Media Class Questions

Media Class Questions
Although Clyde Stubblefield says that he has never got any mentions from rappers who sampled his drum style, he does not seem bothered at all that they used his style. His joy is that his style got out to the world and that the rappers who sampled his funky drums did not go for just anything else out there. However, he does appreciate one Melissa Etheridge, who thanked him for it. Cover songs usually don’t have a direct impact on the original songs’ profits, but if they get successful they many times come off superior in terms of sale. A case in point is Coolio’s cover song Gangsta Paradise that sold more albums than Stevie Wonder’s original, Pastime Paradise. Even with platinum sales, the cover songs don’t cut into the profits of the original recording, but it is true to say that sales can get a boost if the original song was successful. It is worth noting that sampled music combines several other elements and is not just purely lifted from the original.

It is partially correct to say that digital technology depicts some level of creativity, but this is only true if one views music sampling as a tool for music production. There could be some unexploited elements in a song that can be re-purposed to make great music, but credit has to go to the original recorder. Debatable is the claim that one can bring drums from Stubblefield, guitars from another band, and so on, and then combine them to make something new because creativity cannot just be borrowed that way.

I strongly believe that it is laziness to collect different pieces of music and to use them as the building blocks for another song because there is so much music yet to be made. The filmmakers profit the most from this sampling business, and therefore can never speak against it.

The culture of the remix is not a new trend because even famous artists have confessed that art is theft. Some are born to be creators while others are just borrowers and re-mixers. Much of the credit goes to the original composer, however, that is mostly dependent on the success of the remix, how different it is from the original, and the extent of marketing. The success of the remix can be simply because it reached more listeners than the original. The music largely remains the property of the original composer, and this is mostly because they usually feature the creator of the remix.