This short Journal was really interesting with its ideas on sampling culture. The first line caught my attention. Anyway here are some quotes and reflections.
In 1956, John Cage predicted that “in the future, records will be made from records” (Duffel, 202).
John Cage really is a pioneer in his way of thinking, to understand or possibly consider that this would become an actuality is interesting. I wonder what was his ideas behind this and how he pictured this happening.
Similarly, Nirvana adapted the opening riff from Killing Jokes’ “Eighties” for their song “Come as You Are”. Musical “quotation” is actively encouraged in jazz, and contemporary hip-hop would not exist if the genre’s pioneers and progenitors had not plundered and adapted existing recorded music. Sampling technologies, however, have taken musical adaptation a step further and realised Cage’s prediction. Hardware and software samplers have developed to the stage where any piece of audio can be appropriated and adapted to suit the creative impulses of the sampling musician (or samplist). The practice of sampling challenges established notions of creativity, with whole albums created with no original musical input as most would understand it—literally “records made from records.”
I read this in another journal that Milo sent me, that in jazz quotation is actively encouraged and the same thing with jazz standards, pushing for the performance to be your own version. Again further pushes the idea of what cage predicted, records made from records.
Sampling is frequently defined as “the process of converting an analog signal to a digital format.” While this definition remains true, it does not acknowledge the prevalence of digital media. The “analogue to digital” method of sampling requires a microphone or instrument to be recorded directly into a sampler. Digital media, however, simplifies the process. For example, a samplist can download a video from YouTube and rip the audio track for editing, slicing, and manipulation, all using software within the noiseless digital environment of the computer.
I agree that the modern idea of sampling is from online or Youtube. Half of my major project was sampled from online sources and online crate digging as well as physical crate digging.
The extent of the sampling may range from subtle influence to dominating significance within the new work, but the constant principle remains: an existing work is appropriated and adapted to fit the needs of the secondary creator.
I never considered this to be true but I can agree, it’s always to the needs of the secondary creator. To the person who is sampling, often it does not matter what the first creator did or how they used the audio. Once sampled the secondary creator can do a lot.
Dangermouse’s approach is symptomatic of what Schütze refers to as remix culture:
an open challenge to a culture predicated on exclusive ownership, authorship, and controlled distribution … . Against ownership it upholds an ethic of creative borrowing and sharing. Against the original it holds out an open process of recombination and creative transformation. It equally calls into question the categories, rifts and borders between high and low cultures, pop and elitist art practices, as well as blurring lines between artistic disciplines.
Schütze and his ideas are interesting towards my portfolio project 1. it’s interesting to consider the ideas between artists and disciplines. Ownership authorship and controller distribution.
The “Amen break” is so ubiquitous that, much like the twelve bar blues structure, it has become a foundational element of an entire genre and has been adapted to satisfy a plethora of creative impulses. The sheer prevalence of the “Amen break” simultaneously illustrates the creative nature of music adaptation as well as the potentials for adaptation stemming from digital technology such as the sampler. The cut-up and rearrangement aspect of creative sampling technology at once suggests the original but also something new and different. Sampling in general, and the phenomenon of the “Amen break” in particular, ensures the longevity of the original sources; sampled-based music exhibits characteristics acquired from the source materials, yet the illegitimate offspring are not their parents.
Music adaptation and the success of the amen break showcase the ability of sound to form a whole genre and adapt to other means. It suggests the original and offers something new and different. It brings longevity to the original records and sources.
Individuals such as DJ Dangermouse, Gregg Gillis and Tom Compagnoni appropriate, reshape and re-present the surrounding soundscape to suit diverse creative urges, thereby adapting the passive medium of recorded sound into an active production tool.
I never considered the medium of recorded sound to be passive but it is true. Once sampled it becomes this active production tool that we can mould and sculpt. Really interesting points.