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| Plunderphonics | |
|---|---|
| Stylistic origins | |
| Cultural origins | 1980s |
| Typical instruments | |
| Derivative forms | |
Plunderphonics is amusic genre in which tracks are constructed bysampling recognizable musical works. The term wascoined by composerJohn Oswald in 1985 in his essay "Plunderphonics, or Audio Piracy as a Compositional Prerogative",[1] and eventually explicitly defined in the liner notes of hisGrayfolded album. Plunderphonics is a form ofsound collage. Oswald has described it as a referential and self-conscious practice which interrogates notions oforiginality andidentity.[2]
Although the concept of plunderphonics is broad, in practice there are many common themes used in what is normally called plunderphonic music. This includes heavysampling ofeducational films of the 1950s,news reports,radio shows, or anything with trained vocalannouncers. Oswald's contributions to this genre rarely used these materials, the exception being hisrap-like 1975 track "Power", which combined aLed Zeppelin instrumental with a sermon of a Southern US evangelist.
The process ofsampling other sources is found in variousgenres (notablyhip-hop and especiallyturntablism), but in plunderphonic works, the sampled material is often the only sound used. These samples are usually uncleared and sometimes result in legal action being taken due tocopyright infringement. Some plunderphonicartists use their work to protest what they consider to be overly restrictive copyright laws. Many plunderphonic artists claim their use of other artists' materials falls under thefair use doctrine.
Development of the process is when creative musicians plunder an original track and overlay new material and sounds on top until the original piece is masked and then removed, though often using scales and beats. It is a studio-based technique used by such groups as the American experimental bandthe Residents (who usedBeatles tracks), and other noted exponents includingNegativland, theDust Brothers,DJ Shadow andthe Avalanches.
Although the termplunderphonics tends to be applied only to music made since Oswald coined it in the 1980s, there are several examples of earlier music made along similar lines. Notably,Dickie Goodman andBill Buchanan's 1956 single "The Flying Saucer", features Goodman as a radio reporter covering analien invasion interspersed with samples from various contemporary records.[citation needed]
According toChris Cutler, "It wasn't until 1961 that an unequivocal exposition of plunderphonic techniques arrived inJames Tenney's celebratedCollage No. 1 ('Blue Suede'), a manipulation ofElvis Presley's hit record 'Blue Suede Shoes'. The gauntlet was down; Tenney had picked up a 'non art', lowbrow work and turned it into 'art'; not as with scored music by writing variations on a popular air, but simply by subjecting a gramophone record to various physical and electrical procedures."[3] According to Oswald, "the difference with 'Blue Suede' is how it audaciously used a very recognizable existing recording of another musical work. This blatant appropriation pioneered the discovery, for myself and many others, of an ocean of sampling and plunderphonics in following decades."[4]
The Residents' "Beyond The Valley Of A Day In The Life" consists of excerpts fromBeatles records. Variousclub DJs in the 1970s re-edited the records they played,[citation needed] and although this often consisted of nothing more than extending the record by adding achorus or two, this too could be considered a form of plunderphonics.[according to whom?]
Some classicalcomposers have performed a kind of plunderphonia onwritten, rather than recorded, music. The composerLukas Foss composed his Baroque Variations in 1967, whose three movements involved the performance of a Baroque work which provided the framework (sometimes inaudibly) for a fresh composition. Perhaps the best-known example is the thirdmovement ofLuciano Berio'sSinfonia, in which multiple quotations from the music of other composers are superimposed on a complete performance of the second movement fromMahler'ssecond symphony.Alfred Schnittke andMauricio Kagel have also made extensive use of earlier composers' works. Earlier composers who often plundered the music of others includeCharles Ives (who often quotedfolk songs andhymns in his works) andFerruccio Busoni (a movement from his 1909pianosuiteAn die Jugend includes aprelude and afugue byJohann Sebastian Bach played simultaneously). During the '90s Oswald composed many such scores for classical musicians which he classified with the termRascali Klepitoire.
In France,Jean-Jacques Birgé has been working on "radiophonies" since 1974 (for his film "La Nuit du Phoque"), capturing radio and editing the samples in real-time with the pause button of a radio-cassette. His groupUn Drame Musical Instantané recorded "Crimes parfaits" on LP "A travail égal salaire égal" in 1981, explaining the whole process in the piece itself and calling it "social soundscape". He applied the same technique to TV in 1986 on the "Qui vive?" CD and published on the 1998 CD "Machiavel"[5] withAntoine Schmitt, an interactive video scratch using 111 very small loops from his own past LPs.
Plunderphonics was used as the title of anEP release by John Oswald. Oswald's original use of the word was to indicate a piece that was created from samples of a single artist and no other material. Influenced byWilliam S. Burroughs'cut-up technique, he began making plunderphonic recordings in the 1970s. In 1988 he distributed copies of thePlunderphonics EP to the press and toradio stations. It contained four tracks:[6] "Pretender" featured a single ofDolly Parton singing "The Great Pretender" progressively slowed down on aLenco Bogen turntable so that she eventually sounds like a man; "Don't" wasElvis Presley's recording of the titular song overlaid with samples from the recording and overdubs by various musicians, includingBob Wiseman,Bill Frisell andMichael Snow; "Spring" was an edited version ofIgor Stravinsky'sThe Rite of Spring, shuffled around and with different parts played on top of one another; "Pocket" was based onCount Basie's "Corner Pocket", edited so that various parts loop a few times.
In 1989 Oswald released a greatly expandedCD version ofPlunderphonics with twenty-five tracks.[6] As on the EP, each track used material by just one artist. It reworked material by bothpopular musicians likeThe Beatles, andclassical works such asLudwig van Beethoven'sSymphony No. 7. Like the EP, it was never offered for sale. A central idea behind the record was that the fact that all the sounds were "stolen" should be quite blatant. The packaging listed the sources of all the samples used, but authorization for them to be used on the record was neither sought nor given. All undistributed copies ofplunderphonic were destroyed[7] after a threat of legal action from theCanadian Recording Industry Association on behalf of several of their clients (notablyMichael Jackson, whosesong "Bad" had been chopped into tiny pieces and rearranged as "Dab") who alleged copyright abuses. Various press statements by record industry representatives revealed that a particular item of contention was the album cover art which featured a transformed image of Michael Jackson as a naked woman derived from hisBad cover.[8][9]
Plexure (1993) featured what Oswald coined "electroquotations" (exact clones of portions of commercial digital soundfiles, as found on audio CDs, of over 1,000 tracks that were commercially released between 1982 and 1993, the first decade of the CD era. Thousands of these "electroquotated" fragments are layered according to their position in a tempo spectrum that, after introductory material, accelerates throughout the piece.
Oswald was subsequently approached byPhil Lesh to useGrateful Dead material on what became the albumGrayfolded (1994/5).[10]
Plunderphonics 69/96 (2001)[11][12] is a compilation of Oswald's work, from 1969 to 1996, including tracks from the originalplunderphonic CD.
The term "plunderphonic" is used today in a looser sense to indicate any music completely—or almost completely—made up of samples.
DJ Shadow has often been referred to as a pivotal figure in plunderphonics starting with his 1996 albumEndtroducing....., with his work being seminally used by later proponents.[13][14][15]
Other notable DJs includeMr Scruff (Andy Carthy). His hit "Get a Move On!", from his 1999 albumKeep It Unreal, is built around "Bird's Lament (In Memory of Charlie Parker)" byMoondog[5] and has been used in several commercials, ranging fromLincoln andVolvo automobiles toFrance Télécom andGEICO insurance. The song also sampled vocals fromT-Bone Walker's "Hypin' Woman Blues", and contains samples of the song "That's the Blues" byRubberlegs Williams.
The Avalanches have also been referred to as seminal artists in the genre, in particular with their albumSince I Left You, released in 2000,[16][17][14][18] which has been noted as an important pivotal work.[19][13][15]
Both Philip Sherburne writing for Rhapsody and Joseph Krol, writing inVarsity, said thatEndtroducing..... andSince I Left You were the two most important plunderphonics albums,[20] with Krol also includingJ Dilla'sDonuts which followed in 2006.[21]
In 1992, Frenchnoise rock band Paneuropean Architecture released the albumToi Jeune!,[22] referring to John Oswald's work. The album was reissued in 2006 and titled "plundernoize".[23]
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