A sampler can take a pre-recorded bit of audio and turn it into something you can control

with a keyboard, changing the pitch and timing, however you want.

It's an incredibly powerful musical tool when the transforms a recording from a finished

product into an essential part of the process itself.

Welcome to Strong Songs, a podcast about music.

I'm your host, Kirk Hamilton, and I'm so glad that you joined me to talk about music

made with samplers, music made without samplers, and music made without samplers that was

then sampled by a sampler.

The episode you're about to listen to and indeed, this entire show is supported entirely

by listeners.

Thanks so much to everyone who helps make this thing happen.

There's Patreon and PayPal links down in the show notes if you'd like to chip in and

hate.

I just added the new Patrons Only podcast feed for bonus stuff, so there's never been

a better time to join.

On this episode, we're going to be talking about one of the biggest records of the late

1980s and really one of the biggest pop records of all time when a superstar in the making

teamed up with a powerhouse production duo to change the sound of popular music.

I'm excited to get into it, so let's dial up the snare, layer the vocals, and get to it.

There's this funny thing about the music that I listened to when I was young, especially

the popular stuff, the radio hits from the late 80s and the early 90s, that music was

so formative for me, and yet it also sort of slid right past me.

...