Would you care for a free sample?

The late Ralph Waldo Emerson, an American poet and theorist wrote an essay that examined and explained much of the discourse surrounding “originality” that still has significant meaning and relevance today. His essay, entitled “Of Quotation and Originality” carried the central premise that people’s minds were too burdened with the weight of previous creative work, so much so that they only took elements from the past and reconfigured them to their own taste in the present day. He continued on to suggest that there is no such thing as pure originality, and that there is no thread of thought that hasn’t yet already been twisted.

Although these words were written nearly 135 years ago, their continuing relevance throughout society demonstrates the brilliance behind Emerson’s argument. Within the context of this blog as well, his words can help to cool down what is a tense and on-going debate within the world of music production. I am referring of course to the practice of sampling.

To sample within music production means to take an aspect of an existing song and re-use it in a new production. It can be as simple as using a drum kick, or it can be sampling an entire guitar rift. Perhaps one of the most widely recognised uses of sampling within popular music is within “ice ice baby” by American Rapper Vanilla Ice. This songs famous bassline was sampled from the song “Under Pressure” by David Bowie and Queen.



The above scenario where the bassline was sampled by Vanilla Ice created controversy surrounding copyright issues over the ownership of material. In this instance however Vanilla Ice was able to get away without issue by placing a note in album notes for his record as well as making minor alterations to the bassline itself.

Beyond this example however, the controversy surrounding the issue of sampling is a debate forever raging in the hearts and minds of producers everywhere. Without recent times, one of the most prominent examples of sampling has been by Daft Punk, arguably the Beatles of the electronic dance music world, it wasn’t until a writer from a blog known as ‘Palms out Sunday’ took the time to read the insert on the album cover from their 2001 album Discovery.



Within the realms of modern popular culture, these findings sparked vigorous debate surrounding whether or not the heavy use of sampling across almost an entire album makes a group any less credible in terms of their artistic merit. As far as the essay by Emerson is concerned, all aspects of creativity are a combination of elements of the past reconfigured to suit their own taste in the present day. My personal opinion on the matter is that the process of finding and collecting samples, coupled with the process of making them popular and sound new and exciting again is requires way more talent than most people will ever have, and thus their artistic integrity should not be questioned. It must also be mentioned however that there is a difference between sampling and remixing. Remixing is the process of taking all of the samples from an original production and recreating these in a new production, whilst often adding new aspects, in order to create a new take on a production that already exists. Remixing is often done on commission, by producers who have been payed in order to add their own personal touch to a production. This can often help spark mass appeal across a multitude of genres if the remix is able to fit well across the musical spectrum. Sampling on the other hand often happens in an attempt to remix much older and classic tracks of which the original separate production recordings are not usually available. In this sense, beyond the ethical issues surrounding the use of sampling in creating productions, there are also sometimes legal issues surrounding copyrights.

To help combat this, in 2009 the Australian Record Industry Association (ARIA) has introduced an ARIA Reproduction Licence for format shifting by disc jockeys. This new license is based around the Copyright Act which was amended in 2006 in order to help keep up with the digital age of music in which we now live in (information available from ). By obtaining a license, you can legally shift and store files and CDs electronically which is the necessary attribute for attempting to begin the sampling production process, however in order to obtain a license to reproduce music you require another license from the Australian Performing Right Association.

Within the genre of Nu Disco, sampling is also an inherent characteristic of the style. As previously shown, artists will often sample aspects of songs from both the 70s and 80s disco era, re-creating them in a manor more befitting of the 21st century. This facet is indeed at the very heart and soul of the new genre.
A good example of this is the song “Best Party Ever” produced by a Sydney artist known as Toecutter. This original song has been in rotation for over 12 months but has only recently gained recognition within recent months following a slew of remixes by fellow brethren of the Australian Electro scene. The original song features an absolute multitude of samples, the main one being “Tonight” by Kool & the Gang. Kool & the Gang were Disco heavyweights, present throughout the course of the disco movement from the early 1970s right through until the mid 80s. Here is a video showing the original production by Kool & the Gang.


Here is what the artist Toecutter drew from his inspiration.