The dominant view of the relationship between sample-based music and sample sources—that musical samples are always instantiations of their sources and never representations of their sources—does not hold true as demonstrated by examples from the “Golden Era” of hip-hop (1988-1992). Both the “standard criticism” of sampling, that sampling is theft and is therefore uncreative, and the “standard defense” of sampling, that sampling is theft but can be creative, are founded on the ontological understanding of samples as instantiations of their sources. However, many samples are better understood as representations of their sources, admitting a distinction between vehicle and content as well as between sense and reference. The sample of the Turtles’ 1968 You Showed Me in De La Soul’s 1989 Transmitting Live from Mars demonstrates these distinctions. The pops and crackles characteristic of a well-worn vinyl record are meaningful in De La Soul’s sample, representing the Turtles’ recording as patinaed and nostalgic, while the extraneous noise is not meaningful to the original recording, which ideally would have no surface noise at all. An instantiation of the source would seek to faithfully reproduce the material, not present in an intentionally degraded format. Therefore, these and other samples should be understood as representations of their sources, where sonic imperfections become meaningful signifiers of authenticity and realism.

Works: De La Soul: Transmitting Live from Mars (654-57).

Sources: Turtles: You Showed Me (654-57).

Index Classifications: 1900s, Popular

Contributed by: Matthew Van Vleet