What is Sampling

Have you ever wondered : “have I already heard this song somewhere before?” If you have, you might be listening to a sample of a previously-known song.

Sampling is the act of taking a part of a song to inject it into another one as an instrumental component of it. This process is widely used in the music industry. The reason behind such a tendency is merely inspiration.

Music is infinite, or so it seems. Mathematically speaking, nothing in the world is limitless but algebra and calculus would wager in favor of an “endlessness” : let’s consider a scale (8 notes) without flats or majors and a sequence of 10 notes (therefore a very restrictive case). The number of possible combinations is about 100 million, without taking into account rhythm or instruments. It roughly shows us how wide the range of possibilities is when it comes to music.

Each person should then be able to create his own original song, without copying or using any other song. Still, this process exists. Why ? Why do musicians use pre-existing songs when the creative aspect of music is limitless ?

Sampling is not just a copy, it is a tribute. Sampling is a way for an artist to renew a song, to pay his honors to the original composer by injecting his persona into the original work.

The process is neither new, nor hazardous, to creation. Some artists, celebrated worldwide, have built their career on samples, for example Daft Punk. It is not theft, and thus should not be received as such. It should be welcomed just like any other song.

However if you still aren’t able to accept this process as it is and can’t shake off its “thievery”, just consider music as a whole. Sampling in music is not just a snake eating its own tail, it’s a disk looking for a new way to spin.

#Sampling #Music