Vanilla Ice Vs. Queen

If you are a child of the 80's and 90's you probably think of Queen and Vanilla Ice when someone mentions sampling trials. It's a huge problem in the music industry, and not just because musicians like to sample each other without permission but because a lot of artists claim sampling to gain the publicity or music. It's a very blurred line and often times there is no defining rules, just the opinion of the judge preciding. In the case of Ice and Queen, they were settled out of court for undisclosed sum when Ice's song reached number 1 in the U.K and Argentina. However, there was one difference for Ice to stand on. There was an extra note thrown into his music that wasn't in Queen's song. But would it have held up in court? It's common for artists to settle out of court, which is possibly why it is a problem. Because any artist who hasn't "made it" yet can claim their music was stolen from a huge artist and make money and fame overnight just over the accusations alone.

However, there are also positive cases of sampling. Sometimes bands get each other's permission before using the music. For example Weird Al's whole career is reliant upon artist permission to use their music and manipulate their words. He's taken the biggest names in music and thier biggest hits and turned them into comedy genius. He turned "You're beautiful" to "You're pitiful" and "Gangster's Paradise" to "Amish Paradise" and "Ridin Dirty" to "White and Nerdy". But there are also serious artists who sample and cover each others music and it's perfectly acceptable once an agreement is reached about how it will be used. For example one of the artists I mentioned in a previous blog love to use other people's music. They are the Beastie Boys. As destructive and rebelious as they can be, they do get permission from artists that they sample from like Santana. They don't try to copy the music and call it their own. They just take it and often change the form to pay respect to their favorite artists. The Beastie Boys often speed up the music so you know what it is but it's adapted to the tempo that the beastie boys work in.

Over the years sampling has been given a bad rap. The word has a negative connotation to it. But clearly there are positive and legal ways to deal with sampling.