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Reyes 1
Rodrigo Reyes Professor Stoner English 1301
24 September 2023
Rhetorical Analysis: “How Sampling Transformed Music” Have you ever listened to a song, be it on radio, Spotify, or any type of media and recognized a sample of another song in it? It could range from a small vocal sample, a melody, the bass line, up to just a single instrument or sound from another song? The options are endless for a creative music producer. In his TED talk “How Sampling Transformed Music” music producer and DJ Mark Ronson argues that sampling has changed music forever. He illustrates how music has changed in recent times and will keep doing so, lists some examples of sampling and demonstrates it live to the audience. Ronson conveys his point of such a unique concept to the audience by using some of the three rhetorical appeals. Ronson successfully uses ethos, logos, and repetition throughout his talk by mixing live in front of his audience, playing famous songs and samples, as well as giving detailed statistics helping the audience better understand the
topic as well as prove his credibility.
From the very start Ronson hooks the audience by playing and mixing music which helps
him build credibility. Ronson starts his TED talk in a unique and unconventional way - the very first thing you hear is music. He begins by playing the TED Talks Online Song, then he goes on to mixing it live, by slowing it down adding some kicks and drums and finally using multiple samples from past TED talks. By doing this, the audience can perceive and get a sense of what the talk is going to be about. Ronson mixing live helps him to create credibility for himself as an established producer and DJ. Playing and mixing live during his TED talk also helps to
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demonstrate Ronson’s skill in and knowledge of music, that in part gives him credibility with the
audience. An excellent example of the use of ethos in Ronson’s talk occurs when he refers to his career as a producer working with the famous Amy Winehouse. He states “You have to take an element of those things and then bring something fresh and new to it, which was something that I
learned when I was working with the late, amazing Amy Winehouse on her album Back-to-
Back”. Here Ronson mentions his experience collaborating with the famous artist and Grammy winner Amy Winehouse and his involvement in her big album Back-to-Back. This helps to boost
his credibility as an artist and producer by demonstrating that he is knowledgeable of the subject matter as well as the music industry. Additionally, logos also plays a vital role in Ronson’s presentation. During his talk, Ronson uses logos in a highly effective manner by presenting parts of a song and following it up with statistics and by giving examples through music that demonstrate and help him make his point about how sampling transformed music. For example, during his talk he plays part of a song and follows it up by saying “That’s La Di Da Di; it’s the fifth most-sampled song of all time. It's been sampled 547 times since it was made in 1984”. What Ronson does here is to play a part of the song La Di Da Di and follows up with detailed statistics about it and how many times it has been sampled. This helps the audience to visualize and get a better understanding of the scale of sampling in music. Ronson then takes it up a notch by playing an older rap song from the Rapper Biggie, as well as a newer pop song by Miley Cyrus that both sample La Di Da Di. This helps him display how sampling has transformed music and keeps evolving by playing an older song and then a newer song that both sample the same piece in two different ways at two separate points in time. Ronson uses logos in an incredibly unique way by combining statistics and music in a way that is quite simple and understandable for the audience.
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Along with his use of ethos and logos, Ronson also includes lots of repetition and structures his TED talk in a way that helps the audience understand how sampling has transformed music. His presentation starts out with him mixing and sampling TED Talks as well as past TED speakers to get the audience’s feet wet. He then talks to the audience about sampling
and music. Halfway through the talk he has a couple of sound presentations that help to prove his
point of how transformative sampling has been in music, and finally he ends his TED by mixing and sampling live to a more knowledgeable audience. By structuring his talk in this manner, it really helps the audience and viewer to understand sampling in music even if they had never heard about the topic. Ronson does a wonderful job of introducing topics, thoroughly explaining them with examples and ends the talk by tying it all together with a live presentation. Ronson also uses repetition to make his TED talk more understandable and simpler. For example, he plays the song La Di Da Di and mentions it through his presentation a couple times then identifies examples of other songs that sample it right after. This helps to convince the audience about the degree to which sampling has been transformative in music. The repetition makes it easier for the audience to notice the sample of La Di Da Di in other examples of music shown by
Ronson. Above all, it is important to use rhetoric in a well-made argument in order to establish your thesis, make it easy for the audience to understand your point, and have them agree (at least subconsciously) with your conclusion.
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Work Cited
Ronson, Mark. “How Sampling Transformed Music.” TED. March 2014. Mark Ronson: How sampling transformed music