Modern Tin Pan Alley: Chord Progressions, Melodies, Sampling, and the Music Industry

To the public the Grammy’s is an award show where musical proficiency and creativity is awarded. To artists in the music in the music industry there exists an undercurrent where other musicians are getting recognition by ripping-off other artists music and lyrics. In the latest Grammy Awards Coldplay won the coveted Song of the Year award for their song “Viva la Vida.” Great controversy exists about this award because this song undoubtedly resembles a song recorded about five years ago by guitar virtuoso Joe Satriani titled “If I Could Fly.” Coldplay's song is musically very similar if not exactly what Satriani composed the only difference is that Coldplay had a lyricist singing the melody he arranged on the guitar. Despite Satriani filing a claim of copyright infringement before the Grammy Awards, Coldplay still won the song of the year. Interestingly, Satriani was rooting for the song to win because it would mean his song won an award and he would receive more money upon his successful lawsuit against them (click on the picture of Joe Satriani on the left to hear clips from both songs). This practice of re-appropriation dates back to a time period called Tin Pan Alley, which went from about 1885 to 1930. Also, classical era composers appropriated chord progressions and melodies from other composers. During the Tin Pan Alley era of music publication “song composers were hired under contract giving the publisher exclusive rights to popular composer's works. The market was surveyed to determine what style of song was selling best and then the composers were directed to compose in that style. Once written, a song was actually tested with both performers and listeners to determine which would be published and which would go to the trash bin.” It is widely understood that during this time composers would attempt to replicate already popular songs with either similar chord progressions or similar melodies accompanied by different chords. The goal during the Tin Pan Alley days of songwriting was purely to make a profit from a composition. Why is this important? It is important because it resembles the climate of the music industry today as evidenced by mega pop groups like Coldplay as well as other genres of music such as rap and hip-hop. Since the emergence of hip-hop, a practice similar to the replication during tin-pan alley, has been used to write songs. This practice is called sampling. The problem with what Coldplay did, and artists who use sampling, is that they do not give any credit to the people they sample, and in Coldplay's case, blatantly copy.

Arists have been using the same chord progressions since the rock genre began. The difference between using the same chords and the sampling that is used in hip-hop music is that the rap/hip-hop artists take already recorded material and put it into their songs, otherwise known as sampling. In “modern-day sampling" it is necessary to use the actual sound recorded by the original artist. Musicians in a sense sample when they use the same chord progressions in a song, but this type of sampling is different because they actually take their instruments into the studio and use them during the recording process. "For example, versions of the folk song ‘In The Pines,’ alternatively known as ‘Where Did You Sleep Last Night,’ have been recorded in 160 different variations by such varied artists" like jazz saxophonist, Bill Monroe, and Seatle grunge-rockers, Nirvana. Even though rock groups and artists copy chord progressions like Tom Petty did in his song “Last Dance With Mary Jane,” which resembles Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young’s song “Almost Cut My Hair,” but at least the way these two songs sound is entirely distinct. The practice of sampling gives the original composer little or no credit while the artist who used the previously recorded material makes all the money for doing a relatively low amount of work when it is taken into consideration that the musician who recorded the track had to become proficient on their instrument, as well as spend long hours in the studio getting each part perfect for the recording. Rap and hip-hop artists are literally taking melodies, chords, and even lyrics from previously recorded songs dating back to the Tin Pan Alley time period, allowing them to eliminate the use of musicians in a studio due to the fact the music they are using is taken from a song already recorded and released. While economical, because these artists can spend less time and money on musicians to record their albums, there is controversy associated with artists who use samples without crediting where the sample came from and the dispute as to who really should make the money comes into play.

The hip-hop group Run DMC had a hit where they copied the song title and main riff from Aerosmith’s song “Walk This Way.” Surprisingly, Aerosmith took this as a compliment and the groups combined to make a version of “Walk This Way” together. Also, Grand Master Flash recorded a song titled “The Adventures of Grand Master Flash on the Wheels of Steel” (click on the picture of Grandmaster Flash on the right to hear this song) where he shows his audience how well he can sample. In this one song he samples multiple artists including Chic, Queen, Sugarhill Gang, Spoonie Gee meets the Sequence, Blondie, and even himself. While it is interesting to listen to, Grandmaster Flash hardly attempted to give his own spin to the songs he sampled, unlike Tom Petty and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, who may not have even realized their two songs were the same, except where two chords would have to be switched with each other to make them identical chord progressions. This is not to say that there is no creativity involved in rap and hip-hop songs. By definition "Sampling is a music-making technique that incorporates a portion of a previously existing sound recording - sometimes in an altered form - into a new work." The description of what sampling is explains that it is a creative act to sample. Rap/hip-hop came into being because of the message delivered by the lyricist in order to unite and inspire communities where poverty and crime ran rampant. Messages delivered by lyricists or MC’s were originally messages talking about common issues in their living environment. It is important to note that some very prolific artists despise the practice of sampling such as Paul McCartney and Prince who describe sampling as "simple piracy;" however, some artists, namely Clyde Subblefeld, "the most sampled musician, was happy when hip-hop revived his own forgotten music." This is important to consider. Sampling could be a way to rekindle the fire of the music industry if artists who sampled material merely had to state where they got the components that make up each of their songs. There is creativity involved in the lyrics and effectively sampling music. Creating a song from an already recorded song or songs is no doubt a form of art. There just needs to be some modifications letting listeners know what artists have been sampled in a song and compensating the original artists for their material. 

In order to foster creativity changes need to be made to prevent issues like the Coldplay and Joe Satriani lawsuit, as well as crediting artists sampled in rap/hip-hop songs. If rap and hip hop artists had to reveal to listeners who they sampled in their songs, even though it is only a few seconds used in the sample it could contribute to helping the music industry’s revival. That way listeners could see who was sampled, even when the original artist sampled is not getting paid due to the length of time the artist re-appropriating the music is using, listeners would be able to buy the original songs used by artists who sample today. Using the aforementioned method for sampling would mean more money to the record labels, which could then sign more artists and take more risks with who they sign. This way, artists who are not within the usual restrictions of popular music because they push the envelope more could have a greater chance at success in today’s music market. While re-appropriation of chord progressions has occured since music existed, it is important to remember where the music came from. And, now with sampling added to the way songs are created, it is especially important for people to know the roots of what they are listening to.