Turn the world into a collage of sound. 72–127 BPM.
Plunderphonics is a genre that creates new music by sampling and recontextualizing existing recordings, often without permission. Originating in Canada in 1985, it challenges notions of authorship and copyright through collage and deconstruction.
The defining artists of Plunderphonics — the names that shaped the sound. Tap to hear on Spotify.
The classic anthems and current essentials that define Plunderphonics.
Plunderphonics sounds like a chaotic yet deliberate collage of disparate audio fragments. Tracks often feature abrupt cuts, pitch-shifted vocals, and juxtapositions of genres—classical with hip-hop, pop with field recordings. The rhythm can be erratic, with tempos ranging from 72 to 127 BPM, but often syncopated or fragmented.
The characteristic sound is one of deconstruction: recognizable snippets are twisted, looped, and layered until they become something new. It can be jarring, humorous, or surprisingly melodic, depending on the artist's intent.
Plunderphonics originated in Canada around 1985, coined by composer John Oswald in his essay 'Plunderphonics, or Audio Piracy as a Compositional Prerogative.' He advocated for the use of existing audio as raw material, much like a visual artist uses found objects.
In the 1990s, the genre expanded with artists like Negativland and The Evolution Control Committee, who faced legal battles over sampling. The rise of digital audio workstations and the internet made plunderphonics more accessible, leading to a proliferation of mashups and sound collages.
Culturally, plunderphonics critiques intellectual property laws and the commodification of music. It aligns with postmodernism, questioning originality and authorship, and has influenced genres like mashup, vaporwave, and experimental electronic music.
How Plunderphonics is built — drum pattern, swing, and the sounds you need.
To produce plunderphonics, start by collecting a wide variety of audio sources—old records, TV commercials, speeches, nature sounds. Use a DAW to chop and rearrange these samples, often ignoring traditional song structures. Experiment with time-stretching, pitch-shifting, and granular synthesis to deconstruct the original material.
Drum patterns are rarely straightforward; instead, create rhythms from percussive samples like typewriters, gunshots, or vocal clicks. The BPM feel should be flexible—sometimes a steady beat emerges, but often the rhythm is freeform. The key is to create a seamless yet jarring collage that challenges the listener's expectations.
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