Name That Tune

For music purists, sampling is weird. Usually it is experienced while mingling at a party or busting a move on the dance floor. A song fades out and is replaced by a fresh beat, one that is strikingly familiar yet purposefully distorted. No one else seems perturbed. Even if they were, they probably wouldn’t show it. The practice is as common now as it was fifty years ago, the sound already lying dormant in our ears.

By definition, sampling is when an artist takes a portion of a previously recorded song and reuses it within the context of a new track. The sample can be purely instrumental (like a guitar solo) or actual lyrics. Musicians such as Girl Talk have built their entire careers on the foundation of recycled tunes, transforming the act of sampling into a post-modern, ‘nothing is original, nothing is individually owned’ philosophy. Frequently, this mindset has lead to bouts over copywriting infringements. While the legal implications of sampling remain debatable, one thing is for sure: no song is immune. The fact was recently reaffirmed to me at a friend’s open house. While chatting with other guests, I heard strands of Bob Dylan’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues” issuing from a nearby speaker. The line, “Johnny’s in the basement mixing up the medicine” was on repeat, laid over a rap solo.

Later when I got home, I Googled and found out that the artist was Juelz Santana. The title of his mix was appropriately named, “Mixing Up The Medicine.” I loved the original Bob Dylan song and therefore felt a bit bothered by Juelz Santana’s take. However, my righteous indignation dried upon discovering another resource – Whosampled.com. Who Sampled seeks to “explore and discussing the DNA of music.” The site allows you to search a directory of over 80,000 sampled songs and 31,000 artists who have utilized sampling or covers during the duration of their careers. Even better, there is an audio feature that allows users to compare sampled songs with their originals.

I typed ‘Bob Dylan’ into the search engine. Dylan himself is cited as only using two song samples (“Seven Minutes of Funk” by Tyron Thomas and The Whole Darn Family and “Change The Beat” by Fab Five Freddy featuring Beeside). Nevertheless, his ‘Covers’ tab is significant, listing a variety of blues and folk references (my favorite being “House of the Rising Sun”).

Whosampled.com is music under a microscope with content that illustrates connecting points and heralds founding beat-makers. I’d highly recommend taking a look, if only to jog your memory. As for me, in the future I plan on being more forgiving. Afterall, imitation is the highest form of flattery.