Grammy award-winning artist Gotye and his 2011 hit song “Somebody That I Used To Know” are blowing up yet again — but no one could have predicted why. After over 14 years, the hit song received its most popular adaptation—aside from the original—to date. House music giant and fellow Aussie FISHER, alongside Chris Lake, released their own take on the song last February, titling the track “Somebody (2024).”
The track features the 2011 version’s unique guitar and xylophone elements, but the first chorus is replaced by a groovy tech house drop. The second drop acts as the anticipated climax of the previous minute and a half, combining the song’s iconic chorus with the earlier tech house drop, crafting an epic close.
Since the release of “Somebody (2024),” Gotye, credited on the track, gained eight million monthly listeners on Spotify, a 73% increase (before stabilizing around 17 million).
“Somebody That I Used To Know” might be the most famous song ever revived by house music, but it is far from the only one.
Sampling, a practice involving taking parts of older songs and repurposing them within new songs, is an integral part of music production and house music.
A recent example of sampling is PAWSA’s viral house track “PICK UP THE PHONE.” PAWSA sampled the verses and pre-chorus of SNBRN and Nate Dogg’s 2016 song “Gangsta Walk.” Breathing new life into the nine-year-old track, “PICK UP THE PHONE” sounds nothing like the song it sampled and is currently a staple in clubs around the world. Combined with the simultaneously strong performance of British artist Flex’s track “6 In The Morning” — using the same sample — Nate Dogg, credited as an artist on both tracks, tripled his monthly listeners on Spotify over the course of a summer.
Receiving credit when their samples are used can be extremely beneficial for an artist, but the original creator of the sample isn’t always credited as an artist. Some examples of this include “Rhyme Dust” by Dom Dolla and MK, and “MERTHER” by Mau P. It is not clear why some artists are credited for their samples, and some aren’t. It’s safe to assume, though, that during the process of clearing a sample with its creator, this exact issue is discussed.
House and dance music have been blessed with the ability to sample almost completely freely as its community encourages innovation through recycling ideas. This is evident in two of the most famous examples of dance music sampling in history: “Stronger” by Kanye West and “I’m Good” by David Guetta, sampling “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger” by Daft Punk and “Blue” by Eiffel 65 and Gabry Ponte respectively. Neither of these songs received criticism for sampling. West, rather, was and always has been praised for his unique use of sampling in his music while Guetta has been on a tear over the last two years, sampling many late 90s/2000s Eurodance songs.
House music’s efforts to breathe new life into and put its own creative spin on older music are continuing to be successful. It doesn’t look like producers are going to stop anytime soon.