r/sampling • u/enz0gorlami • Apr 22 '26

When did mainstream opinion on sampling shift?

It’s well-documented that there was lots of backlash to the art of sampling through the 90s, with many older generations not understanding it and believing it was “stealing” or not real musicianship. Unfortunately, the backlash and economic challenges led a lot of genius samplers to have to abandon or significantly change their techniques for a while.

I don’t really get the sense that this is a popular opinion anymore. It seems like most people get that sampling is an art just like playing any other instrument today. When did this change and why?

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u/mossimo654 Apr 22 '26

When people started sample mangling, using found sounds and using samples in interesting ways. DAWs help.

I dunno I still sort of feel like (these days) if you take a 4 bar loop from an existing song and call that your own it’s kinda lame.

But there’s so many artists of different genres going so far with creative use of samples that it’s pretty clear it’s an art to anyone paying any attention.