Favorite Video of the Week: Amen Break

Video describing the history of the “Amen Break”, a sample used in everything from NWA to Jungle to car commercials. Fascinating stuff for music geeks like me!

From the Youtube description:

This fascinating, brilliant 20-minute video narrates the history of the “Amen Break,” a six-second drum sample from the b-side of a chart-topping single from 1969. This sample was used extensively in early hiphop and sample-based music, and became the basis for drum-and-bass and jungle music — a six-second clip that spawned several entire subcultures. Nate Harrison’s 2004 video is a meditation on the ownership of culture, the nature of art and creativity, and the history of a remarkable music clip.

Some claim the popularity of the drum break can be attributed to the Golden Ratio.

4 thoughts on “Favorite Video of the Week: Amen Break

  1. g727 says:

    that piece was made by a buddy of mine

    nkhstudio.com/

    check it out…..he is gonna be around for the ela dj show in june…..g727.org

    spread the word and please invite your pops to our workshops….

  2. johnk says:

    The KLF’s old article about making a hit song points out that (at the time) beats or groove cannot be copyrighted. Melodies and lyrics, the foci of European music, are protected, but rhythm, the focus of African and many other ethnic musics, are not. Legal racism.

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