I can pull a hand full of records from my shelf that I’ve found the exact synth preset or noise generator in Reaktor.  Sampling is everywhere, it’s sometimes hard to know whether something you recognize in a new track was original the first time around…

Picasso said “Bad artists copy. Good artists steal” And the KLF guys who wrote the Manual on making pop songs (http://freshonthenet.co.uk/the-manual-by-the-klf/) openly suggest to take all the elements from existing hits, with the creativity being the combination.  And hey, mash up artists like Girl Talk are getting away with it.

But, is there a line? A synth preset and sample are one thing, they don’t carry the whole song. What if the whole song revolves around something somebody else has done? Sure, this is a foundation of many past hip hop hits.  Daft Punk is reknowned for their pilfering of funk ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJPdVVOmbz4 ) but for some reason this electro house track bugs me:
KNAS – Steeve Angello – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYCuPafLUEQ
In essence the whole lead, bass, hook of the song is a single sample from a commercial sample pack.  Where’s the creativity there?

As much as I am annoyed by many mash ups, there is a lot of creativity in combining the songs, like somehow making R Kelly and Broken Social Scene sound amazing together: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YPaPSyU-Vc
People like Ean Golden and Girl Talk are pros at doing this live, which is arguably as difficult as what Jeff Mills has done all these years. (If you disagree, find a recording of one of his sets on the Midnight Funk Association and compare).

At some point, the songs exist as entities beyond the musician. Self-perpetuating memes. Do you own Amen, Brother? If yes, props. If not, I’m sure you have a track or two with the Amen break.

Funny how despite the changes recording music has had, the earworms that can live on like memes find a way to reproduce.