Copyright management and its effect on the sampling practice of UK dance music producers

Abstract

This article draws on qualitative data gained from interviews with a number of established UK dance music producers. Consideration is given to how sampling practice developed in the UK, including the influence of American hip-hop pioneers, the ethical rules that the producers apply to their use of samples, and the extent to which their compositional methods and creative choices have adapted in response to increasingly exacting copyright enforcement. It is argued that copyright and its application is one of a number of affordances and constraints, be they technological, industrial, sociocultural or legal that help to shape the creative practice of these producers.