The sampling continuum: musical aesthetics and ethics in the age of digital production

Behr, A., Negus, K. and Street, J. (2017) The sampling continuum: musical aesthetics and ethics in the age of digital production. Journal for Cultural Research, 21(3), pp. 223-240. (doi: 10.1080/14797585.2017.1338277)

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Abstract

This article argues for a view of popular music production that better accounts for sampling than has historically been the case by viewing it as a continuum of activity. Weighing evidence from interviews with musical practitioners against the legal and industry frameworks, we illustrate, first, how sampling has been legally differentiated from other types of musical copying. Secondly we show that, despite this, comparable ethical codes exist within and across musical methods wherein sampling is part of the spectrum of activities. Thirdly, we discuss the ubiquity of digital technology within popular music production and the resultant closer relationship between sampling and other musical techniques moving onto, fourthly, how the sampling aesthetic has become integrated into musical practice in a manner insufficiently accounted for by its legal and industrial contexts. This ‘post-sampling’ reality places sampling and other musical techniques along a spectrum, in practical and ethical terms, and musicians would be better served by sampling being treated as part of the overall musical palette, allowing both scholars and the law to concentrate on ideologies of practice across the tools that musicians use rather than between different specific techniques.

Item Type:Articles
Status:Published
Refereed:Yes
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:Behr, Mr Adam
Authors: Behr, A., Negus, K., and Street, J.
College/School:College of Social Sciences > School of Education
Journal Name:Journal for Cultural Research
Publisher:Taylor & Francis
ISSN:1479-7585
ISSN (Online):1740-1666
Published Online:12 June 2017
Copyright Holders:Copyright © 2017 The Authors
First Published:First published in Journal for Cultural Research 21(3): 223-240
Publisher Policy:Reproduced under a Creative Commons license

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Project CodeAward NoProject NamePrincipal InvestigatorFunder's NameFunder RefLead Dept
589481Centre for Creativity, Regulation, Enterprise & Technology (CREATe)Martin KretschmerArts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC)AH/K000179/1LAW - CREATE