By: Carter Holland ’28
It feels like every time I turn on the radio and hear a new song, it seems like the artist barely puts any effort into creating it. And honestly, there’s a reasonable explanation for this. In 2024, from the week of July 13th to the end of November, the song that dominated the number one spot on the Billboard Top 100 was “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” by Shaboozy. This track is based on the song “Tipsy,” originally released in January 2004 by J-Kwon, which peaked at number two on the Billboard Top 100. When I say “A Bar Song” is based on “Tipsy,” I don’t mean it’s inspired by it—I mean it’s practically an exact copy, with the only difference being that it’s now a country song. Shaboozy simply slapped on a new title, added a slight twist, and somehow turned it into a number-one hit with minimal effort to make it unique.
While this is one of the most recent examples of a sampled song topping the charts, it’s far from the first.
In the 1990s, Vanilla Ice released his hit song “Ice Ice Baby.” The issue? He sampled it—using part of another song in a new one—from “Under Pressure” by Queen. Typically, sampling requires consent from the original artist, but Vanilla Ice didn’t have permission. Despite this, “Ice Ice Baby” made him millions and remains a popular track, even though half of it is lifted from Queen’s work. Fast forward to today, and it feels like more artists are following Vanilla Ice’s lead. Songs like “First Class,” “Betty,” and “Pink Pony Club” are just modern examples of this trend, sampling tracks like “Glamorous,” “Never Gonna Give You Up,” and “All Star,” respectively.
But it’s not just the recycled beats that make today’s music feel so unoriginal. In the past, artists would play their own instruments and sing with their real voices. Now, it’s all autotune and digitally produced sounds. Some might argue that there’s a finite number of beats and melodies that artists can create—and that’s a fair point. However, even with these limitations, musicians still have the ability to craft unique sounds and fresh ideas. The problem is that many don’t bother. It’s frustrating to turn on the radio and hear the same formulaic approach in nearly every song.
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