WhoSampled – My father is a big time music lover, and when the two of us talk about today’s music trends and styles, he sternly claims “there is no new music that’s 100% original and worth listening to, because most of the new ‘good’ music is based on covers and samples of oldies.” Do you agree with my father? I guess he’s right since according to WhoSampled, “2009 was a phenomenal year for sample-based music. Looking at the list of U.S. number-one singles of 2009 to date, it’s astonishing to see that no less than 6 out of 13 are based on samples: Crack a Bottle, Right Round, Poker Face, I Gotta Feeling, Whatcha Say and Empire State of Mind.”

WhoSample is “building the ultimate database of sampled music and cover songs.” This means that if your sought-after tune isn’t entirely original, you will find it here. Some interesting things worth exploring are the most sampled and top sampling artists lists offered by the site. I assumed Michael Jackson will be the artist most sampled, but was surprised to see he only came second after James Brown. I admire both stars, so see below Funky Drummer by James Brown – sampled by many artists, and Don’t Stop The Music by Rihianna  – sampling Michael Jackson’s Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’. Enjoy!