Music: The production of music today often involves the process of sampling, a technique for copying a portion of a song (a chorus, a beat, a bridge) and blending that “sample” into a new piece of music. It’s not a new technique, but it’s far more widely used now than ever before and the reach for elements to sample is a longer longer. Almost every producer uses sampling (in some form or another) and some use it as a predominant technique. The key is in creating modern, hit music is to develop a “hook” that will move the listener and push the song (and artist) up the charts. How far producers will go to find the right hook depends on time, budget, and creative constraints. When dealing with the work of other creative people–and in particular with the work of artists who created their work in a different time, place, and legal system–a producer/artist must be careful about intellectual property rights, because sometimes, even if the producer thinks he’s tied up all the rights through the correct channels, IP issues can arise. Here’s a modern day story of what can go wrong in these cross-cultural/cross-era/cross-continent times, from Bloomberg.com.
The Fine Print: Photo (C) by ROCOR, taken 6 October 2010. Used via Flickr under a Creative Commons license. This photo has not been modified for use in this post. Thanks to ROCOR for sharing.