In ancient times there was ....

which begat....

Then came...

Behold!

I'm not really trying to compare these two cultural jack moves in terms of quality. What interests me more is the Euro -to - America flow of influence, since the sonic palate of Eurodance has been owning Rap for the past year or so now. Flash from the Aughties to the Eighties: Afrika Bambaataa was playing with Kraftwerk's teutonic synth squelches as a way creating a "music without boarders" fitting his envisioned global community of the Zulu Nation. Ethos aside, you can dance to it, Numbers was a breaking tune before Bambaataa got ahold of it. Today Kanye dosen't seek to unite a world community by joining seemingly disparate cultural threads (Berlin and the Bronx).  He's counting on a global market and going for mass appeal. "Stronger" begs the question: when does a song based on a sample of a tune simply become a glorified cover of that tune. (Especially since Daft Punk's song is built around a sample of American Edwin Birdsong's "Cola Bottle Baby." )  Kanye obviously loves his source material, but he's also counting on you loving it. Gone are the days when DJs sought to mask or bury their samples. Now, producers like Kanye build songs onto a pre-existing hit, banking on the audience's thrill of recognition. (Right, Girl Talk?) All the same, these homage-tunes are part of a continuum of dialogue between Europe and America. Two genres are quickly merging into one coked-up keytar-weilding neon Chimera. In shutter shades. The Auto Tune craze flows out of this, as does such bonkers EuroRap hybrids as TI's use of Numa Numa. Alls I can say is, I'll be first in line to shake the hand of whoever cover/samples Alice Deejay first! Smart money's on Birdman.