‘The History of Sampling with Chris Read’

4: Reading Response: The History of Sampling with Chris Read

Chris Read is an artist and head of content for the WhoSampled website. In his professional career, he has produced, remixed, and DJed for various British groups. This includes numerous awards and hosting one of the UK’s largest hip-hop events (WhoSampled). In “A History of Sampling,” Chris Read hosts a seminar about the history of sampling and how it influenced the hip-hop genre. First and foremost, Read explains how sampling began with the turntables. This technology allowed DJs, in what was then a live performance art, to jump between songs and create new music. This type of music and the performance of creating it continued to develop with new techniques and famous artists. Moreover, over time, this technology developed into sampling machines. These were noticeably different from turntables as they allowed more samples to be played simultaneously and for longer periods. Consequently, the limitations for what music could be created significantly changed. 

In tandem with these technological developments, how music utilized sampling changed as well. Throughout all genres of music, sampling was becoming a more and more common practice. Modern musicians all use sampling, and, in some instances, they will sample music that is sampled from other music. This pattern creates unique and interesting ‘chains’ of music that developed from one another. However, one should note that technology-enabled sampling became commonplace in modern music but did not create sampling. The idea of blending, copying, and altering the music of others to create something new has existed for centuries. Read himself provides an example of this in his seminar. From 4:00 to 5:03, Read presents an example of Beethoven mimicking the music of others. The specific piece he presents is a remix piece that Beethoven did call “Diabelli Variations.” An audio recording of this piece has been linked below. This piece serves as a collection of 32 different variations that Beehathoven wrote based on Austrian composer Anton Diabelli (Encloypedia Britannia). By providing this example, Read highlights the idea that modern technology and recording capabilities made sampling easier; however, the art of reusing music that had already been created existed long before the technology.

Furthermore, beyond changes to music as an industry, sampling technology also developed the new genre of hip-hop. Hip-hop, at its roots, is simpling recordings of those same live performances that began on the turntable. This first of these records, as Read plays from 15:03 to 15:29, is ‘Rapper’s Delight’ by the Sugarhill Gang. This song was unique because to make the music sound like it did at the clubs, there was a band that played the altered version of the music that the rappers then sang over. In contrast, when technology expanded the sampling abilities, artists could record the music as it would have been performed. This changed hip-hop music such that the records could be more complicated and more ‘true’ to the original inspirations. One should also recognize that the changes to technology changed the techniques through which music was created and allowed for more variation between records and arts. Hollsitically, because hip-hop developed from a performance art, the ability to record and recreate this in a studio depended on the available technology. Similarly, technology also changed the art of live performance and how it interacted with recorded music. 

As sampling developed, both in abilities and popularity, it altered conversations in the music industry. Specifically, the increased use of sampling sparked more complicated legal discussions within the music industry. As an art form, music has always developed and branched off of itself. Everything in music takes inspiration from that which came before it. Thereby, sampling becomes an integral and natural part of the creative process. Contrastingly, as a job, musicians are dependent on their individuality and copyrights. This creates two conflicting goals within the industry. Subsequently, the legal conflicts that can arise when these two goals are pivoted against one another can be long, complex, and, in some ways, unsolvable. These legal cases also raise a more abstract question. Who owns the music to begin with? The creation of music is a long and strenuous process that involves numerous people. The legal cases behind sampling depend entirely on those who own the music determining that their music has been wrongly copied. As a result, the current poor definitions of who owns music means that who has the right to start legal actions is contested. Ultimately, using sampling, while natural in music, creates complicated discussions on what legal lines are fair to artists.

Works Cited

“Chris Read.” WhoSampled, https://www.whosampled.com/user/Chris-Read/.

“Diabelli Variations, Op. 120.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., https://www.britannica.com/topic/Diabelli-Variations-Op-120.pointblankonline.

“A History of Sampling w/ Chris Read (Whosampled) at Point Blank London.” YouTube, YouTube, 10 May 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZGobMX9I48.