DJ Kool Herc describes “Apache” by The Incredible Bongo Band as the national anthem of hip-hop. “Apache” includes a famous drum and percussion break that has reliably put bodies on the dance floor through hip-hop’s prehistory:
Filed in Copyright and Authorship, Music, Sampling
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Also tagged apache, breakdancing, dance, digging the crates, dna, double dee and steinski, drum n bass, drumming, Evolution, funk, goldie, grandmaster flash, hip-hop, history, kool herc, mashups, memes, missy elliot, nas, pop, questlove, roots, Sampling, seventies
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Sample-based music isn’t stealing. It’s valuable and important. It shows the way toward a future for recorded music that’s more in continuity with music’s past. Recordings are cool and everything, but they encourage passivity. If I buy a recording, I can listen to it or dance to it, both fine activities, but what if I [...]
Filed in Copyright and Authorship, Music, Politics, Sampling, Software
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Also tagged amazing grace, blues, folk, google, Improvisation, Internet, jazz, kanye west, learning, memes, Music, Music Theory, opensource, remixes, Sampling, transcribing
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Saturday, November 28, 2009
If you’re in a band, chances are you feel like you’re supposed to be writing your own material. If you write your own songs, you can make more money from the publishing rights in addition to your album sales (should you, improbably, be selling albums.) Writing your own stuff isn’t just a financial consideration. The [...]
Filed in Autobio, Composition, Improvisation, Key Musicians, Music, Sampling
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Also tagged arrangement, big band, chet baker, count basie, duke ellington, frank sinatra, harmony, Improvisation, jay-z, jazz, john coltrane, lego, looping, memes, miles davis, modules, Music, Music Theory, my favorite things, originality, reharmonization, remixes, Sampling, swing, symmetry, the sound of music
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Monday, November 23, 2009
One of the biggest copyright failures of copyright law ever is the The Verve’s song “Bitter Sweet Symphony.” The distinctive string sample comes from an orchestral arrangement of “The Last Time” by The Rolling Stones. Doesn’t sound much like the Verve, does it? Here’s the Andrew Oldham Orchestra‘s version, the sample will jump right out [...]
Filed in Autobio, Composition, Copyright and Authorship, Music, Music Business, Sampling
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Also tagged allen klein, andrew oldham, bitter sweet symphony, digging the crates, fail, hip-hop, james brown, law, originality, pop, remixes, revival revival, richard ashcroft, rock, rolling stones, Sampling, staples singers, the verve, uk
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Friday, September 18, 2009
My favorite Michael Jackson song is “Wanna Be Startin’ Something.” This post is part of what’s turning into a series on it. The previous post is about the song as fan art, and some of the fan art that it’s inspired, from bootleg Youtube videos to licensed remixes. This one is about who owns the [...]
Filed in Composition, Copyright and Authorship, Music, Music Business, Sampling
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Also tagged bmg, bruce swedian, manu dibango, memes, michael jackson, ownership, quincy jones, Recording, remixes, rights, rihanna, Sampling, sony, soul makossa, thriller
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Biz Markie. Who doesn’t love him? Our broken intellectual property system, that’s who.
Filed in Composition, Copyright and Authorship, Key Musicians, Music, Music Business, Sampling
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Also tagged biz markie, criminal justice, digging the crates, fail, gilbert o'sullivan, hip-hop, looping, memes, Music, remixes, Sampling
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“Peter Piper” is the leadoff track on Raising Hell, the third album by Run-DMC. It was their big commercial and critical breakthrough. My stepbrother Dan had it on cassette and it pretty much defined the sound of my sixth and seventh grade experience.
Filed in Key Musicians, Music, Sampling
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Also tagged bob james, digging the crates, eighties, hip-hop, jazz, looping, memes, Music, nursery rhymes, paul simon, run-dmc, Sampling, turntablism
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The title is a lyric by Kanye West on Common’s track “They Say.” A hundred percent of my musical energy right now is coming from and going into sample-based music. To wit: Records I Can’t Sample Me vs Michael Jackson vs Herbie Hancock vs Missy Elliot vs Kanye West vs Fab Five Freddy mp3 download, [...]
Filed in Composition, Copyright and Authorship, Music, Sampling
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Also tagged common, electronica, Evolution, hip-hop, homebrewing, jonathan lethem, kanye west, mashups, memes, Music, originality, property, remixes, Sampling
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I’ve been making sample maps, diagrams showing what songs include samples of what other songs. I’m a big sample geek. I like knowing where my music comes from the same way I like knowing where my food comes from. This map shows many, probably not nearly all, of the songs that sample Michael Jackson’s solo [...]
Filed in Autobio, Copyright and Authorship, Internet, Key Musicians, Music, Race and Identity, Sampling, Social Media
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Also tagged anthro, blogs, digg, digging the crates, flickr, hip-hop, Internet, jackson 5, memes, michael jackson, Music, Politics, pop, race, remixes, sample maps, Sampling, Social Media, soul makossa, twitter
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“The Funky Drummer Parts One And Two” by James Brown and the JBs is one of the most-sampled recordings in history. “The Funky Drummer” is a cornerstone of hip-hop and other sample-based electronic music, but for the first decade after its release it was an obscure tune. It’s a nice groove, but as a song, [...]
Filed in Composition, Copyright and Authorship, Evolution, Improvisation, Key Musicians, Music, Sampling
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Also tagged algorithms, audio editing, black thought, digging the crates, eminem, freestyle, funk, funky drummer, godel, hip-hop, james brown, looping, memes, mos def, Music, programming, recursion, remixes, rnb, Sampling, soul, susan blackmore
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