Records that play: the present past in sampling practice

Much of the discourse surrounding sampling practice has been couched in an archaic rhetoric of originality and creativity, predicated on the reproductive mode of creation rather than the practice's own creative logic. These notions have emerged from a metaphysics which privileges the origin as...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Popular music 2009-05, Vol.28 (2), p.143-159
Main Author: CHANG, VANESSA
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Avalanches
Creativity
Drums
Hip hop culture
Hip hop music
Logic
Music practice
Music semiology
Musical aesthetics
Musical modes
Musical rhythm
Musicology
Popular music
Rhetoric
Rhizomes
Semantics
Semiotic signs
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Summary:Much of the discourse surrounding sampling practice has been couched in an archaic rhetoric of originality and creativity, predicated on the reproductive mode of creation rather than the practice's own creative logic. These notions have emerged from a metaphysics which privileges the origin as the centre of semantic production. However, this discursive preoccupation with the past is not entirely irrelevant in sampling practice. Rather, the historically inscribed aura of the original holds a redefined, but necessary, place in the practice. This essay examines the theoretical underpinnings of the discussion so far, then reconciling these with the specific culture of sample-based hip-hop production. Through close readings of some musical examples, it posits a theoretical framework for sampling practice which takes its unique properties into account. By mapping the trajectory of several samples from source to new incarnation, the sample is revealed as the space of simultaneous play and rupture, where the past both defines the present and is effaced by it. As such, sampling creates a tradition that involves the past without deferring to its structures and limitations, restoring a revised mode of agency to the practice.
ISSN:0261-1430
1474-0095
DOI:10.1017/S0261143009001755