Have you ever struggled to tell the difference between Vanilla Ice’s Ice Ice Baby and Queen’s Under Pressure? Or found yourself watching Barbie in theaters while listening to Ice Spice and Nicki Minaj rap their song Barbie World and being transported back to the family computer room watching the video for Barbie Girl by Aqua? These interesting experiences can be created due to a process called “sampling.”
With 2023 being the 50th anniversary of Hip-Hop, it is important to recognize that sampling got its origins in the early scenes of the genre where it was born through DJs spinning two records at once and incorporating the two different tracks together. The history of Hip-Hop is a rich combination of many other musical genres, but sampling has been a foundation for the genre since the beginning. Now, sampling has carved its way through the music scene and shows up in every genre.
So, why did sampling cause such a large discourse in the music industry? For many artist and listeners alike, it comes down to how much of the original source is sampled or how much the new artist incorporates their own spin (no pun intended) on the music, so artists have to walk the line between taking inspiration and possibly being seen as a music thief.
The process of sampling has opened up different legal and ethical questions about crediting original artist.
Copyright laws protect works of art, like music, which makes it harder for artists to use the work of others. These protections, however, have an expiration date on them. Anything published in the United States before 1924 is considered public domain. Works published between 1924 and 1978 are protected for 95 years after the date of publication. Anything published after 1978 is protected for the life of the creator plus 70 years.
Some of music’s biggest names get caught up in the legal issues surrounding sampling. For example, Beyoncé has been sued for sampling Messy Mya, a rapper and comedian, in her 2016 song Formation. Beyoncé also faced accusations of theft by Kelis for sampling her 2003 hit Milkshake in Energy, a song from Beyoncé’s most recent studio album Renaissance.
On the ethical side of this situation, questions have appeared about if it is right to use others’ art. When does sampling cross the line from an artist being inspired to an artist stealing from others? Is it a signature on a dotted line authorizing an agreement?
What does sampling mean for the future of music? With remixes, covers and sampling becoming more common through songs like Higher Love by Kygo & Whitney Houston, which samples both Higher Love by Whitney Houston and What’s Love Got to Do with It by Tina Turner, and Fast Car by Luke Combs, a cover of the 1988 original sang by Tracy Chapman, questioning the impact it will make on music is a logical concern.
Music goes through waves of trends that are especially sped up now due to internet trends through apps like TikTok that hold influence over the industry. Sampling seems to be holding its place in the industry through time even with these increased trend waves. It is possible to see a new wave of creativity and experimentation that was seen in the music scene in the 1950s with the popularization of rock and roll, but it is also possible that sampling becomes even more popular. For now, it seems like people will have get used to embarrassing situations like accidentally singing “Yo VIP, let’s kick it” as Freddie Mercury vocalizes in the background.
