Sampling and remixing have been hot button issues in the music industry since its inception in the 80’s. Do you know what the difference is between remixing and sampling? Did you know this art (or lack thereof) has been around since way before hip-hop widely utilized it?

Kirby Ferguson is working on a web series that goes in-depth in the history, modernization, and the future of remixing. Ferguson was kind enough to sit with us and discuss his work.

What inspired you to start this project?

I think it came from just connecting the dots from numerous plagiarism cases that I was reading about. There was the Jake Holmes case, he was suing Jimmy Page over ‘Dazed and confused,’ 40 years after the fact. So, that happened and there was a bunch of stuff with Coldplay, Harry Potter, and a lot of hip-hop cases, among other things. A lot of them just seemed— aside from the Jake Holmes case, I think that was actual plagiarism— a lot of it was a stretch. I thought there were plenty of examples of people really doing it, really obviously taking stuff, reusing it and I wanted to explore it. I wanted to show how that is an element of what everybody does. Whether you can see it or not is one thing but it’s always there.

Can you draw a distinction between sampling and remixing?

To me sampling is… well it gets tricky. People think of sampling and remixing as musical terms, I’m not going to use them that way. Remixing is combining things that already exist. For me, a sample is a recognizable piece of something else. When Tarantino and George Lucas are reproducing specific shots or moments from other films and it’s clear that that’s where it came from, that to me is a sample. I think sampling is one of the instruments of remixing; it’s a component of it.

Using ‘remixing’ as the umbrella term for everything that comes underneath it, what is your personal stance on it?

I think it’s great. It’s exciting; it’s a new art form. There are lots of interesting things happening in it. It’s very primitive and there is lots of bad work. It’s not always great stuff to watch, it’s still early in its development. I think it will get more exciting. It has lots of potential that hasn’t been realized yet. 

Do you envision anything specific for the future?

I’m not really sure. With increases in computer power I think technologies will emerge that will allow it to be taken to another level. It will allow us to merge things in a way we can’t really imagine quite yet. Right now what we can actually do with existing material is fairly limited.

Which industry do you think samples the most, the music industry or film?

That’s a toss-up. Mainstream pop music is like a giant recycling factory. I’d say pop music is probably the worst. It seems like most of it is just variations of the same thing. Hollywood’s hit films definitely have a lot in common but once you get passed that level it gets more diverse. Well… I guess it applies the same to music once you get past that first layer it gets more diverse and exciting. I’ll go back to my first thing; it’s a draw.

Do you think that sampling is the surface-level go-to tool? Like they need to make a hit record or movie so they sample a bunch of things?

I haven’t really thought about that… Yes, I would say work that is intended to be popular, where there is enormous financial risk, people are going to stick to things they think work.

How has the reaction been to the web series?

It has been phenomenal. Lots of people have been helping out with the translating and donating, teachers have been using it in classrooms, and it’s just been phenomenal. 

Watch Kirby Ferguson’s first two episodes at EveryThingIsARemix.info and stay tuned for the future installments.