How sampling transformed music | Mark Ronson

Sampling isn't about "hijacking nostalgia wholesale," says Mark Ronson. It's about inserting yourself into the narrative of a song while also pushing that story forward. Watch the DJ scramble 15 TED Talks into an audio-visual omelette, and trace the evolution of "La Di Da Di," Doug E. Fresh and Slick Rick's 1984 hit that has been reimagined for every generation since.

TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and much more.

[blankspace]

Soo happy that he got his name in front of Uptown Funk instead of just deciding to be a ghost producer and make it a "Bruno Mars" track. People like him are pivotal in bringing good changes to pop music.

[rahulnath]

His accent is the most curious mix of New York and British I've ever heard

[cherrycrushification]

Mark Ronson is an underrated genius.  A true, versatile musician.  Adapts ALL styles to his own and this is a rare quality in dj/producer/musicians.

[Gypsea]

Mark Ronson is by far one of the most underrated musicians of our century! What a brilliant man

[sidwahi]

This audience needs to be like 20 years younger

[laureng.]

You may not like Mark Ronson, but you cannot deny he is talented and pays respect to those who came before him. I've seen people complain that he comes from a privileged background thus making his accomplishments without work, but I disagree. Yes, he had opportunities others may not, but he has used those opportunities to learn and work. I don't like all of his music but I cannot say it's all terrible. Look at his work with Amy Winehouse, for example. He has an eclectic taste that allows for interesting music.

Anyway, Mark is obviously talented and very aware of the music scene past and present. I respect him for that.

[roasty]

I have a new respect for ronson. he scratches and uses an mpc and knows the history of music.

[jinxieunlucky]

Watching someone making music live like this makes me appreciate musicians so much more. A lot of people like to make fun of it with the whole "Oh, you play the macbook?" argument, but it takes skill to do what he's doing. Not only do you have to be musically minded, you have to be able to think outside the box to make music with unconventional means.

[georgeroukas]

Easily one of my favorite Ted talks ever, and I’ve listened to a lot of them. Ronson talks about music and the way it affects him, the way it makes him feel, but with such precision and articulate style it makes you do a double take. I know his name from some of the songs he’s worked on — now I’m going to go looking for his music. Thanks to Ted for treating us to this talk.

[DavidDiMuzio]

Damn, this almost made me cry it was so beautiful. I'm now a Mark Ronson fan. Way to go man!

[jamesoncreek]

Damn the beats with the TED talk song... LIT

[ivlitb]

Ive never seen a musician hate on sampling, its always the random listeners who never done music before that thinks sampling is stealing 🤦🏻‍♀️

[Gizmotechno]

Wow, so many annoying comments on this video. Let me just make something clear here. I'm a self-taught multi-instrumentalist myself(guitar, keyboard, drums), I've played and worked with musicians from all sorts genres, from heavy metal to indian classical music and so many things in between. Being exposed to all these different creative thought processes you start to expand your understanding of music as well, and something I've realised is, there is no good music and bad music, there's music that you "get" and music that you "don't get" yet. This is the reason having an open mind is so important to being creative, it allows you to see why something is appealing to other humans, and then  see what your take on it can be. Sampling can be seen as one way of doing this. Suppose I like an tamil folk drum beat and want to have that feel in a song that I'm making, I could either find a musician, take him to the studio, make him play what I want, and then record it and use the recorded piece or I could spend time, learn how to play the instrument, then record it and then use that, or I could spend a lot of time listening to a lot of tamil folk music searching for the type of drum beat that you want, clear the sample, then use the sample. The end product, that is, the track, isn't going to be all that different in all of the cases, yet each one of the methods will take you on completely different journeys, each one just as legit as the other, with the session musician, you'll get to know about the person and his community, in the second case, you get to learn a new instrument, or in the final case, where you sample the beat, the countless hours spent researching and listening to so many of those songs leaves you with a much better understanding and a much better appreciation for that genre of music.
So, just because some one is playing a guitar in the studio or on stage doesn't mean he's more creative than a musician who's sampled something for a track, not at all, the guitarist could be playing the same chord progression that every other rock band has been playing, and that is not being creative, that's stagnating in a comfort zone(which is not bad, if that's what you want to express). A true test of creativity is to see how far you can break the general norms in the structures of music, and yet still keep it appealing. In the end, music isn't a competition of whose better than who, it is an art form, a means of creative expression.

[samspence]

"I can sort of bully our existences into a shared event." Love that quote.

[bravetherainbow]

He's so charismatic in a particular way I would not have expected from him

just trying to imagine what a Diplo TED talk would look and sound like compared to this

[diosundoro]

How is he 40 years old? If I didn't see his bio, I would think he just graduated from a college.

[FilththeEnablerTV]

"Hip-Hop never invented anything, but it re-invented everything."

[MusicIsLife-uhlo]

Come on guys. Even heavily praised guys like The Beatles and Led Zeppelin took lyrics/riffs from guys like chuck Berry and Muddy Waters. Sampling isn't stealing as covers aren't stealing.Good music is good music regardless if its sampled or not(as long as the credit the original of course ).

[benalichante]

11:58 Hahaha it really is true, Mark became a Miley fan in 2014 after seeing her in SNL and stalked her to get to do "Nothing Breaks Like A Heart" together, now he's doing her album! I'm in heaven!

[allysmith]

I could watch this man work/talk all day what a bloody modern genius with an old school soul that will transcend history!