My Role as a Social Media Influencer - I Take it Seriously..... So Should You.

SCROLL DOWN 

OMG! For a split second, you took me seriously,

dear friend. You shoulda seen the look on your face!

I hope you never make that mistake again. You should

know by now that the only thing I want to influence

you to buy is my brand of humor, and the only thing

I want to influence you to do is to sing, dance,

laugh and have fun. With that in mind, I'll

reveal the actual title of today's post: 

Let's All Play -

Name That Sample!

I can't tell you how many times per day,

(maybe 10 or more, maybe even a hundred!)

people come up to me on the street and

ask the following question:

"WHAT IS SAMPLING?"

Actually the number of times is zero. It's never
happened... but I'm gonna tell you anyway.

Sampling is the process of taking a portion of one sound recording
and making it part of another sound recording. Hip hop was the
first pop music genre based on the art of sampling. The craze
started in the 70s with deejays playing vinyl records on twin
turntables and, using a mixer, creatively combining them
to make new dance sounds. In today's post I bring you
five 21st century recordings that sample five hits of
the 20th century. Please listen to all five songs and
see if you can Name That Sample - name the old
recording sampled in the more recent recording.

SONG #1:

THE PUSSYCAT DOLLS

ft. will.i.am

The Pussycat Dolls were a Los Angeles based girl group and dance troupe
that specialized in R&B, pop, hip hop and dance music. will.i.am is a

hip hop artist and producer also from LA. In 2006 the two acts
came together on the international hit single "Beep."

"Beep" - The Pussycat Dolls ft. will.i.am

(Feb. 2006, highest chart pos. #13 Hot 100/#2 UK,

#1 Australia & New Zealand, from Sept. 2005 album PCD)

SONG #2:

RIHANNA

Rihanna is a R&B and dance-pop singer from Barbados now

based in New York. In 2006 Rihanna topped the U.S. pop, dance

and top 40 charts with her international hit single "SOS."

"SOS" - Rihanna

(Feb. 2006, highest chart pos. #1 Hot 100,
#1 U.S. Dance Club Songs, #1 U.S. Mainstream Top 40,

#2 UK/#1 Australia, from Apr. 2006 album A Girl like Me)

SONG #3:

JOJO

She hails from Foxborough, Mass. Her real name is Joanna Noëlle
Blagden Levesque. Wisely the young pop/R&B singer chose "JoJo"
as her stage name. In 2007 JoJo reached the top 40 on the U.S.
Pop Songs chart and brushed the UK top 20 with "Anything."

"Anything" - JoJo

(May 2007, highest chart pos. #38 U.S. Pop Songs,
#21 UK, #18 Ireland, from Oct. 2006 album The High Road)

START PLAYING VIDEO
AT 1:45 MARK!

SONG #4:

MISSY ELLIOT

Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliot is a hip hop/R&B singer

from Portsmouth, Virginia. In 2006 Missy went

top 50 U.S., top 40 UK, top 25 in Australia

with the funky number "We Run This."

"We Run This" - Missy Elliot

(Feb. 2006, highest chart pos. #48 Hot 100, #38 UK,
#23 Australia, from July 2005 album The Cookbook,
Sept. 2006 album Respect M.E. & OST of 2006 movie Stick It)

START PLAYING VIDEO
AT 1:10 MARK!

SONG #5:

MADONNA

In 2005/2006 Madonna, The Queen of Pop, topped charts

worldwide with the album Confessions on a Dance Floor,

a set of songs influenced by 1970s and 80s disco.

"Hung Up," the lead single from the album,

was also an international hit.

"Hung Up" - Madonna

("LaRCS" - "Live and Record Combined Stereo") 

(Oct. 2005, highest chart pos. #1 U.S. Dance Club Songs,
#1 UK, #1 in 18 other countries, from Nov. 2005

album Confessions On a Dance Floor)

How many samples were

you able to name?

(SCROLL DOWN TO SEE THE ANSWERS)

ANSWERS

SONG #1:

"Beep" by The Pussycat Dolls ft. will.i.am samples "Evil Woman,"
the 1975 hit by the English rock band Electric Light Orchestra (ELO).

START PLAYING VIDEO AT 2:40

MARK TO HEAR THE SAMPLE!

SONG #2:

"SOS" by Rihanna samples "Tainted Love," the

1981/82 hit by the English synthpop duo Soft Cell.

SONG #3

"Anything" by JoJo samples "Africa,"

the 1982 hit by the American rock band Toto.

SONG #4

"We Run This" by Missy Elliot samples "Apache,"
the 1982 hit by The Sugarhill Gang

SONG #5

"Hung Up" by Madonna samples "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!

(A Man After Midnight)," the 1979 hit by the

Swedish pop supergroup ABBA.

How many sampled songs were you

able to name? Check below to

determine your sampling I.Q.:

ALL 5 RIGHT:

Samply sensational!

3 OR 4 RIGHT:

Samply sufficient!

1 OR 2 RIGHT:

Samply seek some support.

0 RIGHT:

Sample Simon says

put on the dunce cap

and start studying!

Have a samply Shady Day!

BREAKING BADASS!

I am..... Dracula!

You might remember my band, The Twilights,

and our monster hit "Transylvania 6-5000."

It was big in our neck of the woods.

Tonight... as the full moon rises...

I  command  invite you to join me

as I introduce another fang-tastic

group. To my delight... all of its

members share a blood bond. 

I SUCK... THEY DON'T.

YO, DRAC - BITE ME, BITCH!
(On second thought... don't.)

I'm Jesse Pinkman, and I don't mean no disrespect,
pops, but Mr. Knight and I are partners, see, and
we got this. We're running the show and we
don't need any help from the likes of you,
so flap your wings and take off!

Now here's Mr. Knight to introduce
this super cool band!

Thanks, Jesse. This is a coming of age

story about The Cristeas - five young

siblings, three brothers & two sisters,

who live in the Los Angeles area.

Like the Partridge Family, Cowsills,

Donny and Marie and The Osmond

Brothers, the Cristeas are a musical

family. The sibs are members of a

rock band that 's riding a tidal wave

of popularity across the country.

Their father manages the band

and produces their recordings. 

We begin our journey with a video from April 2013. The children

were all in their places with sun-shiny faces, looking very much

like they were posing for a family portrait. Sweetness and

innocence were the order of the day as they performed

a cover of "Stay," an international hit by

Rihanna feat. Mikky Ekko. 

"Stay" - Rihanna ft. Mikky Ekko
cover by The Cristeas (April 2013)

Fast forward to December 2014. The Cristeas still looked and sounded
squeaky clean as they sent us a Christmas greeting in the form of a
song entitled  "Ho Hey," a cover of the 2012 worldwide hit by
the American folk rock band The Lumineers.

"Ho Hey" - The Lumineers
cover by The Cristeas (Dec. 2014)

 L I L I A C 

With the passing of time comes change. It is now September 2015.

The band of brothers and sisters has a new name, Liliac, and a new look,

sound and attitude. A metamorphosis is underway. Clearly the cute kids

are becoming real rockers as they do the Troggs' monster "Wild Thing."

 "Wild Thing" - The Troggs 
 cover by The Cristeas/Liliac 
 (September 2015) 

Pair-mit me to interrupt you, Mr. Knight.

You have conveniently

left out one very

important part of

the story, one very

interesting fact.

You failed to mention

that the Cristea family

has its roots in the

old country!

HEY...

DON'T EVEN

GO THERE, BRO!

I told you before,

Grandpa Munster,

Mr. Knight and I are

handling this post.

 

We don't need you chimin' in every two seconds.

So why don't you just dry up and blow away?

ARE YA FEELIN'

ME, BITCH?

It's okay, Jesse. Calm down. Now that

Dracula has let the bat out of the bag,

so to speak, it's time for readers to know

the whole story. Liliac, the Cristea kids,

these adorable poppers turned rockers,

are the children of Florin Cristea, who

grew up in Transylvania, Romania, not

far from Castle Dracula. Florin came to

America where he met and married Nineta,

also born in Romania. The couple settled

in Southern California to raise a family.

The rest, as you are seeing and hearing

in this post, is rock history. Now let's

continue to follow the timeline. 

Two more years pass. It is December 2017, and the Transylvanian transformation is
complete. Now one of the great up-and-coming bands in rock, Liliac erases all doubts
about their cred with a cover of Metallica's classic "Enter Sandman." Keep your eyes
and ears on the act's hottest attractions, the three oldest children, all in their teens.
Watch and listen as Samuel shreds on lead guitar, Aby kicks butt on drums and
younger sister Melody, absolutely KILLS on lead vocals and bass guitar.
Melody says she was first influenced to sing rock by one of my favorites,
Ronnie James Dio, the late, great frontman of Elf, Rainbow, Sabbath, Dio,
and Heaven & Hell. As you are about to hear, Melody does a superb job of
channeling Dio and other legendary masters of metal including, in this
performance, Metallica's James Hetfield. I have to be honest. When I
watched this video for the first time, I thought that I was listening
to the Metallica recording with the Cristea kids doing a fantastic
lip sync. Imagine how astonished I was to realize that this
amazing sound was actually produced by the Liliac band.
Behold the rock resurrection, the rock reincarnation.
They are fierce. They are bold. They are mighty.
They are... Liliac!

 "Enter Sandman" - Metallica 
 cover by Liliac (Dec. 2017) 

Few groups can match the musicianship, spirit and grandeur of an act like Iron Maiden,
one of the pioneer bands of the so-called New Wave of British Heavy Metal in the 70s
and 80s. Liliac proves their metal mettle in a video that dropped two weeks ago.
As you will see the two youngest members of the band, Ethan on rhythm guitar
and Justin on keyboards, are now coming into their own as rock showmen.
Witness another spectacular performance by a band that's for real,
a band that is making believers out of hardcore metal heads
and, week by week, winning new fans all over the world.
Feel the unbridled excitement as Liliac performs
Iron Maiden's "The Trooper."

 "The Trooper" - Iron Maiden 
 cover by Liliac (Sept. 2018) 

Marty Balin, the primary founder of

Jefferson Airplane, died three days

ago here in Tampa. One day later,

Liliac released their cover of the

Airplane's first and best known

hit, one of the most important

songs to come out of the 1960s

West Coast counterculture scene.

The Cristeas do the song justice

and honor the memory of rock

pioneer Marty Balin. I think

you will find every reason

to love Liliac's version of

"Somebody To Love!" 

 "Somebody To Love" 

 - Jefferson Airplane 
 cover by Liliac (Sept. 2018) 

Liliac has a dream...

to change the world one song at a time.

If anyone can do it... they can!

Dawn will soon break.

I think I'll grab a bite before bed.

I could go for a Bloody Mary.

Fangs for being here tonight.

I hope you enjoyed the post.

(It's much more pleasant than a stake.)

I'd like to have you for dinner

sometime soon. Until then, I will

satisfy my craving with Adam's apple.

Yeah whatever,

Uncle Fester.

Knock yourself out.

Meanwhile, find out

what's cookin' on

my hit TV show

Breaking Bad

now screaming streaming on Netflix!