The Digital Past

I find it very interesting how so many songs are based on songs in the past, or in other words use samples. I would have never known this was the case because I was never brought up listening to old music. Some may argue that using samples makes your song unoriginal, but I disagree. If you have the ability to take bits and pieces from a song and that really speaks to you then you should do it. Especially if it fits with your song and flows together. The context is so different from how the sample was used in the original version of the song, so I don’t believe it is “stealing” someone’s idea. However, I do believe that the artist who pulls from other songs should give credit to the original artist, or get a license. It seems fair that the original artist should be paid for others using it.