Lately I’ve found it great fun to sample 1-4 bar loops of commercial pop songs and warp them and turn them into techno-ish tunes with my elektron boxes. Sometimes it’s impossible to hear anything of the original because the sample is so mashed up but ocassionally one can hear what the original track is although the total track sounds nothing like the original. For example I used a part with vocals from a Calvin Harris song that is distinguishable if you can hear it among other very non calvin harris techno elements I put in there besides the sample. I’m not selling any of these tracks or anything but might put it on soundcloud. I’m interested in both the legal aspects and your own personal ethics on the subject. Where do you draw the line? Where does the law draw the line? What are my rights and responibilities?
If it’s just for fun then do whatever. If it’s commercial then you either clear the sample or make sure it’s not recognisable (very short snippet or warped to hell). The issue is practical rather than moral IMO. Don’t get sued.
The Field works exactly in this way, grabbing tiny chunks from pop tunes and looping them into electronica (using an OT btw). AFAIK he doesn’t clear any samples. Neither did Gold Panda for Quitters Raga, which heavily sampled obscure Indian pop.
And there are plenty of royalty free samples on offer … 
… if at the end the snippets are unrecognisable, then you could as well use free samples.
Very iconic themes, but in plain sight (& twisted) is how i like it to play out in terms of appropriation
like so … (although this piece leans a bit too heavily on the obvious source material)
(excuse the creepy fan video visuals)
One of my favourite things to do right now is to go through my favourite albums and take single hits, the perfect kick, a great percussion sound… But that’s about it, I don’t think I would take any more than that. I suppose as well that it depends on how different you make it. But on the other hand you have artists like Levon Vincent just straight out sampling Tubular Bells, a song off one of the highest selling albums of all time, so what do I know.
And also, unless you are making enough money to live off making music, I would sample first and ask questions later!
I think my sentiments can be summed up saying, I wish I had a song published that was cool enough, either in the underground or mainstream, that someone thought was cool enough to sample and make something new out of it.
Thanks for the great input I appreciate it! I’ll post the song I’m talking about here as soon as it is finished (if it will be) so you can help me assess where the line goes.
Ask Daft Punk 