Decline and Fall of Civilisation

Where do you draw the line between legitimate creative use of sampling to produce a new musical experience, and a bunch of gyrating bonzoes who've re-mixed an original and tried to claim it as their own?

Now, legally, I'm sure that the acts I'm thinking of will have paid their dues to the original artists and are whiter-than-white, but morally how do they justify taking the hook - or substantially more - from the original recording, throwing on a few beats, looping it and then marketing it under their name with a different title?

There was just such an act had a major hit before Christmas - Eric Prydz, with Call On Me, or as you should more properly refer to it, Valerie by Steve Winwood. I have just watched another such travesty on Top of the Pops - an act called LoveFreekz have charted with Shine. It is a re-mix - no more nor less in my view - of Shine A Little Love by the Electric Light Orchestra (m'lud).

I've just written a rant about the shocking state of the younger generation's music on TOTP - sign me up as an old fogie, I pass with flying colours.

I had tuned in in the hope of catching Iron Maiden performing the vintage classic The Number of the Beast, but instead we had a "news" item about the demise of Busted. I'm sure that once upon a time TOTP used to spin only the hit cylinders of the day. Ah well, I always preferred Vera Lynn's original to the Maiden's version anyway.