Sampling is neither theft nor tribute. Samplers are musical instruments.
A musical instrument is a machine (regardless of simplicity or complexity) which is used to make music. Sampling is no different to composing- every note has been played, every chord has been played so there is no 'original' music left, merely simulacra. The only difference between hearing a guitar being played to make a G chord and listening to the same chord coming from a sampler is in your cultural expectation.

Trying to argue that music made with samplers, computers or turntables is somehow 'inferior' or 'not real music' is pretty much the same as claiming that a novel typed using a computer isn't real writing because the author didn't use a pen. You should maybe go and read some Buroughs , Baudrillard and Barthes.

There is terrible, hackneyed, derivative music on both sides of the acoustic/electric divide.

And anyway, computers and samplers can do so much more with sound than can be achieved with traditional instruments.

EDIT: And once it's been recorded, it's a sample anyway. Is the OP seriously suggesting that the only worthwhile music is live? I sincerely hope not.
(dozers, do fuck off ur a nob m8, Tue 25 Oct 2011, 21:28, 2 replies, latest was 14 years ago)

I hate agreeing with you
but I do
( Citizen Cavy Admires your passion for conformity, Tue 25 Oct 2011, 21:30, Reply)

Sorry, but I can't take your comment there seriously.
It was composed using electronic means. You should have used a quill pen. I could just about countenance a fountain pen. But nothing more advanced than that.
(dozers, do fuck off ur a nob m8, Tue 25 Oct 2011, 21:32, Reply)

Sampling started in music long before computers or turntables became widespread.
Karlheinz Stockhausen's "Hymnen" (1966) is one of the strongest and most extensive pieces based entirely on samples of other music, in this case national anthems.

Also, the earliest reasonably well-known piece to use a record player as an instrument in its own right is generally thought to be John Cage's "Imaginary Landscape No. 1" (1939).
( The Mock TurtIe ™ --- Thinks you are a cunt, on, Tue 25 Oct 2011, 22:03, Reply)

I know this.
My point was that being a manipulation of a prerecorded sound does not disqualify it from being considered music.
(dozers, do fuck off ur a nob m8, Tue 25 Oct 2011, 22:06, Reply)

Agreed.

( The Mock TurtIe ™ --- Thinks you are a cunt, on, Tue 25 Oct 2011, 22:15, Reply)

But the most important question is...
Would you do bad, bad things with and to Rihanna? This may involve leashes, whipped cream, stockings, red noses and vaseline.
(dozers, do fuck off ur a nob m8, Tue 25 Oct 2011, 22:19, Reply)

Maybe, if I could overlook her resemblance to the Mekon from Dan Dare.

( The Mock TurtIe ™ --- Thinks you are a cunt, on, Tue 25 Oct 2011, 22:22, Reply)

I see no resemblance.

(dozers, do fuck off ur a nob m8, Tue 25 Oct 2011, 22:28, Reply)

Must just be me then.

( The Mock TurtIe ™ --- Thinks you are a cunt, on, Tue 25 Oct 2011, 22:33, Reply)

Must be.
I wouldn't touch the Mekon with yours.
(dozers, do fuck off ur a nob m8, Tue 25 Oct 2011, 22:34, Reply)