Beauty of "Boutique"

The PBS documentary, "Copyright Criminals" was extremely informative and interesting.  Though the music examples were outstanding, the part i enjoyed most was that the film neutrally approached the topic of music sampling without bias.  The was a great mix of sampling advocates along with music purists who viewed it as cheap theft.  I for one feel that proper music sampling can be used to create great new works.  Many influential hip-hop albums depended on countless samples to provide their rhythmic backbone.  These albums don't seem to be stealing another's work but rather pay homage and elaborate on other musician's past successes. 

They mention a Beastie Boys album called, "Paul's Boutique" and how it would be impossible to create today given the amount of sampling law restrictions.  Being one of my favorite hip hop albums, I went back to my room to listen to it after class.  The beats of this album are entirely crafted from samples!  I heard everything from the familiar screech of  the film "Psycho" to the "Funky Drummer" of Clyde Stubblefield.  Certainly the Beasties must have come into some trouble with their master art of sampling, so I decided to look up it's history.  Being their second album, The Beasties teamed up with famous sampling duo "The Dust Brothers" who produced it.  The Dust Brothers soon became known as sampling virtuosos and are heavily credited with introducing the style to hip hop.  In total, 105 songs were sampled on the album, including 24 individual samples on the last track alone.  Despite what many fans believe, the majority of samples were cleared before the album's release.  Yet the costs then were cheap and easy compared to the litigious face of the music industry today. 

"Boutique" was less commercially successful than the Beastie's debut album yet it's elaborate use of sampling and comical lyricism paved the way for subsequent hip hop artists.  Copyright laws are important in protecting creativity but had such laws existed in the late eighties, hip hop as we know it would be completely different.  The aspect of sampling is to the dj what the pen is to the poet; a crucial tool by which creativity can be expressed.  I believe in giving credit to the original artists whose samples are used in these songs because it is their original talent that led to the production of a new work of art. Yet when it truly comes down to it, can one person really own a sound?