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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Sampling has the power to bridge gaps between seemingly widely different musical styles. You can take something lame, sample it, place it in a new context and make it hot. Busta Rhymes’ classic “Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Can See” is a prime example. The devastating beat, produced by Shamello and first-timer Buddha, is [...]
Filed in Music, Sampling
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Also tagged alfred hitchcock, bernard herrmann, busta rhymes, digging the crates, dissonance, galt mcdermot, harmony, hip-hop, seals & croft, sugarhill gang
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Thursday, October 14, 2010
Mad Men’s obsessive devotion to period accuracy has one conspicuous exception: its hip-hop theme song by RJD2. The track plays under one of television’s all-time great opening title sequences, which I can’t embed because AMC doesn’t understand how internet marketing works. Click this collage I made to watch on YouTube. The theme song is an [...]
Filed in Music, Sampling
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Also tagged aceyalone, cannonball adderley, digging the crates, enoch light, hip-hop, jazz, mad men, miles davis, rjd2, theme songs
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Thursday, September 30, 2010
In 1987 I remember having my ears grabbed by this thing on the radio called “Pump Up The Volume” by MARRS. Now that mashups are so common, this track doesn’t sound particularly remarkable. But in seventh grade it was startling to hear a house music track full of random samples. “Pump Up The Volume” was [...]
Filed in Key Musicians, Music, Sampling
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Also tagged authenticity, bobby byrd, digging the crates, dj hero, eagles, eighties, eric b & rakim, flow, fugees, hip-hop, james brown, jimi hendrix, marrs, mashups, nas, recursion, revival revival, sample maps, stetsasonic, turntablism
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Saturday, September 18, 2010
Music blogs, magazines and cable channels like to run lists of the best albums of all time. Certain albums get listed again and again: Sgt Pepper, Pet Sounds, Highway 61 Revisited. If you were to compile the best albums as measured by how often they get sampled by hip-hop producers, the list would look very [...]
Filed in Music, Sampling
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Also tagged big daddy kane, blondie, de la soul, digging the crates, epmd, eric b & rakim, fu-schnickens, funk, hammond organ, ice cube, janelle monae, krs-one, mary j blige, memes, mohawks, onyx, soul, uk, wu-tang
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Saturday, September 11, 2010
Missy Elliot is one of the most futuristic electronic adventurers out there, especially in her collaborations with Timbaland. Yet her stuff is as hot and soulful as music gets. How does she do it?
Filed in Key Musicians, Music, Sampling, Software
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Also tagged blondie, breakdancing, digging the crates, eighties, hip-hop, missy elliot, pro tools, run-dmc, timbaland
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Thursday, September 2, 2010
Two things happened this week in my life as a Michael Jackson fan. First, Spike Lee threw an awesome birthday party for MJ in Prospect Park for the second year in a row. I hope he does it every year. Snoop came and did a set, and so did Warren G. I had a lot [...]
Filed in Key Musicians, Music, Sampling
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Also tagged aphex twin, brooklyn, fan art, fans, fela kuti, glen velez, mashups, michael jackson, molly hein, remixes, snoop dogg, spike lee
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I’m continuing my tour through hip-hop’s most classic breakbeats with “Ashley’s Roachclip” by the Soul Searchers. The drum break at 3:30 is one of those hip-hop workhorses, like “Impeach The President” and “The Funky Drummer” and “Apache.” It seems like it’s always been there. The Soul Searchers were led by guitarist Chuck Brown, known in [...]
Filed in Copyright and Authorship, Dance, Music, Sampling
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Also tagged breakbeats, chuck brown, digging the crates, emf, eric b & rakim, funk, go-go, hip-hop, milli vanilli, nelly, nice & smooth, pm dawn, soul searchers, spandau ballet
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