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(eny_one/flickr)The Sample Life
It may be fashionable to "go green" right now, but a different kind of recycling has been an innovative force in the music world for 25 years. Today, three pioneers of sample-based music talk about the risks and rewards of making new music from old material. In the 1980s, Steven Stein broke ground in sampling and beat-making under the name Steinski. In the mid-'90s, DJ Shadow released "Entroducing," an album made up entirely of samples. And these days, the sample-mad artist known as Girl Talk is sailing the "mash-up" concept into uncharted waters.
Steinski
Steven Stein currently writes a blog about music and copyright laws. But 25 years ago he was known as Steinski, a pioneering force in the controversial hip-hop style of record sampling and beat-making. Stein joins us to talk about breaking ground -- and wrestling with copyright issues -- in the 1980s.
Soundcheck blog: John Schaefer muses on our increasingly sampled world
Steven Stein site
Steinski on MySpace
"What Does It All Mean" retrospective is available for purchase on IllegalArt.net
DJ Shadow
In 1996, the mysterious DJ Shadow released "Endtroducing," a scratch-happy album that made it into the Guinness Book of World Records as the first made up entirely of samples. Many of those samples came from old vinyl records. But as DJ Shadow told "Studio 360" producer Derek John, finding all those records wasn’t easy.
Girl Talk
Not long ago, Gregg Gillis was just a mild-mannered biomedical engineer. But his obsession with samples turned him into Girl Talk, a mad-scientist DJ who masterminds sweaty (and nearly naked) live shows. He joins us to talk about the risks and rewards of mashing up LL Cool J, Yo La Tengo, and more than 300 other ear-catching samples on his latest album "Feed the Animals."
Girl Talk on MySpace
"Feed the Animals" pay-what-you-wish download site
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