WhoSampled.com - Discuss Music Samples & Cover Songs

No musician is aloof to the art of sampling. Even Paul Weller did it in one of his latest albums (“Illumination”), and that speaks for itself.

If we were to analyze it, we could compare such a practice to the literary device entitled appropriation, a process whereby an auteur takes a small portion of text like a verse from a poem and places in a context of its own, creating something new from something that had a clearly-defined shape to begin with.



This new product that is created can be more or less recognizable. It all depends upon the context in which the sample is placed – the artist can make the sampling be more evident and the original inspiration be more explicit some times. However, if you want to have an unequivocal guide of who has sampled what, this website is certainly something to keep in mind. It lets you browse a comprehensive collection of samples both by artist and by year, and see what has inspired who without on the spot. As they put it, “Exploring and discussing the DNA of music has never been easier”.