Elena Hilton, RTV
Mark Ronson Dropping Beats At A Rock The Vote Event
The music industry is always finding new ways to create the next best thing, but sometimes the best new thing is something old.
British DJ and producer Mark Ronson, who is also a former Rock The Vote artist, gave a recent TEDTalk about how sampling other musicians’ work in new songs is the increasingly modern way of the business.
While many see rappers and pop singers who take old samples and reuse them in some way as lazy and unimaginative, Ronson believes it’s actually just another way to connect more deeply with the music.
If musicians hear something that resonates with them, “they instantly want to inject themselves into the narrative; they want to be a part of it,” Ronson said.
This past week, the Grammys made a big decision on how to recognize music containing samples. New tracks containing previous work from other artists can now be nominated in songwriting categories such as Song of the Year. Before this amendment, songs with samples could only compete in the Best Rap Song category.
Ronson referenced the frequently sampled track “La Di Da Di” by Doug E. Fresh and Slick Rick, which has been incorporated into music by everyone from Notorious B.I.G. to Miley Cyrus.
Other artists of the post-sampling era such as Kanye West, The Beastie Boys and Jay-Z have shown that sampling tracks is a way to celebrate great music of the past while incorporating new sounds to make it contemporary and exciting.
Watch Mark Ronson’s full TEDTalk:
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