A one-to-three-page summary of Schloss’s entire book,Making Beats In his book “Making beats: The Art of sample-based hip-hop”, musical scholar Joseph Schloss extensively explores the hip-hop community, its values, and its aesthetic. Furthermore, Schloss also focuses on methods producers utilize to create hip-hop music. Each chapter is dedicated to a certain aspect of hip-hop culture and the very process of creating a hip-hop record. In the first chapter, which is also the introduction of the book, the author discusses the methods he used to collect data for his research on hip hop culture. He interviewed producers, MCs, deejays, hip-hop fans, and others he found suitable. Schloss’s fieldwork was very similar to the educational process which music producers undergo, but with the exception of him producing a book (Schloss, 2000). Shloss referred to the important question of “what does it mean to be hip-hop” and its relationship to African American culture as a central question of this study (Schloss, 2000). The author took an approach of participant observation from which he benefited greatly as he was constantly analyzing and interpreting data gathered from different members of the community. It is important to highlight, Schloss himself is part of the community as he started listening to hip hop in the mid-1980. Therefore, he did not transcribe beats as previous scholars did as it broke the values and rules of the community ( ethical implications of transcribing a beat). Finally, the introduction ends on an important point from Mr. Supreme, one of the producers Schloss interviewed, “is hip hop considered music?”. The argument against hip hop as music is implied in the statement that if the hip-hop producers did not use the live instruments to create the record itself then this hip-hop record is not considered art. However, this argument would also assert that if the artist does not make their own paint when painting a picture, the painting itself is not considered to be art. Therefore, hip-hop production is about creating different sounds and making something new from the preexisting. The second chapter presents the history of sampling in hip-hop. Schloss also highlights some technological inventions that influenced the practice of sampling. This chapter also defines the term “break” and its value to the practice of sampling. Schloss also elaborates on the very process of becoming a hip hop producer as well as correlating producing with deejaying aspects (most of the hip-hop producers were first dee-jays). The chapter also expands on the correlation and differences between manipulating turntables and digital sampling production. Sections within the second chapter (collective and individual history) further implicate the relationship between an individual and the community when it comes to hip-hop production. “Inventions will only be accepted if they conform to the preexisting aesthetic, however as they are accepted they will subtly change the aesthetic” is one of the
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