Resumo

From the standpoint of the recording of Memphis Minnie’s When the Levee Breaks by Led Zeppelin, this article seeks to disclose how a 7 second drum loop taken from the introduction of the referred song has made its way into a number of successful recordings during the last three decades. Starting from the crafting of the original recording, the role of drum machines and samplers as music production tools are discussed, focusing on some of the new paradigms that arose when they first became commercially available during the dawn of the digital age in the early 1980’s. Based on the works by Greg Milner and Paul Théberge, this text is intended as an introduction to recent music technology history in mass recording contexts.