Learn something new. (WARNING: video contains excerpts of profanity) The Amen Break is a 6 second drum pattern, called a drum loop, drum break, or just break because it represents a few bars of drum music that can be arranged on a sampler. Nate Harrison produced a documentary on the Amen Break, its unremarkable creation and revival after over a decade of obscurity with the advent of the sampler, a digital tool for rehashing audio: to speed up, slow down, slice, arrange, and/or reverse. Youve probably heard the Amen Break all over the place, though I think its less ubiquitous now than it was during the creation of this documentary due changes in copyright laws made around the time of this documentary. Its been used all over the place, from Jeep commercials for to hip-hop. You may also recognize it as the Powerpuff Girls Drum Break The explosion of creativity from the Amen Break completely independent of the creators (The Winstons, 1969) is pretty incredible. But whats interesting and concerning is the commercialization the break and others like it once the Amen Break entered the collective consciousness and corporate entities recognized the profitability of not just albums or songs, but segments of digital information used in these Frankenstein-like creations that transcend their origins and become entirely new works of music. What is significant about the Amen Break? Im talking about it here because I think its story is a good example illustrating the rise and subsequent problematic of digital sampling in relation to todays increasingly stringent copyright and trademark laws. To trace the history of the Amen Break is to trace the history of a brief period of time when it seemed digital tools offered a potentially unlimited amount of new forms of expression, where cultural production, at least musically, was full of possibilities by virtue of being able to freely appropriate from the musical past, to make new combinations and thus new meanings. - Nate Harrison, 2004 To this day, all commercial 20th century information is restricted from sampling in the legal sphere despite the fact that the Amen Break found its remarkable success from the absence of restrictive pressures. There will most likely never be another cartoon to feature the Amen Break, like the Powerpuff Girls, unless they are willing to pay royalties to third-party content-owners (not the Winstons).
Posted on: Tue, 21 Oct 2014 18:47:19 +0000
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