Pop Art And Sampling Essay Research Paper

Pop Art And Sampling Essay, Research Paper

Pop Art and Sampling In Pop art, reproduction and repetition are the main aspects that distinguish it from other art movements. Andy Warhol’s “Marilyn” is a perfect example of reproduction of image already familiar to the audience, and is repeated once, four times, or twenty times. Pop art takes from commercial art and makes it the elite art as well. That is why Pop art is so special, because it can be distinguished by the mainstream, not just the elite art world. Reproductions provide references to the original work, which sometimes these references, in the hands of Pop Art, are ironic or have something to say about the modern world. Rap and Hip-Hop music are very similar to pop art and post-modernism in that there are many samples of previously recorded beats. Many contend that no beat is original since the beginnings of music. The same goes in pop art where the compositional elements are found objects. If no art is original in the fact that their compositional elements have no originality and have already been used, then what makes a work different than something similar to it, and is that original. This is a very popular question throughout the rap culture because of the overwhelming use of samples throughout rap songs, even to the extent of sampling the beat as well as the chorus and then rapping over it. There needs to be a way to define originality and the purpose of using found objects or rhythms. Samples or found objects are used in many different ways and for many different purposes, so this gives us options on how to view the work. We need to look at the way the sample or found object is used, and if the use gets the purpose across. Artists and musicians are creative and original in the way that they use the found object or sample. Art has moved from the being critiqued by the elite to being enjoyed by the minorities. Lawrence Alloway writes, “It is in this situation that we need to consider the arts of the mass media. It is impossible to see them clearly within a code of aesthetics associated with minorities with pastoral and upper-class ideas because mass art is urban and democratic” (Harrison, P. 701). As mass art and mass media come into the hands of the everyday person, then they will see these ideas differently than the “art world” does. It is because of this change in community that art has changed so much. Especially in the music side of the arts, hip-hop beats were found in many rock and blues songs that kept evolving until they were so well recognized by the general public that rappers use the beat as their canvas, something of which they can put their own approach on. What mass media and mass art does, is give the artists a common ground to work from, which the bottom line is commonality. Originality is may not necessarily be the goal of the art. The focus is on a common ground, but their still must be some originality in how the artist uses the common ground that he/she stands on. When an artists copies a proven style, then they normally are not making a very good piece of work because they are not original in their own style and use of what is around them. Especially in the United States, money has become so much a part of the art process that people are concerned with what will sell, and more importantly, what will sell to a lot of people rather than to a select few. Rappers, more and more, are popping up trying to copy a style that has made some other rappers rich, but do not bring their own originality to the rap-world. Again, good art or rap music is going to have to be based on the new and original ways the artist uses the common ground. A great example to look at is the use of the Spinners’ “Sadie” in 2PAC’s “Dear Mama”. First, let’s examine the original, “Sadie.” “Sadie” was a song about all the black mothers that tried hard to raise their kids well while still being oppressed and not letting it show. It was a thank you song to mothers everywhere that tried their hardest in less than perfect situations. 2PAC used an interpolation of the chorus and changed a few words, but the melody was the same. Instead of saying Sadie, 2PAC said “Lady.” Already, many of us remember the original song and what a great song it was. Also, the title of 2PAC’s song “Dear Mama” also gives us an indication that the song probably has the same or similar subject matter, which it does. As 2PAC talks about growing up with little or no money, and the rough times he and his mother endured, 2PAC says that there is no way that he can repay his mother. 2PAC’s plan is “To show you that I understand, you are appreciated.” As 2PAC realizes, there are emotions that go very deep in the original song “Sadie” and 2PAC brings them out in describing the indestructible love he received from his mother, and the fact that he uses “Sadie” shows that there is a lot of emotion involved in this song. If a listener was just to hear the chorus, then they too would be able to remember the original song, and how it might have touched them in some way, and the ability of 2PAC to bring the song into the 90’s with lyrics that a new generation might be able to relate to. He admits that “when things went wrong we blamed mama.” But even though he didn’t see eye to eye with his mother then, the fact that she was always there for him, even in prison, his mother “always was the black queen” to him. Again, 2PAC recognizes the stress that he caused but realizes that the app