Post #371143 by Tiki Bill on Wed, Apr 2, 2008 9:32 PM

Hakalugi, please don't be offended. When I've had too many margaritas, my obvious lack of political correctness comes out, I apologize. I was actually fixin to get up on my soap box and DEFEND Tipsy and their use of the samples. Ahem, here goes. Sampling as an art form in popular music has roots in the experimentation of artists like Esquivel. The Beatles bought the first "Mellotron", made here in St. Pete Fla, an analog predecessor to the digital sampler that used an 8 second long strip of magnetic tape for each key on the keyboard (the flute on Strawberry Fields is a mellotron). In the 80's, the digital sampler opened up a whole new world for artists. I think that as long as your not snipping the entire chorus of a song (i.e. the battle between my friend Rob Parissi and Vanilla Ice over the use of the entire Play That Funky Music hook), there is nothing wrong, morally or artistically, about sampling a cool drum break or horn smear. Any artist who bitched about the use of a 2 second orchestra hit from their song being used in a totally different arrangement, making new of old so to speak, needs to have their head examined. We all know the rule, good artists borrow, great artists steal. The use of creative and clever sampling (i.e. Tipsy), is as legitimate an art form as collage, which is accepted as an art form by the national art society. Many artists find the people who buy music with sampling being used, have a new market to sell their music to, just because someone recognized a horn stab sampled from an old big band record their parents listened to, and now has a new appriciation for a vintage artist. That being said, I didn't mean to take the fun out of the thread, just drunkenly trying to make a point (we all know how well THAT can work!). I'll see if I can find a clip from some old Esquivel or Baxter tune we can check out, and post it.
Again Hakalugi, no hard feelings and a big drunken "I love you man!"

Tiki Bill.