SAMPLING

Sampling is taking a small section of pre-existing music/sound and putting it into another recording or playing it (as a recording) live.

A sample can be:

a) a recorded found (non-musical) sound or field recording
b) a section of a pre-existing recording* i.e a drum break
c) re-creating a previously written section of music*
[d) to a certain extent, the sound of a particular era ie Mark Ronson/Amy Winehouse but then cleverly putting new life into it so as not to make it a pastiche]

Sampling came directly from early musique concrete where found sounds were played live. This idea was then adopted in hip hop where vinyl records were cued up and sections were 'dropped in'.

* if you sample a pre-existing recording/piece then you must get clearance from the copyright owner of the recording and negotiate a royalty % with them before using. See PRS for full details.



TASK:
Using www.whosampled.com find who sampled the drum intro from 'When the Levee Breaks' by Led Zeppelin. Why did they sample it rather than recreate it? 

15-minute extension task: How did led Zeppelin record the drums for that?

Further resources for researching for your assignment:
Modern Approached (Red Bull Academy)
Examples of frequently sampled drums
Kendrick Lamar's use of sampling