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Sampling Media digs deep into sampling practices across audio-visual media, from found footage filmmaking to Internet "memes" that repurpose music videos, trailers and news broadcasts. The book extends the conceptual boundaries of sampling by emphasizing its inter-medial dimensions, exploring its politics, and examining its historical and global scope.
About the author
David Laderman is Professor of Film at the College of San Mateo. He has also taught film and media studies at the University of California, Davis, San Francisco State University and Stanford University. His previous publications include Driving Visions: Exploring the Road Movie (2002) and Punk Slash Musicals: Tracking Slip-Sync on Film (2010).
Laurel Westrup has a Ph.D. in Cinema and Media Studies from UCLA, where she is currently a Lecturer in Writing Programs. She also teaches courses in Film and Electronic Arts at CSU Long Beach. Her work has appeared in the journals Film and History and Spectator.
Summary
This book puts sampling studies on the academic map by focusing on sampling as a logic of exchange between audio-visual media. While some recent scholarship has addressed sampling primarily in relation to copyright, this book is a first: a critical study of sampling and remixing across audio-visual media. Of special interest here are works that bring together both audio and visual sampling: music that samples film and television; underground dance and multimedia scenes that rely on sampling; Internet "memes" that repurpose music videos, trailers and news broadcasts; films and videos that incorporate a wide range of sampling aesthetics; and other provocative variations. Comprised of four sections titled "roots," "scenes," "cinema" and "web" this collection digs deep into and across sampling practices that intervene in popular culture from unconventional or subversive perspectives. To this end, Sampling Media extends the conceptual boundaries of sampling by emphasizing its inter-medial dimensions, exploring the politics of sampling practice beyond copyright law, and examining its more marginal applications. It likewise puts into conversation compelling instances of sampling from a wide variety of historical and contemporary, global and local contexts.
Additional text
Sampling Media is a startlingly insightful collection that explores the wide array of cultural practices associated with sampling culture in all of its vibrant diversity. The essays, which cover a remarkable set of approaches to hybrid media practices from high art to pop culture, are assembled with the nuance and precision of any great playlist.
