<-Black Eyed Peas - The Time (dirty bit)
from HouseMusicEssentials.com:
"Well Deadmau5 probably won’t sue the Black Eyed Peas because he doesn’t really give a shit if they sampled the beat from one of his tracks, but either way people need to learn how to sample properly. If you sample someone else, you either cover it up really well so it is almost unnoticeable or you pay the original producer. The Black Eyed Peas, the smart fellows that they are, decided to use the same hihat and arrangement as Medina- You & I (Deadmau5 Remix) which was so noticeable that the clever Mau5 picked up on it very quickly after some fans pointed it out:
“i’ve been getting a few tweets on and off about Black Eyed Peas’s new single “The Time” that more or less said… heyy sounds like you ish… So… i went and checked it out, at first listen… i was like… naaahhh i mean, it’s cool for what it is and all that… and doesnt really sound much like me at all. but then i heard a highhat… and something just clicked.”
I find this hilarious, a lot of producers sample, I mean the foundation of house music is essentially stealing sounds from other songs. Many tracks today have samples from some of the first house tracks, which is just awesome. But when someone like the Black Eyed Peas use the exact same beat as Deadmau5′ track, its bound to lead to some sort of controversy:
“This isnt calling the black eyed peas out at all. i rather enjoy that minimal bit of the tune… (however the 80′s remake vocals can fuck off and die) This is just another interesting factoid i keep finding about sampling and electronic music… which is clearley prevalent and welcomed (when used properly) in this genre of music no doubt!”
He basically just laughed it off and said fuck it, which is why I respect Deadmau5. He is big enough that this probably happens on a daily basis with much smaller producers. He opened both tracks up in Ableton and compared waveforms, which further proved that they sampled his track:“This isnt calling the black eyed peas out at all. i rather enjoy that minimal bit of the tune… (however the 80′s remake vocals can fuck off and die) This is just another interesting factoid i keep finding about sampling and electronic music… which is clearley prevalent and welcomed (when used properly) in this genre of music no doubt!”
THiCK Thoughts:
Deadmau5 is the 13-year-old girl of the online electronic world. No one can say he's not a talented producer, he has absolutely innovated house music and has been on top of the game for years. But he needs to delete his twitter, facebook, and pretty much any non-music oriented application on his computer and stop bitching, starting fan feuds, and talking shit to other producers via the internet.
As far as the logistics of Will I Am "stealing" or "sampling" his song.... naw, not legitimate. Not legitimate for the following reasons:
1.) The Ableton waveforms shown in the article are percussion one-shot hits (of a kick drum and high hat). First off, under close examination i don't think they're the same waveforms. Granted they're not exactly the same because of different warping/effects/intensity levels, but I still don't think they're the same mathematically-equivalent waveforms. And second, Deadmau5 released a percussion package (Deadmau5 XFer or something like that) online, at loopmasters I think, and its available for purchase. Its pretty expensive, but its chalked full of every kind of analog and effected percussion hits. However, once this package is legally purchased, the consumer then has rights to use and distribute such sounds in productions. Should this actually ever go to court, a lawyer could argue either of these points and get the case thrown away.
2.) This is electronic music, particularly 4 on the 4 house music. It all uses a variety of similar synths and beat textures. When songs do not have lyrics, are produced in similar programs, and use similar instruments and effects, guess what?....you're gonna run across plenty of very similar sounding songs. Besides this point, maybe it is a straight sample - for electronic music (and hip-hop and pop) sampling is becoming an extremely prevalent part of making catchy productions. So even if the B.E.P.'s did take a straight sample (which it doesn't sound like to me), Deadmau5 should be flattered, not all cocky about it. I think he's just pissed that the Black Eyed Peas song is making serious money (used in 2 commercials already) and starting to incorporate more traditional house influence into their main-stream productions.
Feel free to comment up with your thoughts. I've just been a little salty towards deadmau5 recently, and this article gave me an opportunity to rant.
When I first read his tweets a few weeks back about this, I found it pretty ridiculous. Specifically because in house music, or electronic music in general- producers have the ability to be creative with their bass lines, synths, accents etc... but at the end of the day, we are all more or less confined to that drum beat, falling somewhere between 125 and 130 bpm. I could probably name about 100 EDM tracks that have the exact same, or at least very similar beats, thats just the nature of these genres.
ReplyDeleteWhat I think it boils down to for Mau5 right now is his sense of entitlement. Yes, he is an unbelievable producer as well as an authority on the engineering of software and hardware. But he also appears to have the need to make sure that EVERYBODY knows that he is smarter than they are when it comes to production. I feel like someone in his position should get past this childish behavior of calling out other artists who, at the end of the day, are trying to make music that people enjoy... just like he is. I think that he needs to remember that there was a time when he too was learning how to produce... and that not everyone needs to be a god of production to make a track that will get people dancing... and In the end, that's what its all about.
Also, I'm not suggesting that the Black Eyed Peas are still learning how to produce, they should know better.... But his attitude towards other artists in the industry always seems to be condescending.
ReplyDeleteMusic by artists in the USA, mostly in the pop and hip hop genres, use too much sampling today. The catchy tunes and lyrics of the past are being used today to make millions off of. They are not being used with the intent of creativity and orginality. You will hear a difference in the Black eyed peas from when they first started to their sound now. The actually wrote songs in the beginning and now there just rapping verses about alcohol and other immature things that are listened to at teen nights in various clubs. Thus with there 2-note synth when the beat drops in their song, and the remake of the the lyrics from dirty dancing just shows you how much time they put into their work and its more for the money aspect rather then the skill.
ReplyDeleteWhile I can't argue with your first point because i don't know enough about music production, you're second point is a thin stretch. You make the point about how house music these days are all similar, using similar technologies and such, so therefor a similar beat may be created. However, Deadmau5 has become so big so quickly because he did just the opposite. He revolutionized electronic/house music by creating it using different programs on computers, instead of the usual equipment being used by most. This makes it hard for me to believe that in this day and age, such a similiar beat could be created by a group that usually doesn't use the same technology as Deadmau5.
ReplyDelete