Robin Stone discovered that her 90s house hit Show Me Love was sampled on Break My Soul, the lead single from Beyoncé’s new album Renaissance, at the same time as everyone else. As a performer rather than a writer and producer of the song, her approval is not required to clear its use – and she receives no income from it.
While Stone sees the nod as a compliment and confirmation of her 30-year fitness, it also brings up old wounds. The songwriters, Allen George and Fred McFarlane “never gave me the credit I deserved”, she said. “This first note is mine, the ad-libs are all mine, I add flavor. They eat at my table and I feed their families for more than 30 years.”
Stone wasn’t the only artist who was shocked by the use of their music on the Renaissance. This week, Beyoncé pulled a remix — a genre that sees songs re-recorded and often remixed — of Kelis’s 2003 hit Milkshake from the song Energy after the latter publicly criticized Beyoncé. public because she does not have “common sense” to inform her. . According to Kelis, the incident sparked another controversy involving the song’s songwriters, Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo of the Neptunes, who she claims “cheated” her out of the rights to publish the two songs they did together.
Hayleigh Bosher, author of Copyright in the Music Industry, said Beyoncé didn’t need to remove the link for legal reasons but seems to have done so out of respect — and perhaps out of public understanding.
“It doesn’t matter that Beyonce didn’t violate Kelis’ rights,” Bosher said. “The point is that people think she did it because the public doesn’t know about music copyright. [Kelis] doesn’t have a legal position but by speaking out on social media, she’s creating with great emotion and character.”
The discourse surrounding the Renaissance opens up questions about the politics of product in contemporary pop. Today, modeling is big business. In the credits for the 16-track Renaissance, there are nods to 17 other songs. Meanwhile, half of the UK’s current top 10 singles list features samples, ranging from parts of Silk’s 1979 single I Can’t Stop (You’re Playing) to 2009 published In for Kill by La Roux.
As producer and collaborator Beyoncé the-Dream said this week, the product began to grow with the rise of hip-hop almost 50 years ago, when models were used to fix many values due to lack of money. Today, with hip-hop the most popular genre in the United States, and dance – a type of heavy-weight product – experiencing a renaissance, products are the prerequisites for chart success.
While Beyoncé seems to be careful about giving away all of her products, not doing so — or being accused of not doing so — brings the possibility of a costly lawsuit once the music is released. In 2017, Ed Sheeran added tributes to the three writers of TLC’s No Scrubs to his song, Shape of You, after he was accused of lifting the song from the 90s hit.
The song originally featured a sample of TLC that was released prior to its release. The root of the dispute, says Bosher, is “the playing of a part of the song that is somewhat similar”. As a result, Sheeran offered 15% of the Shape of You hit royalties, which is “a lot for such a small part of the song”, she said.
The difference between interpolation and direct sampling is a potential source of controversy. Interpolation is often used for creative purposes – to reinterpret old releases and give historical value to songs. However, there are signs that record labels prefer the former because they only need to clear one set of rights – the publications, rather than those attached to the main record – to avoid sacrificing income.
A music industry worker with a large label is ruining this. “The code doesn’t dictate anything about what’s created in the studio. You can’t tell an artist what song to try.”
But they admit that artists may be encouraged to intervene to avoid taking too long to clear the rights, which could delay the song’s release date. This is why the UK summer hit, Fear of Hearing and LF Series, intervened with Silk’s I Can’t Stop (You’re On) instead of making direct products.
Amber Davis, who works with artists including Stormzy and Dave at Warner Chappell Music, said: “In this current environment, where you want to drop a song next week or you’re doing a show that has product, the pressure of turning time. it’s very sensitive.”
While Davis would like to see more original work overall, it doesn’t look like widespread product work is going to die anytime soon. In recent years, investors have bought a large number of albums from artists including Leonard Cohen and Justin Timberlake to accumulate capital and expect a good return. “Songs finding new life is what most of these investments are building their futures on,” said the music industry expert.
