.⁹ However, making a sampled song likeable to a target population is equally very difficult. When people appreciate the outcome, there is no need for political crucifixion when the emergent beats appeal to the targeted population. Music sampling is an equal employer like traditional music and it is important to appreciate the efforts of various sampling DJs who make a living from the art. Today, people use the spoken word, rock, and other elements of traditional music to create a blend in the society. While this happens, there is an ardent need to separate the past from the present, but the society might not succeed in achieving the same.

Artistic Issues

Clearly, the digitalization of music together with the internet and new technologies has finally opened a new chapter in the music industry. The adoption of an archetypical utilitarian structure, enhanced with theoretical artistic components suggests that new technological practices affect greatly how music is made in the modern-day societies. The internet essentially has changed the way people behave across the board in several ways. As digital sampling gained more and more acclaim over time, this new method of disseminating musical content raised some horny and thorny artistic concerns, most of which are centered on the aspects of copyright act and patent rights.

The digitalization of music especially in the concept of the new technologies such as the internet and Bluetooth has exceedingly opened a new chapter in the music industry. The adoption of an archetypical utilitarian structure, enhanced with theoretical artistic components suggests that new technological practices affect greatly how music is sampled today. The internet essentially has changed the way musical consumers experience and adopt musical products.

Conclusion

In summary, music sampling like other elements that promote culture within the society is very important for musicians. It creates a bridge between conventional music and contemporary music while enabling cultural integration. Sampling also promotes job creation and talent promotion. Within the field of management, talent is very important because such levels of creativity help organizations in gaining a competitive advantage over rivals. This explains the use of sampling in dealing with traditional music production. Finally, sampling producers also have to deal with legal and ethical implications within the environment of music production in order to protect their reputation.

Bibliography

Burns, Charlene. “Our Gods are Monsters: Popular cultural representations of the evolution of religion.” Interdisciplinary Monsters. 2014. Web.

Motley, Carol, and Rosa Henderson. “The global hip-hop diaspora: Understanding the culture.” Journal of Business Research 61, no. 14 (2008): 243-253. Web.

Patokos, Tassos. “A new era for the music industry: How new technologies and the internet affect the way music is valued and have an impact on output quality.” Panoeconomicus 2, no. 3 (2008): 233-248. Web.

Persson, Sarata. “Technology, society, industry, and music production: The changing roles of the record producer and the recording engineer since 1970s.” Technology and Music. Web.

Footnotes

1. Carol Motley and Rosa Henderson, “The global hip-hop diaspora: Understanding the culture,” Journal of Business Research 61, no. 14 (2008): 243-253. Web.
2. Sarata Persson, “Technology, society, industry, and music production: The changing roles of the record producer and the recording engineer since 1970s,” Technology and Music. Web.
3. Charlene Burns, “Our Gods are Monsters: Popular cultural representations of the evolution of religion,” Interdisciplinary Monsters. Web.
4. Charlene Burns, “Our Gods are Monsters: Popular cultural representations of the evolution of religion,” Interdisciplinary Monsters. Web.
5. Charlene Burns, “Our Gods are Monsters: Popular cultural representations of the evolution of religion,” Interdisciplinary Monsters. Web.
6. Carol Motley and Rosa Henderson, “The global hip-hop diaspora: Understanding the culture,” Journal of Business Research 61, no. 14 (2008): 243-253. Web.
7. Charlene Burns, “Our Gods are Monsters: Popular cultural representations of the evolution of religion,” Interdisciplinary Monsters. Web.
8. Tassos Patokos, “A new era for the music industry: How new technologies and the internet affect the way music is valued and have an impact on output quality,” Panoeconomicus 2, no. 3 (2008): 233-248. Web.
9. Tassos Patokos, “A new era for the music industry: How new technologies and the internet affect the way music is valued and have an impact on output quality,” Panoeconomicus 2, no. 3 (2008): 233-248. Web.