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Sample magic: (conjuring) phonographic ghosts and meta-illusions in contemporary hip-hop production

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 January 2019

Michail Exarchos (a.k.a. Stereo Mike)
Michail Exarchos (a.k.a. Stereo Mike)*
Affiliation:
London College of Music, University of Westminster, St Mary's Rd, London W5 5RF, UK E-mail: mike.exarchos@uwl.ac.uk
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Abstract

Sampling has been criticised as ‘a mixture of time-travel and seance’, ‘the musical art of ghost co-ordination and ghost arrangement’, and a process that ‘doubles (recording's) inherent supernaturalism’ (Reynolds, S., 2012, Retromania: Pop Culture's Addiction to its Own Past, London, Faber and Faber, pp. 313–14). Yet out of all the sample-based music forms, hip-hop receives the lion's share of attention in popular music literature; critics are puzzled by its appeal, scholars identify a plethora of problems in its function, and practitioners and audiences alike are mesmerised by its effect. Rap producers attribute an inherent ‘magic’ to working with past phonographic samples and fans appear spellbound by the resulting ‘supernatural’ collage. The author examines the music's unique recipe of phonographic juxtaposition, exploring the conditions of this ascribed ‘magic’, investigating gaps in perception between emotional and intellectual effect and deciphering parallels in the practice and vocabulary mobilised against a range of genres in performance magic.

Type
Articles
Information
Popular Music , Volume 38 , Special Issue 1: Music and Magic , January 2019 , pp. 33 - 53
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019 

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