September 15, 2022

"A lot of pop music does sound the same. Literally! In the past five years, the number of new songs on Billboard’s year-end 'Hot 100' chart that interpolate old songs has more than doubled."

"As the streaming money came to overshadow album-sales money, these sonic callbacks have become an increasingly popular way to make a hit song. Olivia Rodrigo, BeyoncĂ©, Maroon 5, and Nicki Minaj — who had a recent No. 1 hit with her remake of Rick James’s 'Super Freak' — have all recently published songs that incorporate interpolations.... Publishers have spent the past few years paying hundreds of millions of dollars for legacy-artist catalogues, and one way to wring more value out of those catalogues is to pitch interpolations. Merck Mercuriadis, founder of the publicly traded music-IP investment firm Hipgnosis Songs Fund... says this strategy works because 'classic songs are already part of the fabric of our lives.... Nicki Minaj and Rick James being No. 1 has just sent 1,000 artists, producers, and songwriters searching for the next holy grail."


Is "interpolation" a technical term in music? Wikipedia says:
In popular music, interpolation (also called a replayed sample) refers to using a melody—or portions of a melody (often with modified lyrics)—from a previously recorded song but re-recording the melody instead of sampling it. 

Here's Wikipedia's list of interpolated songs, where I learn, for example, that Eminem once interpolated the Little Peggy March song "I Will Follow Him." I can't believe I listened to that. I can't hear it. The Little Peggy March song is part of the "fabric of [my] life," but if there's some echo of it somewhere in that evil Eminem song, I missed it.

35 comments:

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

The Tom Tom Club’s ‘Genius of Love’ is getting interpolated and sampled over and over. The kids can’t get enough of it.

Achilles said...

If you have 1 retiree and 5 workers only 20% of the burden of covering that retiree falls on each worker.

If your population growth flatlines you are eventually going to 1:1 or 1:2 depending how late you want your people to start retirement.

The eventual goal of a column shaped demographic curve is to end retirement and just have people die as soon as they stop working.

Ann Althouse said...

"The Tom Tom Club’s ‘Genius of Love’ is getting interpolated and sampled over and over."

But "interpolated" and "sampled" are 2 different things. I only heard the term "interpolated" for the first time today. It's a difference, if I understand correctly, between mixing in the old recording and recording the old thing again and using that.

FullMoon said...

yeah, whatev.
If Republicans take over, should make a law against using old rock and roll in stupid commercials.

Although, was pretty darn funny when Sympathy for the Devil was used as upbeat backround for politician one.

Left out the lyrics about killing the Kennedys, Czar's family, etc.

"Pleased to meet you"

Heywood Rice said...

Mary J Blige Deep Inside, see if you recognize this.

mccullough said...

Sampling costs more because royalties have to be paid to the artist for borrowing their performance and the publisher (of lyrics and/or music). If you just record a new version, then only have to pay the publisher.

NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...

I can't hear it. The Little Peggy March song is part of the "fabric of [my] life," but if there's some echo of it somewhere in that evil Eminem song, I missed it.

I think a better example would be the recent Britney Spears/Elton John release "Hold Me Closer", which is an interpolation of Elton John and Bernie Taupin's "Tiny Dancer".

Dr Weevil said...

Shostakovich's 15th and last symphony repeatedly interpolates (I would have said 'quotes') Rossini's William Tell Overture. Yes, the very part of the overture that Americans know as the Lone Ranger's theme music. It makes it hard for Americans to appreciate the Shostakovich as much as other nations do.

Ficta said...

Took a bit of googling: lyrics from "I Will Follow Him" appear in the chorus of "Guilty Conscience", but only in the Radio Version (I don't think the album version, which was the only version I'd heard, has a chorus as such). I also think the main riff in "Guilty Conscience" sounds like the main melody hook of "I Will Follow Him", but apparently Eminem got the riff from a piece of film soundtrack music called "Pigs Go Home".

Curious George said...

"Eminem once interpolated the Little Peggy March song "I Will Follow Him." I can't believe I listened to that. I can't hear it. The Little Peggy March song is part of the "fabric of [my] life," but if there's some echo of it somewhere in that evil Eminem song, I missed it."

Listen to the song here with lyrics https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xbw_BxDwdjk

Go to 2:15 "These Voices, These Voices, I hear them, And when they talk I'll follow, Ill follow"

New lyrics to the melody "Love him, I love him, I love him
And where he goes I'll follow, I'll follow, I'll follow"

D.D. Driver said...

I was going to mention Genius of Love and how it has been repurposed so many times that kids think new artists are sampling/interpolating a Mariah Carey song.

What I really love about that song though is how it reveals how stupid the "cultural appropriation" movement is. In this case, you had some punk art students who met early hip hop pioneers and were inspired. So they create this song and name drop Curtis Blow (along with James Brown, Bootsey Collins, etc.) Then those same hiphop pioneers like it and sample the song over and over and over. When we exchange culture and share culture we create new, beautiful, weird, interesting things that make us dance and make life richer.

What other country in the world has created as many genres of music? Why is that and isn't that something we should protect? Why treat art as if it is the Coca Cola trademark or Colonel Sanders secret spices?

madAsHell said...

Will this be the end of the golden oldies radio format?

Two-eyed Jack said...

Presumably this is a question of rights and royalties. You may be willing to pay for the song rights but not for the master of the original recording, so you interpolate, rather than sample.

Iman said...

I’m in the middle of writing a new song: “I Will Follow WAP”

It will be released on the Hot Poop label.

Gusty Winds said...

Here's the thing. I was born in 1969. But, I grew up listening to what my mom and her sisters listened to in the car. So I learned to love and appreciate music from before I was born. 1950's early rock-n-roll. 1960's bubble bum pop. 1960's hippie music, Motown etc...

Today, kids are CLUELESS and uninterested in anything that happened before they were born. The probably don't even know the a song was interpolated and sampled. Sounds new to them.

However...my sophomore in HS niece who lives with me part time breaks the mold. We have Alexa's all over the house. She asks Alexa to play Disco from the 70's, Ray Charles and other crooners from the 60's, Led Zeppelin, hits from the 80s...she's only 15 years old.

Not Sure said...

It all sounds the same only partly because of interpolation. There's also Auto-Tune.

Birches said...

I listen to Latin pop and I've noticed this tendency a lot. This song isn't really a remake of that old Shaggy song, but it takes the tune and uses it for it's own purposes.

There's also a song that takes the tune from Fergie's "Big Girls Don't Cry" and reuses it. I can't think of what it's called, but I actually enjoy it. I don't love the Shaggy redo.

Joe Smith said...

This is my beef with the unbearably woke Broadway revivals.

We saw the revival of 'Oklahoma' last month.

A decent-sized role was played by a completely different person than ever imagined by the author.

The songwriters of the play in the 1940s didn't write the character to be a 350 pound black trans woman. They (two white men) wrote it to be an early 1900s pretty, flirtatious, Oklahoma farm girl.

It was awful.

If you are tempted to fuck up somebody else's work (a play, a movie, a song) just write your own.

If you can't write your own piece and be successful, then you are a no-talent hack.

veni vidi vici said...

On the cover of Pink Floyd's "Echoes", the epic timeless song "Fearless" is notedly "(interpolating 'You'll Never Walk Alone')". The latter shows up as a football cheer in the reprise/fade-out.

Interpolating has existed as a term in pop music for decades beyond the last couple of decades' rap-pop fads.

veni vidi vici said...

For the love of Pete, I meant to say "Meddle" rather than "Echoes".

An honest mistake; I haven't seen the album cover since the days of heavy acid use in Ohio back in the 80s.

Lawyerly said...

It's only in the chorus and it's not a strict copy of the original, but it's there.

These voices, these voices, I hear them = I love him, I love him, I love him;

And when they talk I follow, I follow, I follow = And where he goes I'll follow, I'll follow, I'll follow.

veni vidi vici said...

Interestingly, some countries say "Including"; here's the proof though. 1971!

https://vinyl-records.nl/pink-floyd/photo-gallery/canada/meddle/pink%20floyd%20meddle%20canada%202444.jpg

NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...

Gusty Winds said...

...Led Zeppelin, hits from the 80s...

Led Zeppelin had hits in the 80's?!

Iman said...

“Why treat art as if it is the Coca Cola trademark or Colonel Sanders secret spices?”

The best rock/pop music was created by talented people who were flying under the influence of eleven different “herbs n’ spices”.

This I can tell you. I’m not joking.

Gusty Winds said...

NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...
Gusty Winds said...

...Led Zeppelin, hits from the 80s...

Led Zeppelin had hits in the 80's?!


No. That would have required John Bonham to have quite drinking and live. But I used a purposeful comma in-between "Led Zeppelin" and "hits from the 80's". That would grammatically separate the two as defined below:

Comma - Noun - a punctuation mark (,) indicating a pause between parts of a sentence. It is also used to separate items in a list....

Much different than if I wrote "She asks Alexa to play Disco from the 70's, Ray Charles and other crooners from the 60's, and Led Zeppelin hits from the 80s...she's only 15 years old."

Hope this helps. Ramble On dude.

n.n said...

Whining, braying, rapping around a smoldering, fetid farce.

Ann Althouse said...

Wikipedia says the Eminem interpolation is in the “radio edit” and what I found and linked to is called “radio version.” Possibly not the same thing. Also possible that I completely tuned out. The song is very ugly and I don’t normally choose to take poison.

Sounds like a clever interpolation, and Peggy’s song is actually potentially evil too! I’ve always found it deranged. Good song for the Manson family.

Kevin said...

Wanna be a gun slinger
Don't be a rock singer
Eenie, meenie, mienie, mo
Whichever way you wanna go

Talk about
Pop muzik

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Althouse said... But "interpolated" and "sampled" are 2 different things.

Form Wikipedia about Genius of Love

The song is one of the most sampled rhythm tracks of the 1980s,[21] particularly within the hip hop and R&B genre. Notable versions include Dr. Jeckyl & Mr. Hyde's "Genius Rap" in 1981; Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five's "It's Nasty" in 1982; Mariah Carey's "Fantasy" in 1995, The X-Ecutioners' "Genius of Love 2002" in 2002, and Latto's "Big Energy" in 2021

Other artists have incorporated "Genius of Love" into their works, including Public Enemy's "Leave This Off Your Fuckin' Charts", Redman's "Brick City Mashin'", Cam'ron's "Me, My Moms & Jimmy", 2nd II None's "Niggaz Trippin'", Fresh Kid Ice's "Roll Call", 2Pac's "High Speed", Seagram's "I Don't Give a Fuck", Busta Rhymes' "One", Ant Banks' "Roll 'Em Phat", P.M. Dawn's "Gotta Be... Movin' On Up", Menajahtwa's "I Ain't Nasti", 50 Cent's "When I Get Out", Erick Sermon's "Genius E Dub", Mac Dre's "Chop that Ho", Dream Warriors' "And Now the Legacy Begins", T.I.'s "Down Like That", R.A. the Rugged Man's "Tom Thum", Mark Morrison's "Return of the Mack", Ice Cube's "Bop Gun (One Nation)", Warren G's "What's Love Got to Do with It", the D-Influence Real Live Mix of Billie's "Girlfriend", Latto's "Big Energy", and Paramore's "Rose-Colored Boy", during their shows at the After Laughter Tour.


I don't know if "incorporated" and "interpolated" are the same thing.

Clyde said...

Anyone who has been listening to Andrew Hickey's podcast A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs knows that this is nothing new. Songs have been borrowed and repurposed with slight alterations for a long time. Songwriters in places like the Brill Building would work on creating sound-alikes for whatever was the most recent hit. The story of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" was the same sort of thing.

William said...

I was with rock from Buddy Holly to the dawn of disco. Some reggae is pretty good, but rap and hip hop are definitely not my music....So far as pop music goes, I prefer to go back rather than go forward.....I like Rosemary Clooney and Peggy Lee better than Adele or Taylor Swift. I don't have time to break in new music....I'm aware that there's a zeitgeist out there, and I have some faint yearnings to be part of it, but music is not the entry point. Nor fashion. Nor literature. Nor tattoo artists....The only place I keep up with the zeitgeist is television. I saw Stranger Things and The Squid Game. So I'm up to date when it comes to that sector of the zeitgeist which probably means that televisions shows are out of date and have been replaced by tik tok videos and tweets. Obsolescence goes with senescence like peanut butter goes with jelly.

Joe Bar said...

It's the background singers at 1:11 or so.

Mark O said...

In 1963 going steady was a thing. This song conveys that feeling, nothing particularly unusual for its time and nothing evil.

For me the greatest musical theft came when the Police stole "Stand By Me," when recording "Every Breath You Take."

Noted music critic Keith Richards effused: "I thought their reworking of Stand By Me - Every Breath You Take - was a beautiful record."

Mutaman said...

You'd think the Know Nothings would love Peggy March's song since it perfectly describes their feelings about Trump.

Ann Althouse said...

In the new Andrew Hickey podcast, he talks a lot about the use of the tune known as "How Dry I Am," which appears in “This Land is Your Land” and "You Are My Sunshine."

But that's not "interpolation." I think that word is being used for situations where you're not just stealing or copying. You're deliberately quoting the other thing and it's clever (like the Eminem thing is clever). But it's not sampling, because you're making your own recording.