I welcome your comments on the following question: Why do hip hop artists and producers prefer to sample the actual performance of a song (which includes rights in the musical composition a/k/a underlying work and and the actual sound recording) rather than just re-create the sounds in studio? Your thoughts?
Monday, January 25, 2010
Soundtracks vs. Comebacks: Music Sampling Gets Scored
Interesting commentary about the reliance on and legal pitfalls of sampling in hip hop music.
2 comments:
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In my experience, the reasons why hip hop producers don't re-create their samples are twofold; (1) they can't play an instrument, and (2) they can't afford to pay studio musicians to re-create the sample.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was working in music publishing, it was almost a daily battle to convince our hip hop producer-clients to re-create samples. A constant of those conversations was that the producers grew up on Akai MPC's and Roland 808's, or Qbase and Reason. They had not been educated, either professionally or through hard knocks, scales, song structure, and theory. They knew what sounded good, so they just threw it onto their sequencer. Done and Done.
If one isn't skilled in the playing of an instrument, to re-create the 'vibe',they have to outsource. Outsourcing the actual playing of the song requires up-front payment, or a portion of the copyright. Many producers (especially hobbie-ists) don't have the cash to pay musicians, likely because they spent it all on their digital gear. Breaking up a portion of the copyright is highly speculative at best, and if you've used the copyright in the hands of a litigious publisher, you might not get any at all. You would still have the master rights, but that too is highly speculative.
Additionally, samples evoke the original song, and if that song is particularly memorable (like J.B.'s "Funky Drummer), the song might become hot by association.
Of course, my first two points don't really apply to A-list producers like Tim, T-Payne, The Dream, etc.
I agree. I also think it has to do with the audience's familiarity to the sound. If there's a hook to an old Earth, Wind and Fire song that piques someone's interest, that definitely garners attention. Also, one can have motive to expose new audiences to older, classic hooks (though I don't think this is a primary motive - Suzuki made two great points).
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