How Sampling Music is to Hip-hop what Traditional Media is to Social Media for Business

By Khary Frazier

Sampling music is the art form which brought hip-hop music to prominence in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. Foundation Acts such as Afrika Bambata, Grand Master Caz, and the Sugar Hill Gang all took interpretations of Soul, Disco, Rock, and R&B music to craft the sound that became Hip-hop. Using primarily record turntables as an instrument portions of songs were ‘sampled’ and later reinterpreted to make music for rappers to perform vocal lyrics with. In the world of business today a form of ‘sampling’ is taking place between Traditional to Social media marketing.

The world of business has always changed, but in the past 20 years the changes have come faster than anyone imagined. The interconnected world we all live in through the internet has birthed an abundance of markets, and closed a series of others. The playing field for business competition is daily becoming more level. Which has led to many more start and stop, low/ no service, and bad business flooding the market. Today marketing is essential. Using social media tools to market successfully has many traits of traditional integrated marketing campaign strategies.   

An influential integrated marketing campaign establishes or reinforces a brand. In social media using a name and image that is synonymous among all social media platforms is needed. There are so many social network options to choose from developing a look that people can easily identify is important. Traditional Marketing begins with branding. This is similar to Hip-hop sampling Soul music because of the break beat. The early days of Hip-hop sampled music was always using a break in the song with generally drums. These breaks were used in the original records as places for audiences to dance. Hip-hop music was originally made as dance and part music.

Voice is the expression of the marketer in Traditional Marketing. In an effective Integrated Marketing Campaign a marketer would take into account the medium the advertisement is being placed before creating it. The medium has much to do with the style, language, and look of any advertisement. Social media use is more effective when functioning each specific site to the tastes of the users and their sensibilities. Twitter in example attracts a younger audience and is driven by the quantity of content whereas facebook is more of a personal space where users connect with messaging that has sincerity. Hip-hop sampling was segmented between East Coast and West Coast music. West Coast Hip-hop music sampled more of the Soul, Funk, and R&B that was more popular in Urban radio markets throughout the 1970’s. East Coast Hip-hop music sampled more of the Rock and Disco songs that found radio success in the 1970’s. This style of sound was sculpted to create a voice that would resonate with an understanding audience.   

Cited Works

Savage, Greg. "How To Clear Music Samples: Every Sample Based Music Producer Needs To Know This."http://www.diymusicbiz.com/. N.p., 25 May 2014. Web. 17 Oct. 2015.

Bennett, Shea. "Marketing 101 – Social Media vs Traditional Media." http://www.adweek.com. N.p., 13 July 2012. Web. 17 Oct. 2015.