Why does folk music collector Alan Lomax have a copyright interest in “Takeover” by Jay-Z? I learned the answer from Creative License: The Law And Culture Of Digital Sampling by Kembrew McLeod and Peter DiCola. It’s a companion book to the invaluable documentary Copyright Criminals. The story of Jay-Z and Alan Lomax isn’t quite as [...]
Filed in Composition, Copyright and Authorship, Music, Music Business, Politics, Recording, Sampling
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Also tagged alan lomax, blues, chain gangs, copyright, digging the crates, folk, funk, grand funk railroad, hip-hop, jay-z, krs-one, rock, the animals
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The defining musical experience of my lifetime is hearing familiar samples in unfamiliar contexts. For me, the experience is usually a thrill. For a lot of people, the experience makes them angry. Using recognizable samples necessarily means having an emotional conversation with everyone who already has an attachment to the original recording. Music is about [...]
Filed in Emotion, Evolution, Music, Sampling
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Also tagged beatles, beyonce, chi-lites, elvin jones, Evolution, grateful dead, jay-z, john coltrane, manu dibango, mashups, memes, michael jackson, monkeysphere, pop, radiohead, remixes, sample maps, sarah mclachlan, soul makossa, susan blackmore, tribe, zap mama
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My friend Leo has a new jazz quartet. At their debut performance a couple of weeks ago, they ended the show with a mashup of “Solar” by Miles Davis and “Freedom Jazz Dance” by Eddie Harris. “Freedom Jazz Dance” is a favorite of mine, and a lot of my fellow jazz nerds agree. People love [...]
Filed in Key Musicians, Music, Sampling
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Also tagged digging the crates, ed og, eddie harris, fu-schnickens, funk, hip-hop, jazz, mashups, miles davis, nas
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The other night Anna and I went to see Beats, Rhymes And Life: The Travels Of A Tribe Called Quest.
Filed in Key Musicians, Music, Sampling
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Also tagged a tribe called quest, cassettes, digging the crates, documentaries, fugees, hip-hop, jazz, lil wayne, masculinity, minnie riperton, movies, nineties, q-tip
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Saturday, February 26, 2011
This week I’ve been all about Kanye West’s “Lost In The World,” the most gripping track on My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Kanye is one of the few commercial producers with a high enough profile to be able to license whatever samples he wants, so he carries the banner of memetastic collage-based music in the [...]
Filed in Composition, Music, Sampling
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Also tagged autotune, bon iver, chipmunking, gil scott-heron, james brown, jamie foxx, kanye west, lyn collins, manu dibango, michael jackson, singing
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Saturday, February 12, 2011
I’ve read that Quincy Jones carries around copies of Miles Davis’ Kind Of Blue in his briefcase, and that he hands them out to kids whenever he meets them. Q-Tip compares Kind Of Blue to the Bible — you’re just expected to have a copy around the house. If you’ve never heard jazz before, Kind [...]
Filed in Composition, Improvisation, Key Musicians, Music, Music Theory, Sampling
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Also tagged ahmad jamal, classical, debussy, erykah badu, gil evans, james brown, jazz, john coltrane, mashups, mccoy tyner, memes, miles davis, morton gould, Music Theory, public enemy, the heavy
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Wednesday, February 2, 2011
My quest to track down the origin of the most persistent recurring hip-hop memes brings me to this chant: The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire We don’t need no water, let the motherf***er burn The chant made its first appearance in the hip-hop canon in “The Roof Is On Fire” by Rock [...]
Filed in Music, Sampling
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Also tagged 50 cent, bizzy bone, bloodhound gang, digging the crates, eighties, funk, hip-hop, mandrill, mc serch, memes, missy elliot, p-funk, Politics, rock master scott, talking heads
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Friday, December 17, 2010
I’ve always been more of a Beatles guy than a Stones guy, but respect where respect is due, “Gimme Shelter” is a classic. It’s on my mind because Dangerous Minds posted the isolated tracks, and they’re a lot of fun. It’s fascinating to hear the separated vocals, guitars, bass and drums. The Youtube videos containing [...]
Filed in Music, Recording, Video Games
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Also tagged audio editing, guitar, keith richards, merry clayton, michael jackson, Recording, remixes, rhythm, rock, rolling stones, singing, sixties, tuning
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Sunday, November 28, 2010
We conventionally place a high value on originality in music. But it’s been my experience that the desire for originality gets in the way of making music that’s actually good. The closer you are to your influences, the more definite and truthful your work is. The key to quality music is to blend together an [...]
Filed in Composition, Copyright and Authorship, Evolution, Music, Music Business, Politics, Recording, Sampling
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Also tagged academia, beach boys, beatles, biology, biz markie, chuck berry, copyright, creative commons, Evolution, hall and oates, led zeppelin, marcus boon, memes, michael jackson
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Hip-hop isn’t usually big on chord progressions, but “Empire State Of Mind” by Jay-Z and Alicia Keys has an awesome set of changes. Because Alicia Keys was involved, I thought she might have written the chord progression. But no, it’s built from samples of the intro to “Love On A Two-Way Street” by The Moments.
Filed in Composition, Music, Sampling
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Also tagged alicia keys, chords, digging the crates, hip-hop, jay-z, lego, looping, Music Theory, nyc, songwriting, the moments
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