In the world of electronic-dance music (hereafter EDM), artists produce "remixes" of other artists' work using the same digital sounds but arranging them in new contexts. The debates have been sparked since digital sampling practices were first instituted: is it originality or thievery? The question applies beyond just electronic-dance music, going back to Jamaican roots and into hip-hop music beforehand. From the thievery perspective, a sound bite or group of notes belongs to the artist who created them as intellectual property. From the originality perspective, "utilizing a popular riddim or 'looped' sample carries on the legacy of the musician who is sampled by creating a new work that incorporates and reinterprets the previous recording" (Self 354). While artists continue to seek musical evolution through the use of remixing and sampling, United States copyright laws remain ambiguous--with difficulty defining what is intellectual property and what is a reasonable degree of sampling versus outright copying. For the two sides to come to a middle ground, people need to understand what it really means to sample music.

"Sampling is just another instance of the law not keeping up with technology"
Jeffery Light, Beverly Hills entertainment lawyer (Martin 22).

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