April 6, 2013
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Entry 289: It Came From the 80s
One of my older post (Was it really 4.5 years? God I feel so old when I realize my blog goes that far back) was this one (Entry 219) about songs sampled from earlier 80s songs. I must say that I’ve built a pretty kick-ass 1980s playlist on Spotify. It’s 575 tracks, and to give a proper sizing, it means I can play continuously the whole day without repeating the same track twice. My goal is to get it up to 1000. Anyways, an interesting byproduct of my playlist-making is that I keep on finding connections of later decade music (1990s – 2010s) and later back to hits in the 80s. It’s really cool the very moment you realize it.
Sometimes the reaction is: “Holy shit, awesome! That’s why I love this song so much. The hook sounds just like this other song I grew up loving.” I’m pretty sure these are obvious samples with a fresh spin that pays homage to the past hits.
Good examples of Holy Shit Awesome
2009 Deadmau5 – Ghosts N Stuff feat. Rob Swire (1:10 But Iiiii just wanna play it right) & 1989 Chris Isaak – Wicked Game (0:50 No Iiiii wanna fall in love)
2009 Eric Prydz – Call on Me (0:10 Call on Meeeee. Call on Meeeee.) & 1981 Steve Winwood Valerie (1:03 Valarieeeee, call on meeeee.)
2010 Iyaz – Solo (0:13 I don’t want to walk this earth…) & 1993 Janet Jackson- Again (0:21 Sud-den-ly the memories…) Ok technically 90s not 80s, whatever.
2011 Bingo Players – Cry (Just A Little) (0:32) & 1988 Brenda Russell – Piano In the Dark (1:17)
Other times I react with: “Whoa. Is something up? Did this person just (knowingly or unknowingly) steal this tune from another artist?” Pink Floyd Echoes vs Phantom of the Opera is a common reference.
Examples of Whoa Is Something Up?
1994 Elton John – Can You Feel the Love Tonight (0:10 There’s a calm surrender, to the rush of days) & 1985 Survivor – The Search is Over (0:07 How can I convince you, what you see is real?)
1992 Mortal Kombat (1:00) & 1985 Sandra – Maria Magdelena (0:00)
So, this might be where some of you might step in to argue…
“Hold up, J. So I know Wikipedia acknowledges the sampling of Janet Jackson, Steve Winwood, and Brenda Russel. But it makes no mention of Chris Isaak’s Wicked Games in Ghosts ‘n’ Stuff, just like it makes no mention of Survivor in Can You Feel the Love Tonight? Aren’t they in the same category?”
I suppose the distinction I’ll draw is this. I love many of Elton’s songs, but I have a tough time believing that Elton would acknowledge he sampled from Survivor. Deadmau5 on the other hand posted this on his soundcloud site. Call it Exhibit A:
https://soundcloud.com/fuckmylife/luvnstuff
What is it? It happens to be Deadmau5′s (or is the proper punctuation Deadmau5′) fiancee Katherine Von Drachenberg (Kat Von D) remixing Ghosts ‘n’ Stuff with the very lyrics of Wicked Games. It’s actually a very beautiful song, and a phenomenal Valentines day present. It’s like a wink and a nod to Chris Isaak that Deadmau5 has him to thank for at least a portion of Ghosts ‘n’ Stuff’s success.
I liken this how I feel copyright should be handled. To me sharing, and transforming media is generally good for the world, so long as the original creator of the content is credited in some way. It just rubs me the wrong way when someone is dishonest by making people think they came up with new material themselves.
