Media Class Questions

Media Class Questions
Although Clyde Stubblefield says that he has never got any mentions from rappers who sampled his drum style, he does not seem bothered at all that they used his style. His joy is that his style got out to the world and that the rappers who sampled his funky drums did not go for just anything else out there. However, he does appreciate one Melissa Etheridge, who thanked him for it. Cover songs usually don’t have a direct impact on the original songs’ profits, but if they get successful they many times come off superior in terms of sale. A case in point is Coolio’s cover song Gangsta Paradise that sold more albums than Stevie Wonder’s original, Pastime Paradise. Even with platinum sales, the cover songs don’t cut into the profits of the original recording, but it is true to say that sales can get a boost if the original song was successful. It is worth noting that sampled music combines several other elements and is not just purely lifted from the original.

It is partially correct to say that digital technology depicts some level of creativity, but this is only true if one views music sampling as a tool for music production. There could be some unexploited elements in a song that can be re-purposed to make great music, but credit has to go to the original recorder. Debatable is the claim that one can bring drums from Stubblefield, guitars from another band, and so on, and then combine them to make something new because creativity cannot just be bo…