Reflection 4: He Can't Stop- Why Can't Kanye West Stop Sampling?

Going off from some of my final thoughts from my last blog posts there was one specific question I wanted to look into:

"What is the method to the madness? (What purpose does an artist, such as Kanye West sample so much?)"

I already touched on this question before using Jay Z and Biggie as examples. But I was more curious as to why an artist, specifically Kanye West samples a large amount of artists throughout his career he has virtually no relation to.

The following sources I explored to see a history of Kanye's sampled songs:
http://www.whosampled.com/Kanye-West/
http://www.theverge.com/2014/8/20/6048381/kanye-west-samples-listenable-history

I explored the comment sections to see what others' thoughts were and some of them looked like this:

This comes back to the notion that those who song sample are lazy artists cheating at music making. But I think that is idea is a sorry excuse for those to press hate against an artist that they just flat out do not like. It is a very surface level reaction to jump to the conclusion that artists are not original when they sample. 

Some comments, on the other hand, looked like this:

I want to highlight what the comment above says about originality, that everything we say or do is influenced by something else. Is that not what knowledge and learning is? We constantly take ideas from the past and adapt, change, and feed off them in order to progress and evolve.

When I think about Kanye West and his sample history, I think about him as an artist who is fluent in his musical history. It is not the lack of musical knowledge which is why West samples as much as he does. But rather he uses his large, expansive array of musical knowledge and history to creatively adapt and build upon his predecessors.

One observation I made while I was searching samples in Kanye West songs was that a majority of the artists he chooses to sample are of people of colour. Yes, he has sampled from artists such as Elton John, Bette Midler, Bon Iver, but there is a much larger range of artists of colour such as Etta James, Ray Charles, Chaka Khan, Curtis Mayfield, Ottis Redding, Lauren Hyll, Nina Simone, Donal Leace, Michael Jackson, Marvin Gaye, Luther Vandross, Aretha Franklin, and the list goes on.

It is no doubt that West has been known for his political outbursts at award ceremonies (Taylor Swift 2009 VMAs, Beck 2015 Grammys) noting the equality of award shows when it comes to people of colour and having their work recognized. He has advocated for this issue in past speeches such as his acceptance of the he Visionary Award for The BET Honors 2015, and also incorporated it into his speech for the 2015 MTV VMA Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award. He has made it known that the issue of race and recognition of artists is important to him. I would like to argue that his use of sampling is a way to tribute and give recognition to what people of colour have done for music. West has no problem lending his voice for artists and providing a platform to do so. His use of sampling, in my opinion, seems related to this issue of race and recognition.

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Genius Hour Wrap Up:

I thought Genius Hour was a creative way to approach problem based learning and using self directed learning to accomplish their goals. 

I would use this in a classroom, I know in my block the class I am in will be working on public speeches. I am thinking of ways to incorporate Genius Hour as a way they can explore their topic and at the end use their speech to consolidate their research. 

I feel as though I did complete my goal, my research always lead into new questions or related back to old questions. I feel as a whole all the information I found supported the whole scope of what I wanted to know. Doing Genius Hour, I was able to experience that learning is not linear, I jumped from questions and revisited questions and reevaluated my answers a lot. Exploring multimedia information always introduced new ways of viewing the topic and lead to new paths that I did not think about or plan to explore in the first place, but became necessary in the process. I am excited to incorporate Genius Hour in my placement.

Reflection 3: Creative Borrowing

This week I chose to do some investigation on the laws of copyright, how artists are allowed to sample, and if culture looks at this as stealing, borrowing, or appropriation. Although I still have some further questions on why artists sample, I thought it would be beneficial to get some context on the logistics of sampling.

In 1991 there was a huge shift in how artists sampled. This was the year that the first in court lawsuit regarding sample-based hip hop between Grand Upright Music LTD versus Warner Brothers Records and the outcome forever changed how artists and their record labels approach sample-based hip hop. Now there was a fear of copyright infringement laws and artists had to shift their practices to adapt and modify their musical language for a reduced availability of of samples. (Sewell)

Copyright law for artistic and creative processes should not be minimized, but there is also the notion that, "sampling, in many cases, should be treated as a form of protected speech immune to persecution of copyright infringement." Amanda Sewell also brings up the discussion on, "how musicians are able to maintain a sense of their earlier musical styles even when their primary creative tools-- that is, samples-- were severely restricted." (Sewell)

It seems that in these discussions there is no demeaning nature to copyright laws but rather a wanting for change. Sampling is a creative tool that artists use in their practice, and when we are restricting their tools we limit their creativity. There is a need for copyright to protect the original artists, while also lending the exception for creative borrowing. 

Sewell, in her article, interviews hip hop producers about the ways in which they avoid costly sample licensing fees:

This week there is a part of me that is getting tired of the research, although I am enjoying everything I am learning on my topic. I chose a topic and how to approach it similar to essay writing and I almost wish I chose a Genius Hour topic that was more on "doing" than researching, especially since Genius Hour is something cumulative over weeks. With that being said, I am still glad that I finally am able to take time to look at a this topic that I have been curious about for a long time but never really had a reason to investigate. It is really refreshing to be able to listen to music as a part of the research and I have a lot of fun finding out songs that have been sampled and making those connections between the histories (this is the part of "doing" that I enjoy the most), and I was able to do a lot of that in weeks 1 and 2. 

I loved making my movie trailer because it was a chance to put my creativity to use (and because I was also able to listen to Gold Digger around 50+ times in a row). Making my trailer inspired some new trains of thought that will help me on where to go next week, which is What makes one song more iconic than another?

• How does visual culture play a part in this [music videos]
• The amount of sampling in Kanye West songs and how their popularity rivals their predecessors
• "What is the method to the madness?" (With what purpose does an artist, such as Kanye West, sample so much and with various types of music?)
• What does this tell us about our culture?

References: 

1. Sewell, Amanda. "How Copyright Affected The Musical Style And Critical Reception Of Sample-Based Hip-Hop." Journal Of Popular Music Studies 2-3 (2014): 295. Academic OneFile. Web. 4 Oct. 2015.

Not A Box

 

This is my Not A Box. My box transformed into the draw bridge of a princess castle. When I was younger I had a pink and purple castle that I always played with, along with other Disney princess toys and I used to come up with stories around them. Fairy tales and characters like Cinderella and Rapunzel were my favourite and so this is my nostalgic castle. 

To me creativity is one of the most important things that we as teachers can implement in our classrooms. We should constantly be challenging our students to be as innovative and expressive as they can be. We should teach students to express themselves in any and all ways possible. By pushing creative driven lessons and activities students will be able to apply their knowledge even further and have an exploratory experience. Creativity stretches the mind to consider all possibilities, investigate all options, be able to visualize, write, and speak our minds and allows us to be more empathetic human beings.

Reflection 2: The Next Episode

My initial research on song sampling started off with investigating other sources and what they had to say about the topic. Through the Brock SuperSearch I was able to come across plenty of articles on the topic, as well in a google search there were many websites that came up that referenced songs that had been sampled. This gave me more of an understanding of my first step to investigation - What is song sampling? And what artists and songs use samples?

The questions I pose in my Project Proposal Pitch I find to be overlapping in the timeline. Last reflection I was able to find out a little bit more on the question, "Why do artists sample?" And used Jay Z's ode to Biggie as an example. But then I began thinking about all those artists who sample and have no connection to those they are sampling, so what could be their purpose? I made a few assumptions in my last post about what those purposes could be but I want to explore that further.

I began this week looking over articles again, but I realized that was not the right approach to begin for this week. I needed to see not what research was saying, but what the public was saying. So I went on to Youtube and came across [more gimmicky] videos on "Samples used by Rappers."

4:07 - 4:27 (The Next Episode/The Edge)

This lead me to find that one of the most iconic songs, "The Next Episode" by Dr. Dre had been sampled from a classical song in the 1967 by David McCallum titled, "The Edge." With this as my new path to research I came across the website/app WhoSampled, which allows public to see how far samples go. I was able to see that after Dr. Dre used this sample in 1999 (big jump from the original song in 1967) the song as been sampled 39 more times in the 2000's.

http://www.whosampled.com/Dr.-Dre/

This information is relevant to my Week 4 question that I've yet to investigate which is, "What makes one song more iconic than another?"

So far I am finding that my questions I wanted to explore in week one (who samples) extended into week two, which is "What is the purpose of sampling?" This week I had to revisit my week one question of who samples in order to gain more material for this week. And the new material I have found this week has given me prompts for questions I have posed in weeks 3 and 4.

I'm finding that the timeline gives structure to the order of what questions should be asked, but the way they are answered is not necessarily congruent with the timing. Learning is interweaving and making connections with the old and new information we discover. I have questions that are almost fully answered and questions I will have to keep on going back to and looking at in order to explore my Genius Hour topic further.

Reflection 1: Sampling and Intentions

On my Genius Hour topic, I'm presenting the question of why hip hop artists use song sampling, what is its purpose?

Hip hop is an open source text book, free for borrowing. Some sources say if you are repeating more than one bar it is considered, "aesthetic laziness." But I refuse to think so. This use of recycling of music is almost a type of tribute to past artists, using allusion and intertextuality to support to the artists' message.

For instance, what can we say when Jay Z, a Brooklyn rapper and more contemporary face of hip hop, quotes or samples (the late) Biggie Smalls? Another rapper from Brooklyn and a central figure of the East Coast hip hop scene, also ranked as the greatest rapper ever. He can be seen as paying tribute to his roots and also honouring a role model of music in his life.

Usages of sampling remind us listeners of the universality and diversity of not only hip hop music, but of music of all genres and we are reminded of the great musicians of our past, those who "did it first," and build on them. And, like education we take ideas of our past to come up with our own conclusions.

So far investigating this topic I am beginning to discover the intentions of artists. Coming from a visual arts background and mostly looking at visual artists, I want to apply that same knowledge to looking at artists of other disciplines and the conceptual meaning of their work.

At this point I want to continue to ask relevant and critical questions around the subject of what the artist is trying to convey, and why are they trying to convey that.

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Below is a Concept Organizer based off of the initial research I found. Joseph G Schloss wrote Making Beats: The Art of Sample Based HipHop Music. Schloss' writings are used in various articles to evaluate this topic.

References for Concept Organizer:

1. Chang, Vanessa. "The Records That Play: The Present Past in Sampling Process" in Popular Music. Vol 28, No. 2 (May 2009). Cambridge University Press. Accessed September 2015 http://www.jstor.org/stable/40541424.

2. Sewell, Amanda. "How Copyright Affected the Musical Style and Critical Reception of Sample-Based Hip-Hop" in Journal of Popular Music Studies. Vol 26, Issue 2/3 (June 2014). Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed September 2015).

DG1: Copyright

The easy access to digital tools and media in the classroom or at home means that we can take, upload, and share these materials so easily and frequently that we may not be aware that we are infringing on copyright. Copyright law means that all rights are reserved, so copying, distributing, performing, displaying, or adapting of digital media found online is prohibited. For teachers to be able to share online material (sharing a video, for example) in class without acquiring permission or public performance rights, it must have a CC (Creative Commons License). A CC means that some rights are reserved, so that those who have created the material and may not want to restrict it completely can modify their rights so that their work can be shared, learned, and built upon.

As students we are creators, anything that we make - essays, presentations, videos, recording, performances, art work, or website - is all protected by copyright. So just as we like to have ownership of our ideas, other creators around the world like to have ownership of theirs as well. For example, if we are using copyrighted works to create new works (called "user generated content") there are guidelines we have to meet:
1) Our new work cannot be for commercial purposes
2) The original source must be mentioned (if it is reasonable to do so)
3) The original work to generate content must have been acquired legally)
4) The result of the user generated content does not have a "substantial adverse affect" on the market for the original work.

As long as we meet this criteria, we are able to use music, DVDs, mash-ups, and art, for our own learning and use.

Below are two Internet images found using the search modifications from Flickr and Google Images, where the artists have chosen a Creative Commons License, both of their works may be downloaded and used for free:

Heijnsbroek, Fons. (2011, January 26). Splow, 2010 [Painting]. Retrieved from http://bit.ly/1LyptoX

Brault, Thomas. (2015, April 18). Multiple exposure image of a girl and a skyline [Photograph]. Retrieved from http://bit.ly/1NDg7y1

References:

Figg, Candace. (2013). Handy4Class Presents: Copyright for Tech-Enhanced Teaching. Retrieved September 16, 2015 from http://bit.ly/1ysAvbF

Noel, W., & Snel, J. (2012). Copyright Matters. Retrieved September 16, 2015 from http://bit.ly/1OZ6E1r

Introduction: Welcome!

Hello! Welcome to my Genius Hour Blog! I am very excited to start a new year at Brock University and my placement and I hope to make some new friends along the way.

First, a little about me, I graduated with a degree in Visual Arts where I focused a lot on painting and photography. I enjoy exercise and a healthy lifestyle, I played soccer for many years, I enjoy reading and book binding.
I'm excited for this school year and hope we can inspire each other to be creative, engaged, and passionate learners!