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Michael sampling other people's work in his music

analogue

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Can anyone give an example of when he did this? I think he did a couple of times on HIStory (I think on Money, This Time Around and Tabloid Junkie) and maybe on Invincible but I'm not 100% sure.
 

It's not included in the video, but for Unbreakable Michael sampled from Notorious B.I.G the song Unbelievable.
 
A few other examples:

In 'Unbreakable', he sampled 'You Can't Stop The Reign' and also 'Unbelievable' (from American rapper The Notorious B.I.G.).

It is interesting that 'Unbreakable' sounds like a sped-up version of the 'Unbelievable' song.

In 'Little Susie', he sampled 'Pie Jesu' on his song's intro.

In 'Will You Be There', he sampled a portion of 'Symphony No. 9' (from Beethoven).

Michael Jackson also sampled many other people's work in his music while performing on stage, but apparently this is a different topic of discussion.
 
The most obvious one to me is mama se mama sa mama cu sa which comes from Manu Dibango - Soul Makossa
The song History is has a lot of samples like Martin Luther King's speech, classical sample of Ravel - the great gates of Kiev, Neil Armstrong's first step on the moon, he even samples himself "I don't sing it if I don't mean it". There's a lot more in this track.
He also sampled dialogue from films like "you heard what the doctor said" of Lynch' Elephant Man in Morphine
 
2bad and Scream comes to mind. There are several samples throughout 2Bad but I can't remember them. Scream samples a Janet song.

I don't know if you would call this a sample or a interpolation but Cheater and Respect Yourself


 
Themidwestcowboy said:
2bad and Scream comes to mind. There are several samples throughout 2Bad but I can't remember them. Scream samples a Janet song.

I don't know if you would call this a sample or a interpolation but Cheater and Respect Yourself


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Scream samples The Knowledge by Janet (Mike's favourite of hers) and In The Closet as well

I can definitely see what you mean about your Respect Yourself man
 
SmoothCriminal1995 said:
Scream samples The Knowledge by Janet (Mike's favourite of hers) and In The Closet as well

I can definitely see what you mean about your Respect Yourself man
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Yea! That’s the one mate, thanks.

Oh yeah cheater and respect yourself has too much of a similar vocal melody and chord progression for this to be a coincidence.
 
wonderouzmj said:
Imo it's sampled or interpolation
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It’s funny you should post this. I’ve always thought that Stevie would fit perfectly on Leave Me Alone together with MJ as a duet. I can literally hear Stevie singing this song in his style, doing his vocal trademarks. Now that I think about it, the vocal melody is very Stevie-esque.
 
filmandmusic said:
The most obvious one to me is mama se mama sa mama cu sa which comes from Manu Dibango - Soul Makossa
The song History is has a lot of samples like Martin Luther King's speech, classical sample of Ravel - the great gates of Kiev, Neil Armstrong's first step on the moon, he even samples himself "I don't sing it if I don't mean it". There's a lot more in this track.
He also sampled dialogue from films like "you heard what the doctor said" of Lynch' Elephant Man in Morphine
Click to expand...
What? Great Gates of Kiev? I can't hear it. History is one of my faves but have never had it on heavy rotation so don't know it as well as some others. I played it but I can't hear the GGK bit.

I'll just have to keep trying, I guess.
 
filmandmusic said:
The most obvious one to me is mama se mama sa mama cu sa which comes from Manu Dibango - Soul Makossa
The song History is has a lot of samples like Martin Luther King's speech, classical sample of Ravel - the great gates of Kiev, Neil Armstrong's first step on the moon, he even samples himself "I don't sing it if I don't mean it". There's a lot more in this track.
He also sampled dialogue from films like "you heard what the doctor said" of Lynch' Elephant Man in Morphine
Click to expand...
Panic over. All sorted. GGK (written, of course, by Mussorgsky but orchestrated by Ravel) is in there. I was focusing on a different part of the piece. The part Michael uses is one bit I'm not so familiar with so it didn't register with me.
 
Money uses samples from 'Skip To My Loops' by Norman Cook (a.k.a. Fatboy Slim).

This video has all the samples from that sample cd. Skip to 13:28 and 13:38:

 
Idk if it’s considered a sample but michael lifted the bass line from “I can’t go for that” by hall & oates and used it in billie jean
 
Themidwestcowboy said:
2bad and Scream comes to mind. There are several samples throughout 2Bad but I can't remember them. Scream samples a Janet song.

I don't know if you would call this a sample or a interpolation but Cheater and Respect Yourself


Click to expand...
I call it borderline plagiarism 0-0
 

starting at 2:38, "in and out of love, in and out baby" is identical to Love Never Felt So Good.

tbh i don't categorize this as "sampling", which to me means using the exact same piece of other's audio, not singing/playing the other's music by yourself again.
 
GlenXoseph said:

starting at 2:38, "in and out of love, in and out baby" is identical to Love Never Felt So Good.

tbh i don't categorize this as "sampling", which to me means using the exact same piece of other's audio, not singing/playing the other's music by yourself again.
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singing/playing the other's music by yourself again,while you don't credit the original song you borrowed the musical ideas from and while you receive credit as pretty much the sole songwriter or co-writer(of the composition) is borderline plagiarism ...(again michael?!)
I don't see any songwritting credit for the guys who wrote Jackie Moore's song on ,,Love Never Felt So Good,,...
Michael took "in and out of love, in and out baby" and transformed it into ,,it's in and out my life,in and out baby,,.
the second line ,,in and out baby ,, is identical,and the first one is too similar even on paper!!
not to mention that the ,,melody,, of those lycris is identical in both songs ....this was not a musical idea from either Paul Anka or Michael Jackson,yet they are credited as the songwriters/producers...weird...
 
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Themidwestcowboy said:
I wouldn't be so quick to call it that. This may very well be intentional. We have to ask Greg Philliganes about this, as he was the co-writer and co-producer.
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but still,the song contains a musical idea (that plays a major role in the composition's verses) that isn't coming from either Greg or Michael...and they are the only ones credited for writting and producing ,,Cheater,,...0-0
 
Does this mean everybody can sue the hell out of every other artist who once sang i love you in a song?
I think this particular moment is clutching at straws. Luckily most artists aren’t that greedy to make a case out of it.
 
filmandmusic said:
Does this mean everybody can sue the hell out of every other artist who once sang i love you in a song?
I think this particular moment is clutching at straws. Luckily most artists aren’t that greedy to make a case out of it.
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Singing "I love you" and stealing some melody/lycris are two different things.
Creativity is rare in the pop world,and I expected much better from Michael.
Why would he need to steal things from 70's songs?0_0 I don't know if it's sad or kinda ridiculous
Good it didn't always happen ...
 
PurpleThriller said:
Singing "I love you" and stealing some melody/lycris are two different things.
Creativity is rare in the pop world,and I expected much better from Michael.
Why would he need to steal things from 70's songs?0_0 I don't know if it's sad or kinda ridiculous
Good it didn't always happen ...
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That's how it has always been. Artists who are surrounded by music all the time for decades, are of course going to draw inspiration from melodies, lyrics, etc. from other songs. They listen to a lot of different music, and Michael was no exception. That's how the human brain works. Sooner or later, some of the melodies you write, will be from some other song, or from some other melody somewhere. It all depends on how exposed you are to them. They write, and a melody from a verse or a bridge from another song pops up, and they use that to make it their own, and a part of a whole song for example.

It's like dancing, he watched the best and learned from them, and made it his own (and better).

I see nothing wrong with how MJ operated. It's not like most of his stuff had the same or similar melodies to other stuff, but there is some, just like most, if not all other popular artist out there.

Perspective, perspective. It's neither sad nor ridiculous if you ask me. All artists in all types of art (painters, musicians, editors, film makers) do these things. It's apart of the game, and it's apart of the evolution.
 
Why call it stealing though, it is much too negative. It is burrowing a good idea, it happens in all lines of work. Cooks do it, salesmen do it, painters do it, filmmakers do it (Tarantino made a career out of it). If anything I would feel honored if a big star used one line or one little melody that I thought of for his own work.

If you dissect all pop songs made since 1955 you would be surprised how little of it is completely original. Michael and his family didn’t complain when the Osmonds modelled their only American nr 1 hit after the Jackson 5’s music. Why would they, it is an honor. When people use your work as an inspiration it only means you’re doing a great job.

Imagine if the caveman who figured out how to create fire got butt hurt because other tribes members copied him. We wouldn’t be here if people didn’t copy and learn.

I don’t see what the fuzz is all about
 
I've noticed that the music industry is very petty when it comes to this sort of thing. An painter wouldn't sue another painter for using the same shade of blue, a filmmaker wouldn't sue another filmmaker for having a similar plotline (How many horror, action and romance films have the same basic plot?)

But when it comes to music it seems like people can get sued for the smallest things. Whether it be a similar sounding melody and/or rhythm.
 
analogue said:
An painter wouldn't sue another painter for using the same shade of blue
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I'm being a bit pedantic but couldn't help jumping in here. Artists do argue over particular colours. Anish Kapoor (famous artist) created a shade of black which he will not allow any other artist to use. Then another artist (forget who) created a shade of black which is available to any other artist who wishes to use it but Anish Kapoor is NOT allowed to use it. :ROFLMAO:

There is a shade of blue called International Klein Blue. I don't know if it's patented or copyrighted but there are limits as to who can use it, IIRC.

OK, OK, I know it's not really the same. They are not suing each other right, left and centre the way it happens in the music industry. Your basic point still stands. But the art world is full of this kind of madness. There are real fights over who can or cannot use a particular shade of a colour.
 
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