Well, yeah, it's certainly not free but a producer plus a sampler, decks, microphones and way less studio time is substantially more affordable than a full on band trying to accomplish the same end result. It's not even close. Plus there was no chance whatsoever that they could accomplish something sounding anywhere similar, unless they had the absolutely best horns, strings, synths, James Brown's rhythm section, engineers, mixers, rooms and an enormous amount of resources and creative control to pull it off.Machinesworking wrote:I agree pretty much with what you're saying, but realistically Hip Hop and Rap didn't use samples and drum machines because it was cheaper to. Everything flies in the face of that. A regular band is financed individually, the bass player buys his bass and amp etc. In the same way an MC buys his Mic and the DJ buys nice decks etc. Plus, studio time for some group like Public Enemy involved samplers and drum machines that far out cost a basic rock band.dhilsabeck wrote: That's the point of the whole hip hop analogy. Out of necessity a subculture with no bands with expensive gear, expensive recording studios, and so on became resourceful enough that they could use technology to create entirely new songs with recycled materials (much like those genres that were sampled borrowed from other genres and created their own new genres...). They took something that already existed and gave it a new life, a very natural progression in music. Of course, hip hop became enormous and completely redefined popular music, yet to the day and of course so much money gets involved the people who own the original material have a legitimate claim to a piece of the pie.
Now clearing samples is such a huge fucking deal (and costly) to the point that many people don't even bother anymore. Which is kind of a shame because it's a very legitimate art form and has led to some of the most influential music of our time. But I guess it forces musicians to do something else but it really sucks for the artist that specialize in crate digging and breathing new air into old existing material. Take all instinctive motivation to create art and put it to a screeching halt because of the threat of litigation, which can really put a damper on creativity.
It just seems like a stupid waste of potential to me. The whole world of money and art clashing can be a real bitch.
And furthermore they didn't have to re-hire everyone and all that shit for their next projects. They only had to buy or borrow new records and maybe an upgrade here or there but still a fraction of the cost of doing things in a traditional studio.
The most important aspect is that they could do it on their own. That was the beauty of the sampler, they could use bits of what they felt was the best for their songs picking from a history of really well recorded material. Waaaaay less restrictions than a traditional studio situation. A lot of people couldn't even get their foot in the door of a proper studio so they were essentially brought the studio to them. As a result a whole new population gets their hands on the tools, a creative explosion ensues, music and the way it is made changes forever.
