Well, I ran a little behind on my summer movie viewing, so I have pushed back the summer movie review for the second week of September…because I can. So this entry will focus on music.
These days, popular music is full of samples and borrowed lines. Musical styles are even cyclical. And why not? With industry album sales constantly going down, record labels are probably pushing artists to put out something familiar sounding.
But if you haven’t noticed, it takes less time for something to be borrowed.
The best example of this is T.I.’s 2004 release “Bring ‘Em Out.” The hook is sampled from a line on Jay-Z’s “What More Can I Say,” which came out about a year before. But the line from the song was a borrowed quote from 1999 Notorious B.I.G. posthumous song “Rap Phenomenon.” Did you keep up with all that? So basically in the course of five years, one line in a song was used in three different songs by three different artists (well technically two since one was a sample).
Sometimes the sample game can span decades. The original version of this year’s Jason Derulo release “Ridin’ Solo” sampled The Verve’s 1998 hit “Bittersweet Symphony,” which in turn sampled an orchestra arrangement of The Rolling Stones “The Last Time” released in 1965. There was so much controversy and lawyering when “Bittersweet Symphony” came out that all the royalties from the song ended up going to the Rolling Stones. The legal wrangling continued. The Derulo sample of the same orchestra arrangement did not clear copyrights, and so now the song is played on radio sans the sample.
And that isn’t the first song that Derulo has sampled. His biggest hit to date, last year’s “Whatcha Say,” has a sample of the chorus of the 2005 indie hit “Hide and Seek” from Imogen Heap. The song may sound familiar because it was used in the last scene of the second season finale of The OC and then later parodied on SNL two years later in the Digital Short “Dear Sister.”
Of course, sampling has been done for years. Back when Diddy was still Puff Daddy he declared that he “take[s] hits from the 80s, but do it sound so crazy?”
Styles are even cyclical. The Killers would have probably been a good 80s band. Also songs like Metro Station’s 2008 hit “Shake It” and this year’s release from Runner Runner “So Obvious” has a real 80s vibe. Even Kanye West and Black Eyed Peas get in on the 80s. Or as pointed out a few months back, Lady Gaga’s “Alejandro” sounds very reminiscent of Ace of Base’s 1994 hit “Don’t Turn Around,” much like how the guitar riff from Papa Roach’s 2000 hit “Last Resort” is much the same as the riff from “Brain Stew,” the smash from Green Day back in 1996.
It’s all good to me. Now if only they can get JNCOs back in fashion (not really).
Downloads for August:
Linkin Park’s “The Catalyst”: first single off the upcoming A Thousand Suns. It’s like if a revolt had a soundtrack that would be the song.
Passion Pit’s “Sleepyhead (Starsmith Remix)”: gets stuck in your head all day.
Dorrough’s “Get Big”: first heard this a few months ago in a friend’s car. Track bumps hard!
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