In capable hands it was an absolute wonder. But longer term, sampling has been a a bit of a musical disaster, making it easy to stitch together copy-paste music-by-numbers, and for a generation and a half of music consumers to persuade themselves that the cultural and economic value of music is limited to the marginal cost of copying a file.
The aesthetic changed from creative assimilation and active reinterpretation of musical ideas to patchwork assembly of mechanical reproductions.
Some people will say they're identical. That's wholly wrong - they aren't at all. While it's possible to make sample-based music with creative flair (e.g. Amon Tobin) the technology also makes it hugely easier to generate floods of low-value musical mimicry.
Music is one of those things that can have a very high-quality top end, and a very low-quality low-end. It doesn't really matter, ultimately the 'quality' is in the ears of the perceiver. So much great stuff now considered standard once started out as someones messy dross... its a wheel that turns, and rapidly!
>It doesn't really matter, ultimately the 'quality' is in the ears of the perceiver.
Only if one thinks that "anything goes" and doesn't believe music and lyrics has any importance for the cultural development of society (and the personal development of the listener).
I think there is a sizeable community of musicians for whom "doing things different than the mainstream" is a means by which important cultural development occurs. In fact for them, its probably more important than playing at the status quo.
And I don't think this is a modern idea. Music never stays in a single place.
>I think there is a sizeable community of musicians for whom "doing things different than the mainstream" is a means by which important cultural development occurs. In fact for them, its probably more important than playing at the status quo.
Yes, sadly there's a culture of novelty for the sake of it, as opposed to depth.
In capable hands it was an absolute wonder. But longer term, sampling has been a a bit of a musical disaster, making it easy to stitch together copy-paste music-by-numbers, and for a generation and a half of music consumers to persuade themselves that the cultural and economic value of music is limited to the marginal cost of copying a file.
The aesthetic changed from creative assimilation and active reinterpretation of musical ideas to patchwork assembly of mechanical reproductions.
Some people will say they're identical. That's wholly wrong - they aren't at all. While it's possible to make sample-based music with creative flair (e.g. Amon Tobin) the technology also makes it hugely easier to generate floods of low-value musical mimicry.