| Why should I spend eight days to get a snare drum sound like Phil Collins? He's done it for me. I can sample that in two seconds and get onto more important things. | | | | |  | Bob Marley circa 1980. He died 40 years ago today in Miami.
(Sigfrid Casals/Cover/Getty Images) | | | | | "Why should I spend eight days to get a snare drum sound like Phil Collins? He's done it for me. I can sample that in two seconds and get onto more important things." | | | | Beat Detective
Time, like a 12-inch record, is a flat circle. Here's a great historical document from Spin magazine in 1989 surveying the early days of legal sample clearances, when sampling law was still largely untested in court, when producers still had to explain what sampling was and why it mattered—sometimes arguing with their own peers—and when a band like DE LA SOUL could clear some samples on its debut album but not others, like that TURTLES loop that underscores nearly the entirety of an interlude called "TRANSMITTING LIVE FROM MARS." Turtles founders FLO & EDDIE, whose own song was a BYRDS cover, reached out to TOMMY BOY RECORDS after they heard he De La Soul song to ask WTF, the label offered them $1,000, and a landmark lawsuit followed (it would be settled out of court). Sampling was still enjoying a kind of Wild Wes existence, Spin's FRANK OWEN reported, but that was changing: "These days, it's common practice for record companies and their hip hop artists to gain prior permission for the use of major recognizable chunks of other people's songs."
If you're a lawyer or a producer *these* days, you might find yourself chuckling, or crying, over the words "major" and "recognizable" in that sentence. Spin reposted that 32-year-old story Monday, within minutes, coincidentally, of Lyrical Lemonade posting this story about New York drill producers who are throwing the intervening three decades worth of sampling law and protocol out the window and releasing tracks based on easily recognizable rock, soul and hip-hop samples, often via SOUNDCLOUD, as if lawyers had stopped listening. As if KILLERS and OUTKAST hooks were ripe for the picking. "Sometimes you gotta have that 'I don't even care' attitude and just put stuff out," CASH COBAIN tells writer SEAMUS FAY. "If you do that, it opens the door for other artists to do the same thing." Others are, in fact, doing the same thing. "Like 'EVERLONG' by the FOO FIGHTERS—everyone loves that song so we knew it would go crazy," rapper POLO PERKS says. New subgenre name: sample drill.
The philosophy has changed somewhat over the years and generations. STETSASONIC's DADDY-O told Frank Owen in 1989 he and his peers were "cultural memory banks," repurposing but also preserving classic music for younger generations who otherwise might never have heard it. The 2021 sample drillers say something similar, but they also say they're choosing samples specifically for their familiarity. If 1989's PRINCE PAUL and HANK SHOCKLEE wanted to expose hip-hop fans to music from elsewhere, 2021's Cash Cobain and EVILGIANE seem more interested in using samples to bring fans from elsewhere into hip-hop. What hasn't changed is the dizzying immediacy of the music itself, the craft behind it and the sonic possibilities. "An entire world of sound is opening up," Fay writes. It's hard to believe music's sheriffs won't ride into this town sooner or later. But it's easy to believe a lot of very good music is going to be produced before they do.
Dot Dot Dot
Nevermind the EGOT. Is J. COLE aiming for an EEGO—Emmy, Espy, Grammy and Oscar? And with an album out this Friday, a new documentary short on YouTube and, reportedly, a roster spot with the RWANDA PATRIOTS of the new Basketball Africa League, is he trying to accomplish almost all of it in a single year?... Good question from TRAPITAL's DAN RUNCIE: Will the new SPOTIFY-powered BILLBOARD HOT TRENDING social chart over-index rappers like the GRISELDA crew who appeal to 30something males and undercount artists like LIL' UZI VERT whose core audience is younger and possibly spending less time on TWITTER and more on TIKTOK on YOUTUBE? And—the un-asked followup—would a wider social chart be more reliable in its measurements?... Exiting the consumer market, SENNHEISER has sold its struggling headphone and earbud business to Swiss hearing-aid manufacturer SONOVA, which will keep the Sennheiser brand name alive. Sennheiser itself will concentrate on pro audio, including its NEUMANN microphone division... Discovery channel: JIMMY FALLON hears French post-punk band on JOHN RICHARDS' morning show on Seattle indie station KEXP, SHAZAMs them, books them on THE TONIGHT SHOW. Shoutout MAD FOXES... The Boston guitarist/composer behind the Twitter/FACEBOOK project COMPOSERS DOING NORMAL S*** gives Van Magazine the lowdown on how one goes about finding photos and videos of PHILIP GLASS eating POPCHIPS or CLAUDE DEBUSSY looking unhappy at a picnic.
Rest in Peace
Jazz trombonist CURTIS FULLER... British lyricist, record producer and record exec MARCEL STELLMAN.
| | | | Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator |
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| | |  | | Slate |
| | Spotify Is Overrun With Artist Impostors. I Tracked Some Down | | by Nitish Pahwa | | When you hit play on your favorite musician--and it's not your favorite musician. | |  | | Africa is a Country |
| | Farther on from Zion | | by Matthew J. Smith | | To consider Bob Marley today demands we look back across that distance to the place and age that brought him to us. | |  | | Pitchfork |
| | 11 Indie Musicians on How They're Navigating the NFT Wave | | by Marc Hogan | | Skeptics like ANOHNI and Zola Jesus as well as believers like Mick Jenkins and Pussy Riot sound off on the good, the bad, and the ugly of the digital collectible game. | |  | | Los Angeles Times |
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| | A Beginner's Guide To NYC Sample Drill | | by Seamus Fay | | A wave of sample-based production is happening all over the city, pairing classic songs of all genres with NYC's omnipresent drill sound. Artists are ignoring the "red tape" of sample clearance and releasing new music at breakneck speed, encouraging others to do the same. As a result, an entire world of sound is opening up. | |  | | SPIN |
| | RETRO MUST READ: Bite This: Our 1989 Feature on Sampling | | by Frank Owen | | In the late '80s, hip hop faced a battle over sampling and rights permissions. Our 1989 features takes a look at both sides of the debate. | |  | | The New York Times |
| | Where Is Country Music Making Room for Women? | | by Jon Caramanica, Marissa R. Moss and Natalie Weiner | | Nashville remains challenging for women artists. But some rising performers are breaking through on radio - and TikTok. | |  | | Wired UK |
| | This startup finds the music megastars of the future | | by William Ralston | | Instrumental spots hidden gems before they go big. But is it ruining music? | |  | | Music Business Worldwide |
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| | Breaking Brian Warner: The women who refused to let the Marilyn Manson story die | | by Briony Edwards | | It took years for mainstream media to catch on to the Marilyn Manson story. But three young women wouldn't let it go - even if they had to endure threats and ridicule to get it out there. | | |  | | Billboard |
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| | Making the Mainstream: The History of Top 40 with Eric Weisbard | | by Saxon Baird, Sam Backer and Eric Weisbard | | You know what Top 40 radio is. But…think about it for a second. Top 40 what? Songs? Albums? Bands? And top for who? Once you get started, the supposedly homogenous "mainstream" at the center of American listening is actually pretty complicated. | |  | | The Washington Post |
| | If classical music keeps one thing from the pandemic, let it be the opera short | | by Michael Andor Brodeur | | During the days last June, mezzo-soprano Raehann Bryce-Davis was marching and calling for justice with thousands of others in the streets of Los Angeles following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody. But at home, by night, she was rehearsing "All'afflitto è dolce il pianto," an aria from Gaetano Donizetti's 1837 opera "Roberto Devereux." | | | | The New York Times |
| | How Operas Are Going Green | | by Rebecca Schmid | | During the pandemic, some houses have continued finding ways to make their spaces and performances more environmentally sustainable. | | | | Music Business Worldwide |
| | Apple Music exclusives are back: This time with Scriptonite, one of Russia's biggest rap stars | | by Murray Stassen | | Apple Music is busy signing deals for artist exclusives again, having just partnered with one of Russia's biggest independent rappers, Scriptonite, on a windowed album release. | |  | | The Ringer |
| | How Tyler, the Creator Grew Into the Rebel He Always Wanted to Be | | by Logan Murdock | | Ten years ago, the Odd Future leader dropped his official debut, 'Goblin,' a testament to youthful rage-and all the good and bad that comes with it. But his truly iconoclastic work was still years off. | |  | | KQED |
| | Examining the Politics of Madonna's 'Truth or Dare,' 30 Years Later | | by Rae Alexandra | | The groundbreaking 1991 movie has long been held up as an LGBT and feminist classic. Modern audiences might not agree. | |  | | American Songwriter |
| | Peter Stampfel Excavates a Century's Worth of Music in 100 Covers | | by Tina Benitez-Eves | | His 100-song album "20th Century" features a cover of one song from each year, beginning in 1901 with the Carrie Jacobs-Bond-penned "I Love You Truly" and closing on Coldplay's "Yellow." | | | | Billboard |
| | Wyoming Is Kicking Off the Rocky Mountains Concert Comeback With Few Restrictions | | by Steve Knopper | | AEG is now promoting shows at the 27,500-acre Terry Bison Ranch just north of the Colorado-Wyoming border where there's a more relaxed approach to the pandemic. | |  | | The Atlantic |
| | Elvis Reenters the Building | | by Tim Alberta | | In rural Ohio, a performer bookends a year of struggle and survival. | | | | | Music | Media | Sports | Fashion | Tech | | "REDEF is dedicated to my mother, who nurtured and encouraged my interest in
everything and slightly regrets the day she taught me to always ask 'why?'" | | |  | | | Jason Hirschhorn | | CEO & Chief Curator | | |  |
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