“The Amen Break” is a sample of music that has been used in numerous amounts of music tracks of all sorts. It is a short bit of music that has withstood the hands of time and used to make current music which has been extremely popular in different genres of music. It is unfortunate that the creators of this music have not been reaping the rewards from it uses across all types of music.
The problem that is seen in these current days was not an issue when “The Amen Break” was created. Today we hear all sorts of music that has been created digitally with the use of computer software. It has become fairly easy to create three to four minutes worth of music with the right tools. My fourteen year old son has downloaded free software from the internet to piece together sound bits of music to create your own music. It does take a little bit of time to line up the different sound bits and making them sound as one.
As stated in the video that we had to watch, there has been a lot more copyright laws that have been implemented to safeguard the sounds that are now created. Gone are the days when musicians are recorded singing or playing their music in its entirety. In current recording studios the technology exists to correct for mishaps that might occur when recording and in many instances those that are being recorded do it in segments which are later put together by someone who edits the music to sound seamless and crystal clear. Thanks to technology we hear musicians that are flawless and always in tune.
In the other video that we had to watch, there are artists that create music using sounds of music that has been recorded by other artists. This is an ongoing controversy that has been going in recent times. Copyright laws prohibit the use of certain sounds to be used without paying for the license to use those sounds. There are those that agree that sampling and making the music your own is a form of art and there are those that believe that those sounds should only be used if licenses have been purchased to use those sounds.
In my personal opinion, I believe that sampling is a great way to take music that was created in the past and made modern. I also believe that credit should be given to those artists that had created the original sounds of music where the sampling was taken from. Although the sounds that are used to create new music are sounds from the past it does take time and understanding of what is acceptable in current times to make a new song. Copyrights should be put in place to protect those original sounds so that they are not used in the same form that they were used to make money; but music samples that are used with similar sounds to create new music should not be prohibited as long as credit is given to the original artist that created those original sounds.
It is true that artists that produce new music from old music are not looked upon the same as an artist who is making new original music; but at the same time, that artist that is using sample music from the past is somehow paying tribute to those old sounds by making them new and keeping those sounds alive. As technology continues to evolve so will the software that is used to create music. The ability to safeguard sounds will continue to be a challenge for all artists who are in the music industry and as long as music continues to be digital there will always be the possibility of original music to be used to create newer music.