Double Take

I think we all know that history repeats itself.  It’s the proven sign that civilization continually works to find the succession in life and yet contradictorily, it’s the sign of retroaction as well. 

Well repetition could serve as a form of flattery, considering that something or someone is attempting to duplicate a piece of life that already exists.  The reason for copying may be because the first one was such a great production, it needed to be done again.  In music and in film this is a heavily utilized component in production.  In our world where the media dictates, just about everything, the public is easily swayed by what has already been done.  Therefore it only makes sense that replicas and remakes and remixes are becoming more and more prominent in everyday creative processes. 

To solidify my opinion further:

In music some of this generation’s greatest successes have been those that found innovative ways to bring back the old and make it new—again {that’s an oxymoron}.  Though there are plenty that unfortunately don’t know how to tune into that special ability to know the origins of true music and then be able to not butcher it in their own tracks.  There’s an art to sampling and remixing; and I can say that because I come from the generation that witnesses the majority of today’s “artists of now” using this technique repeatedly.  Though understandably so, I can argue with my parents ‘til the point is dead about what constitutes as a good artist—considering they view duplication as lack of ingenuity.  And though I don’t discredit their stance, there is still the strong belief that in order to even take a classic song like Mike Jackson’s PYT (Pretty Young Thing) and turn it into Kanye West’s Good Life takes immense musical capability.  There are so many things he probably could have done wrong to ruin that record, yet he didn’t and continues to do so with many other hits.  And please don’t get me wrong, not every producer and songwriter that samples is automatically a musical genius.  There are some that didn’t get the magic touch and don’t know how to be inspired by an original for their own re-creation.

What I suggest:

• Learn the culture of music sampling and see if you can locate similar applications in other forms of media, for instance in television and film.
• Use resources like whosampled.com, the Loopy app in the Apple Store, and plenty more that can be found using your favorite internet browser. 
• Check out this video for live examples of how sampling works.