Video explains the world's most important 6-sec drum loop

This fascinating, brilliant 20-minute video narrates the history of the "Amen Break," a six-second drum sample from the b-side of a chart-topping single from 1969. This sample was used extensively in early hiphop and sample-based music, and became the basis for drum-and-bass and jungle music -- a six-second clip that spawned several entire subcultures. Nate Harrison's 2004 video is a meditation on the ownership of culture, the nature of art and creativity, and the history of a remarkable music clip.

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[Darrien DJ]

if you have to skip this video to that location, you didn't get the meaning of it.

[Dick Roberts]

LOL alright I'm sorry dude really not trying to sound like an ass, but how the hell were you doing a documentary on jungle/drum & bass when you didn't know the sample that the whole genre is based on?

[Vijay Hebbar]

15 minutes in.. " what am i even watching :| "

[bigcretin]

I like how this documentary about samples in music has, itself, been sampled and used in music.. See "Once Upon a Past" by Wax Tailor..

[theskystretchesblue]

The implications of this documentary are breathtaking. But right off the top, I'll say that this is the point of overprotecting--to stifle creativity and culture.

[DuCaDo003]

JOKE'S ON ME I GUESS!

[DuCaDo003]

You think I live in the UK? I'm flattered.

[DuCaDo003]

Ya know, even if this comment is a joke, it's still stupid. There were plenty of black men involved in the development of jungle in the UK. Further, even if no black men were involved, the use of the Amen is a profoundly loving tribute to black music, and while the Winstons may not have reaped any financial reward, cf. this video for a cogent argument as to why copyright is f'ed up and doesn't really matter.

[phuckedrecordingsuk]

Comment reader extrodinare

[Matt Dillon]

I've tried my best never to play anything like this beat. lol

[Ryank1908]

First time I even sat at a drum kit, the Amen break is what I tried to play. Albeit extremely slowly, and extremely messily.

[HammerHead656]

all i hear is the futurama theme song