Girl Talk is a great example of how every generation of music influences the future generations. He takes pieces of songs and remixes them into his own creations. Some people say that what he is doing is copyright infringment and he is just stealing from other artists. I would agree that sampling is a form of stealing, but if you are going to pick on him then you have to go after almost every artist in the music industry. Lady Gaga for example has put a modern spin on Madonna, much of her style and music is based off of Madonna. Kanye West who makes some of the best beats in the music industry has sampled many verses and beats throughout his career. One of his most popular songs, Through the Wire, the beat is sampled right off of Chaka Khan's Through the Fire, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymuWb8xtCsc&feature=related..check them both out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvb-1wjAtk4...The music industry is based off of this and sampling is an easy way to build the popularity of not only the new version, but the original as well. It also promotes awareness for the past, when new generations sample old songs, it brings awareness and appreciation of the artists of the past. It allows older artists to stay current for years and years. Jay-Z is a known for using alot of lines from the Notorious B.I.G, it is a way of keeping the memory of arguably the greatest rapper alive.
While Girl Talk takes alot of the music and remixes it to a brand new sound, he does use older songs and adds a modern twist to them. He can take a laid back song and turn it into a club banger, it makes him a lot of money. Should he have to pay for what he does? As of now the answer is no, but in the future, there could be a very serious law suit. He does in a way create his own music, but sometimes he pushes it a little far and should give some more credit to those who originally created it.
I definitely agree. While he does take from older songs, he makes them into new creations. My parents listen to oldies from the 60s and 70s and complain that our generation has no talent because we just take from the music their generation created. I always tell them that its different. I appreciate beats and I specifically like them behind songs that didn't originally have them. Perfect example is rapper Drake's sampling of older songs for his first hit "Best I ever Had." I feel that artists do give respect to past artists by playing the original music in the beginning or end of their song.
ReplyDeleteAlso, a lot of people listen to artists and claim to love them for their originality, not knowing that some hooks, lyrics, and beats are actually samples from older artists. I feel that www.whosampled.com is a great resource to see who really is original nowadays.